UK Re-Establishes Syria Ties Eights Months After Fall of Assad
It marks the first visit in 14 years by a UK government minister to the Arab nation, which is trying to rebuild its battered economy after Assad was toppled by a group headed by Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who has taken charge.
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CNN
32 minutes ago
- CNN
Bessent says tariffs will ‘boomerang' to ‘Liberation Day' levels if countries fail to negotiate deals
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said tariff letters will be sent to about 100 countries over the next several days, as the Trump administration's 90-day tariff pause comes to an end Wednesday. 'If you don't move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,' Bessent said about trading partners Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union with Dana Bash.' President Donald Trump has suggested the letters would include duty rates at the current 10% baseline, or as extensive as 70%. Bessent said Sunday the United States would not impose 70% tariff rates on major trading partners. Bessent said that about 100 letters will be sent to small countries 'where we don't have very much trade,' many of which are 'already at the baseline 10%.' Trump on Friday touted letters as the 'better' option for countries that fail to negotiate deals before the July 9 deadline. On April 9, Trump announced a complete three-month pause on all the 'reciprocal' tariffs after insisting historically high tariffs were here to stay. Later that month, he told Time magazine that he had already struck 200 trade deals but declined to say with whom. So far, Trump has only announced deals with three countries: the United Kingdom, which maintained a 10% tariff rate; China, which temporarily paused sky-high duties on most goods from 145% to 30%; and a minimum 20% tariff on goods from Vietnam. In response to the three deals being described as 'frameworks,' Bessent said the upcoming letters 'will set their tariff rates. So we will have 100 done in the next few days.' 'Many of these countries never even contacted us,' he said, adding that 'We have the leverage in this situation,' as the country facing a trading deficit. Bessent said there may be 'several big announcements' this week, but declined to name countries that could reach deals. Bessent pushed back against August 1 as a new deadline. He also described the administration's plan as applying 'maximum pressure.' 'It's not a new deadline. We are saying, 'This is when it's happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to back to the old rate, that's your choice,'' Bessent said about America's trading partners, and used the European Union as an example of countries coming to the table after Trump threatened 50% tariffs on EU imports. Economists have warned that Trump's trade war, especially the wide-ranging tariffs on Chinese imports, will increase costs for consumers. Some companies, including Walmart, have said they will raise prices for customers despite pushback from Trump. 'We have seen no inflation so far,' Bessent said on 'Fox News Sunday,' calling such projections 'misinformation' and 'tariff derangement syndrome.' Bessent and other Trump officials have repeatedly argued in recent months that countries like China would bear the cost of tariffs. US wholesale inflation rose slightly in May, driven in part by costlier goods, though tariff-related effects were largely muted. The Producer Price Index, a closely watched measurement of wholesale inflation, showed that prices paid to producers rose 0.1% in May, lifting the annual rate to 2.6%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released in June. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who has blasted Bessent for undermining the economic impact of tariffs, said Sunday on ABC's 'This Week' that tariffs 'will probably collect some revenue' but would come at the expense of higher inflation and less competitiveness for American producers. Also appearing on 'This Week,' Stephen Miran, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said there was no 'lasting evidence' that tariffs imposed on China during Trump's first term hurt the economy and the administration has only 'repeated the same performance' this year. 'Tariff revenue is pouring in. There's no sign of any economically significant inflation whatsoever and job creation remains healthy,' Miran said. CNN's Kit Maher and Alicia Wallace contributed to this report.
CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Gaza ceasefire talks set to resume in Doha as Israeli airstrikes continue in the Strip
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a possible ceasefire in Gaza are set to resume Sunday in Doha amid the backdrop of continued deadly Israeli attacks in the Strip. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 38 Palestinians in Gaza, hospital officials told the Associated Press on Sunday, as Israel's military said it has struck over 100 targets in the embattled enclave in the past day. Twenty people were killed and 25 wounded after strikes hit two houses in Gaza City, according to Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of Shifa Hospital. In southern Gaza, 18 Palestinians were killed by strikes in Muwasi, an area on Gaza's Mediterranean coast where many displaced people live in tents, officials at Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis told The Associated Press. Two families were among the dead, according to the hospital. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the individual strikes, but said it struck 130 targets across the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours. A view of the scene where a large fire broke out following Israeli army strikes on a previously warned apartment building on Omar Mukhtar Street in Gaza City, Gaza. Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images It said the strikes targeted Hamas command and control structures, storage facilities, weapons and launchers, and that they killed a number of militants in northern Gaza. Ceasefire deal under negotiation The strikes occurred as efforts to reach a ceasefire deal appeared to gain momentum over the weekend. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said his government sent a negotiating team to talks in Qatar on Sunday to conduct indirect talks, but he was quoted as saying that Hamas was seeking "unacceptable" changes to a U.S.-led proposal. The planned talks in Qatar come ahead of Netanyahu's planned visit on Monday to Washington to meet President Trump to discuss the deal. It is unclear if a deal will be reached ahead of Netanyahu's White House meeting. Mr. Trump has floated a plan for an initial 60-day ceasefire that would include a partial release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for an increase in humanitarian supplies allowed into Gaza. The proposed truce calls for talks on ending the 21-month war altogether. Smoke billows east of Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip, during Israeli bombardment on July 6, 202. BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images Hamas has sought guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Previous negotiations have stalled over Hamas' demands for guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war's end, while Netanyahu has insisted on Israel being able to resume fighting to fulfill his goal of destroying the militant group. A Palestinian official familiar with the talks and close to Hamas told AFP the talks in Doha would focus on conditions for a possible ceasefire, including hostage and prisoner releases. The official said Hamas would also seek the reopening of Gaza's Rafah crossing to evacuate the wounded. The war in Gaza began when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Many of those hostages have since either been released or their bodies have been recovered in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Foreign policy was a ‘driver of 7/7 attacks', says former counter-terror chief
Foreign policy was a 'driver of the 7/7 attacks', a former national head of counter-terrorism has said ahead of the 20th anniversary of the bombings. On July 7 2005, four suicide bombers targeted the capital's transport network, killing 52 people and injuring more than 770 on three London Underground trains and a bus. A series of attempted bombings followed the attacks and, in the subsequent hunt for suspects, police shot dead innocent man Jean Charles de Menezes at a Tube station. Speaking to The Guardian, Neil Basu said: 'A driver of the 7/7 attacks was foreign policy and Iraq. That does not excuse in any way what they did. 'That foreign policy decision has radicalised and made extremists of people who might not have been radicalised or extreme. And if they were on the pathway, it's pretty much guaranteed… 'All terrorists will have a freedom fighter story. Bin Laden would have had a freedom fighter story. We might think it's crap. We might think it's self-justification but he will have had a story about liberating his lands from the great invaders.' He also said it did not mean a terrorist threat should dictate foreign policy. Mr Basu said the 'shocking act' divided society. He said: 'When terrorists hide behind a religion to commit an atrocity, people blame every follower of the religion and the religion itself. We ought to stop doing that. 'That causes a fear and suspicion of people who don't look like you, think like you, eat like you, worship like you. That has got worse, not better, and that has been caused exactly as terrorists want, by dividing a society by committing the shocking act.' Terror attacks have 'interrupted a trajectory of tolerance', he added. Mr Basu said: 'That's what I think has been most soul-destroying… It has interrupted a trajectory of tolerance that I was becoming very familiar and happy with… 'It started with 9/11… 7/7 accelerated that in this country. The relationship between races is worse today, or as bad today as it was in the 70s and 80s. That period of tolerance is over, and feels very much over.'
