France's president says EU-US deal ‘not the end of it'
PARIS: France's President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday the European Union had not been 'feared' enough in negotiations with the United States towards a trade deal, pledging to be 'firm' in follow-up talks. 'It's not the end of it,' Macron told ministers during a cabinet meeting, according to participants.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clinched the framework accord with US President Donald Trump on Sunday after dashing to Scotland as the August 1 deadline loomed for steep levies that threatened to cripple Europe's economy. EU exports are now set to face tariffs of 15 percent on most products — higher than customs duties before Trump returned to the White House, but much lower than his threatened 30 percent.
'Europe does not see itself enough as a power yet. To be free, you have to be feared. We were not feared enough,' said Macron. 'France has always held a stance of being firm and demanding. It will continue to do so,' he added. The European Union could obtain 'new exemptions' in follow-up talks to firm up the deal in details, he said. He however said that negotiations had been held in 'difficult circumstances' and that the deal at least 'offered visibility and predictability' in the short term. — AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
2 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Trump's crackdown leaves migrants in Los Angeles on brink of homelessness
LA's homeless population, currently at 72,000, risks rising again: Mayor BUENA PARK, US: When her husband was arrested in an immigration raid near Los Angeles last month, Martha was abruptly separated from the father of her two daughters. But she also lost the salary that allowed her to keep a roof over their heads. 'He's the pillar of the family... he was the only one working,' said the undocumented woman, using a pseudonym for fear of reprisals. 'He's no longer here to help us, to support me and my daughters.' Los Angeles, where one-third of residents are immigrants—and several hundred thousand people are undocumented—has been destabilized by intensifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids under the Trump administration. Since returning to power, US President Donald Trump has delivered on promises to launch a wide-ranging deportation drive, targeting undocumented migrants but also ensnaring many others in its net. After her husband's arrest, 39-year-old Martha has joined the ranks of people barely managing to avoid ending up on the streets of Los Angeles County—a region with prohibitively high housing prices, and the largest number of homeless people in the United States outside New York. Her 700-square-foot apartment in Buena Park, a suburb of the California metropolis, costs $2,050 per month. After her husband's arrest, she urgently found a minimum-wage night job in a factory to cover their most pressing needs. It pays just enough to keep them afloat, but has left Martha unable to cover a range of obligations. 'I have to pay car insurance, phone, rent, and their expenses,' she said, pointing to her six- and seven-year-old daughters, who need school supplies for the new academic year. 'That's a lot of expenses.' How long can she keep up this punishing schedule, which allows her barely three hours of sleep on returning from the factory before having to wake and look after her daughters? 'I couldn't tell you,' she said, staring blankly into space. Los Angeles has seen some of the worst of the ICE raids. Squads of masked agents have targeted hardware stores, car washes and bus stops, arresting more than 2,200 people in June. About 60 percent of these had no prior criminal records, according to internal ICE documents analyzed by AFP. Trump's anti-immigration offensive is taking an added toll on Latino workers, who were already among the worst-affected victims of the region's housing crisis, said Andrea Gonzalez, deputy director of the CLEAN Carwash Workers Center, a labor rights non-profit. 'A bigger storm is brewing. It's not just about the people that got picked up, it's about the people that are left behind as well,' she said. 'There is a concern that people are going to end up on the streets.' Her organization is helping more than 300 struggling households whose incomes have plummeted, either because a family member has been arrested or because they are too afraid to return to work. It has distributed more than $30,000 to help around 20 families who are unable to afford their rent, but covering everyone's needs is simply 'not sustainable,' said Gonzalez. Local Democratic Party leaders are trying to establish financial aid for affected families. Los Angeles County is planning a dedicated fund to tackle the problem, and city officials will also launch a fund using philanthropic donations rather than taxpayer money. Some families should receive 'a couple hundred' dollars, Mayor Karen Bass said last month. But for Gonzalez, these initiatives do not 'even scratch the surface' of what is needed, representing less than 10 percent of most affected families' rent requirements. She called for a 'moratorium on evictions' similar to one introduced during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Otherwise, Los Angeles' homeless population—currently numbered at 72,000, which is down slightly in the past two years—risks rising again, she warned. 'What we're living through right now is an emergency,' said Gonzalez. Maria Martinez's undocumented immigrant husband was arrested in June at a carwash in Pomona, a suburb east of Los Angeles. Since then, the 59-year-old has had to rely on help from her children to pay her $1,800 monthly rent. Her $1,000 disability allowance falls far short. 'It is stressful,' she said. 'We're just getting by.' – AFP
Kuwait Times
2 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Ukrainian drones spark fire at Sochi oil depot
MOSCOW: A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at an oil depot in Sochi, the Russian resort that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympic which is 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the Ukrainian border, authorities said Sunday. Ukraine has regularly hit Russian oil and gas infrastructure in response to attacks on its own territory since Russia began its offensive in February 2022. 'Sochi suffered a drone attack by the Kyiv regime last night,' the governor of Russia's Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratiev, said on Telegram. He said drone wreckage hit an 'oil tank, which caused a fire' during the night-time attack. Sochi's mayor, Andrei Proshunin, said there were no victims and that the fire was put out several hours later. Images, broadcast by Russian media but whose authenticity AFP could not verify, showed flames and a thick plumes of black smoke rising from the site. Air traffic was briefly suspended at Sochi airport, Russia's air transport regulator Rosaviatsia said. Ukraine authorities have not commented on the fire. Air strikes on Sochi are relatively rare compared to some other Russian cities. However, Ukrainian drone attacks killed two people there late last month, according to local authorities. Kyiv has said it will intensify its air strikes against Russia in response to an increase in Russian attacks on its territory in recent weeks, which have killed dozens of civilians. The Russian defense ministry said meanwhile that three Ukrainian drones had been intercepted in the Leningrad region, which includes the Baltic port of Saint Petersburg. Overnight strikes by Russia inside Ukraine also left several people injured, authorities said. One missile wounded seven people in a residential district of Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. Three other people were injured in the northeastern Kharkiv region, she added, while authorities also reported injuries in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in the south. 'The Russians continue to wage war not against Ukrainian forces, but against Ukrainian civilians,' Svyrydenko said. Last week, US President Donald Trump gave his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a 10-day ultimatum, until next Friday, to end the conflict in Ukraine. The air strikes and fighting have not abated, however, and the Kremlin has rejected the idea of a lasting ceasefire in Ukraine, which it sees as a gift to Kyiv's troops. The Russian defense ministry said its air defense units destroyed 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one over the Krasnodar region and 60 over the waters of the Black Sea. The ministry reports only how many drones its units destroy, not how many Ukraine launched. Rosaviatsia, Russia's civil aviation authority, briefly halted flights at Sochi's airport before resuming them. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which has staged frequent attacks on infrastructure inside Russia that Kyiv deems key to Moscow's war efforts. A woman was killed in the Adler district of Sochi in a Ukrainian drone attack late last month, but attacks on the city, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, have been infrequent in the war that Russia launched in February 2022. The Krasnodar region is home to the Ilsky refinery near the city of Krasnodar, among the largest in southern Russia and a frequent target of Ukraine's drone attacks. Also on Sunday, the governor of Voronezh region in southern Russia said four people were injured in a Ukrainian drone strike that caused several fires, while Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv, according to the military administration of the Ukrainian capital. – Agencies
Kuwait Times
4 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Thousands of Afghans scramble for chance to work in Qatar
Taleban announced a deal with Gulf state in July to recruit 3,100 workers HERAT, Afghanistan: When Mohammad Hanif heard Qatar was opening jobs to Afghans, he joined thousands of others to put his name down for a shot to make a living in the gas-rich emirate, his own country wracked by unemployment. The Taleban authorities announced a deal with Gulf state this month to recruit 3,100 workers from Afghanistan, who started applying on Tuesday at centers across the country. By Wednesday, more than 8,500 people had put their names down from the capital Kabul and surrounding provinces, labor ministry spokesman Samiullah Ibrahimi told AFP, and more than 15,500 people are expected to register nationwide. The Taleban government says the jobs will help fight steep unemployment and poverty in the country of around 48 million people, facing what the United Nations says is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. 'Our country has many problems, most people are poor and work odd jobs,' said Hanif, who travelled to western Herat from neighboring Badghis to register. 'I have skills in car mechanics and cooking, and I have certificates to prove it,' said the 35-year-old, adding he was grateful to Qatar for employing Afghans. Competition is steep, however, with centers swarmed by hopeful applicants ready to present the required passports, identification cards and professional certificates to nab roles ranging from bus driver to cleaner, cook, mechanic and electrician. More than 1,000 people have applied in southern Kandahar for around 375 positions allocated to the region, and in Herat, around 2,000 people lined up on Wednesday to try for one of a few hundred jobs, AFP journalists said. HERAT: Afghan men wait in queues to submit their documents while applying for job vacancies in Qatar, outside a registration centre near Herat.-- AFP Doha instead of Tehran Qatar, where the Taleban opened an office during the two-decade war with US-led forces, is one of the handful of countries to have strong diplomatic ties with Afghanistan's rulers after they swept to power in 2021. Only Russia has so far officially recognized the Taleban government. Discussions are also underway with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey and Russia to set up similar deals, labor minister Abdul Manan Omari said in a statement on Tuesday. The process 'will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the country's economic situation and reduce unemployment', said Abdul Ghani Baradar, the deputy prime minister for economic affairs. Nearly half of Afghanistan's population lives in poverty, and the unemployment rate (over 13 percent) affects nearly a quarter of young people aged 15 to 29, according to the World Bank. Those who do have work often support large, extended families on stretched salaries. High unemployment has been driven by infrastructure hamstrung by 40 years of conflict, drought impacting the crucial agriculture sector and the recent mass removals of Afghans from neighboring countries, said Noorullah Fadwi, head of an association of job search companies. This year, nearly two million Afghans have returned to their country after being driven out or deported from Iran and Pakistan, where many had lived for decades. 'We are grateful to Qatar and ask other (Arab) countries to hire Afghan workers too, because the situation in Iran and Pakistan is very bad,' said 39-year-old Noor Mohammad, who registered in Herat, hoping for a hotel job. The Taleban authorities have not yet detailed how the Afghan recruits will be housed or their potential working conditions, while pledging to safeguard their rights. Qatar, where foreigners make up nearly 90 percent of the three million-strong population, has faced heavy criticism over the treatment of migrant laborers, particularly during construction leading up to hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Qatar has since introduced major reforms to improve workers' safety and punish employers who violate the rules. It has dismantled its 'kafala' labor system, which gave employers powerful rights over whether workers could leave their jobs or even the country. Mohammad Qasim, 37, said he would not go to Qatar if he could find a job in Afghanistan, but he earned a university degree in education four years ago and has been unemployed ever since. 'I tried very hard to find work but there is nothing,' he told AFP, saying he applied to be a cleaner at a centre in Kandahar. At least in Qatar, he said, 'I will earn something.' – AFP
