US Senate holds marathon vote on Trump's 'big beautiful bill'
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A marathon vote is underway in the Senate over Trump's megabill, with Republicans divided over how much to cut welfare programmes to extend tax breaks. Meanwhile the UK-US trade deal has come into effect, but there's still no news on aluminium and steel. Plus, China's largest coffee chain is escalating its race against Starbucks.
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Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
Why Israel and Iran's uneasy truce may not last
After the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran, significant doubts remain about the durability of the truce and the prospects for a future Iranian nuclear deal. It's been just over a week since the US pressed the two regional rivals into a ceasefire, ending an air war that started on 13 June when Israeli airstrikes wiped out the upper ranks of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard and targeted its arsenal of ballistic missiles. The strikes also hit Iran's nuclear sites, which Israel claimed put Tehran within reach of a nuclear weapon. Iran hit back with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. A fragile peace was brokered by Washington on 24 June, a day after it bombed three of Iran's key nuclear sites. Yet the possibility of renewed US-Iran talks is up in the air. Washington and Tehran were holding discussions on Iran's nuclear programme when Israel started the war. Speaking on Tuesday, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi dismissed the prospect of swiftly resuming talks with the US, after President Donald Trump had suggested that negotiations with Tehran could resume as early as this week. "The end of US military threats is a precondition for the resumption of talks between Tehran and Washington," Araghchi said in an interview with CBS. Iran sidelines UN nuclear watchdog Trump said last week that he would consider carrying out fresh strikes on Iran if the country was found to be enriching uranium to concerning levels. Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, said on Sunday that the US strikes on the three nuclear sites in Iran — Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan — had hugely hampered its capacity to enrich uranium. However, he warned that Tehran could be producing enriched uranium "in a matter of months". Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday ordered the country to halt its cooperation with the IAEA, according to state media. The country's trust in the agency is now broken, Pezeshkian told French President Emmanuel Macron in a call on Sunday. Satellite images dated 29 June that were released by US aerospace firm Maxar Technologies show activity at the Fordow site, one of Iran's main uranium enrichment centres, which was hit by the US B-2 bombers. The images show diggers and people at work around the large vents of the underground site's ventilation systems. Before the Iran-Israel conflict, IAEA was allowed regular access to Iran's enrichment sites to monitor them. But under the law passed on Wednesday, any future inspection of Iran's nuclear sites by the IAEA needs approval by the Supreme National Security Council. "How do you think we can guarantee their (IAEA inspectors') safety when our peaceful facilities were targeted until a few days ago?" an Iranian diplomatic source told Euronews. Agreement unlikely While the conflict may have been considered brief by Israel and the US, for Tehran's leadership, the war remains essentially unresolved, despite the ceasefire. Unsurprising, perhaps, given that Tehran has put the death toll of the war on its citizens at 935 — including 38 children and 132 women. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has said there are 'ample regional opportunities' for stabilisation after the twelve-day conflict, but this remains to be seen. According to Raffaele Marchetti, director of the Centre for International and Strategic Studies at Luiss University in Rome, Tehran's leadership is opposed to the ultimate strategic goal of Israel and the US, which is not only that of a denuclearised Iran. While Netanyahu's has framed destroying Iran's nuclear programme as a matter of Israeli national security, Tehran's strategic objective would be a regional balance of power based on mutual nuclear deterrence, according to Marchetti. "It is not at all surprising that Iran has embarked on a process of nuclear development, but here we have to be a bit careful about that because at least formally, Iran, unlike Israel, has always adhered to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," Marchetti said. It is therefore difficult for an agreement to be reached between the parties without one of them giving in, he told Euronews. Regime change could resolve the issue in the long run, Israeli and the US have calculated. Iran fears Israel's regional hegemony Israel, which has not officially recognised that it possesses nuclear weapons, does not adhere to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, unlike Iran, which did sign the agreement in 1970, during the rule of the Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahalavi. At the time, Tehran stood as one of three key pillars — alongside Israel and Turkey — in the pro-Western, anti-Soviet balance of power in what is now referred to as the "extended Middle East", which also includes the Caucasus and Central Asia. In those years, before the Shia clerical revolution of 1979, Ankara, Tehran and Tel Aviv shared warm political and military relations, based on converging strategic interests. However, today, Iran speaks of its desire to destroy Israel. Neither Israel nor Iran have official military nuclear doctrines, because the former does not recognise that it has a nuclear arsenal, while the latter insists on pursuing a nuclear programme that is exclusively for peaceful, civilian purposes. Israel neither admits nor denies having atomic weapons; it is the so-called doctrine of deliberate strategic ambiguity: a state that keeps potential adversaries in uncertainty about its reaction in the event of any conflict. According to estimates by others countries, international organisations and members of the scientific community, Israel possesses a stockpile ranging between 90 and 400 nuclear warheads. Although there is no official doctrine regarding the use of atomic force, in reality for Israel the nuclear weapon 'is the ultimate weapon", said David Rigoulet-Roze, a Middle East scholar at Iris, the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Relations. "We are in total deterrence, it was not used even in 1973 (when Israel risked military collapse in the face of the Syrian and Egyptian offensive) in the Yom Kippur War", he said. Pursuit of strategic ambiguity This is why, despite the deliberate strategic ambiguity, one thing is certain, Rigoulet-Roze told Euronews. "The Jewish state does not tolerate, up to the use of force, the existence of other nuclear powers in the region," he said. In fact, in 1981, Israel attacked and destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, which was officially intended for civil use and had been developed with the help of France under its then President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Prime Minister Jaques Chirac. Israeli security services justified the attack by saying that the reactor could potentially have been converted to plutonium production. In 2007, Israeli jets also struck around Der ez-Zor in Syria, where, according to Mossad, the al-Assad regime was building a nuclear reactor with the assistance of North Korea. Today, the balance of power and political-diplomatic relations have shifted in Israel's favour: Egypt and Jordan have recognised the Jewish state, Syria is no longer in a position to do any harm after the fall of al-Assad, and Lebanon certainly poses no existential threat. What's more, Saddam Hussein's Iraq is now but a vague memory. However, the presence of an Iranian strategic nuclear force would break the balance of non-proliferation in a notoriously unstable region, analysts warn. "Saudi Prince Bin Salman has said that in the case of an Iranian nuclear force, Saudi Arabia would also pursue the military atom, and then there would be a potential domino effect with Turkey and Egypt feeling compelled to equip themselves with atomic weapons," Rigoulet-Roze said. "This is what was intended to be avoided with the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015 by the EU, the UK, Germany, France, the US, China and Russia, and denounced by President Trump in 2018," he added.
Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
US greenlights billions for Moon missions despite Musk's opposition
The US Senate approved $10 billion (€8.5 billion) in additional funding for Moon missions that are not supported by billionaire Elon Musk. Almost half the earmarked funds for NASA in 2025, or $4.1 billion (€3.49 billion), will build two Space Launch Systems (SLS) rockets for Artemis IV and V missions because it is the 'only human-rated rocket available that can get humans to the Moon'. The Senate is also granting $2.6 billion (€2.21 billion) to the Gateway space station, the first international space station to be built around the Moon, which it says is 'critical for establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon.' Musk has said in the past that the Space Launch System(SLS) rockets 'make him sad,' because they're not reusable, insinuating that a 'billion dollar rocket is blown up every launch'. The SpaceX CEO has also said the International Space Station (ISS) should be deorbited in favour of future Mars missions. The move comes after a very public fallout between Musk and US President Donald Trump, who suggested the initial cuts to Artemis missions in the first draft of the budget review. The rest of the 2025 budget for NASA includes funding for a Mars sample return rover, the procurement of the Orion spacecraft used for the Artemis missions, five years' worth of missions at the ISS and improvements to various American space centres. Artemis, Gateway cuts could've hurt Europe The previous NASA budget request only allowed funding to continue for the upcoming Artemis II mission, set to launch in 2026, and Artemis III, the first flight to return humans to the surface of the Moon, set for 2027. However, the budget cuts funding for future Artemis missions, including Artemis IV. Ahead of the Senate vote, European experts warned Euronews Next that NASA cuts to the Artemis missions and other space programmes could have a detrimental effect. The European Space Agency (ESA) builds European Space Modules (ESMs) that provide electricity and oxygen to Orion, the spacecraft picked by NASA for the Artemis missions to the surface of the Moon. The ESA also contributes three key elements for Gateway. Experts previously told Euronews Next that if the Trump administration's budget were to be passed, Europe would lose 'guaranteed, sustained presence in cislunar space' if the Artemis missions were to be defunded. There would have also been shutdowns to key production lines on the space modules and the Gateway hardware, they said.
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
Hong Kong to regain IPO crown this year, say PwC and Deloitte
The Chinese financial hub's capital market has rebounded strongly this year, with dozens of Chinese companies piling into the city to raise overseas capital despite regulatory pressure from Beijing and uncertainty over its national security laws. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said its statistics suggest nearly 100 companies will raise at least HK$200 billion ($25.5 billion) in Hong Kong this year. It said Hong Kong's IPO wave has benefited largely from policy support from the Chinese government and optimised listing rules by Hong Kong regulators that include streamlining approval processes. "The improved market liquidity and rising international investor demand for core Chinese assets also drove market activity," PwC's Hong Kong capital markets leader Eddie Wong said in a note. The Hong Kong stock exchange welcomed 44 IPOs by the end of June, according to PwC. "We expect 2025 to be the most active fundraising year for IPOs in the past four years," said Diamantina Leong, PwC's Hong Kong capital markets services partner. PwC said total proceeds raised in Hong Kong jumped 701 percent to HK$107.1 billion (US$13.7 billion) compared to the same period last year. In comparison, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have raised HK$55.3 billion ($7.0 billion) and HK$71.9 billion ($9.2 billion) in IPOs respectively so far this year, it said. Hong Kong's IPO boom is expected to continue into the first half of next year, Wong told reporters at a presentation. Data from the Hong Kong stock exchange showed it is processing more than 170 listing applications. "We expect strong momentum to continue, supported by several mega deals," Wong said. Many of the world's biggest fund-raisings by Chinese companies, including battery giant CATL, pharmaceutical firm Jiangsu Hengrui and soy sauce maker Foshan Haitian, kept up the buzz in Hong Kong's capital markets. Consulting firm Deloitte also forecast in a June report that Hong Kong would be the IPO leader this year, although its analysts warned that "adverse geopolitical or macroeconomic disruptions" could constrain optimism. Chinese e-commerce titan Shein is switching to Hong Kong to complete its debut after failing to list in New York and London, Bloomberg reported this year. Hong Kong hopes to become the preferred listing platform for international companies, "especially those that find it challenging to access capital markets in the US or Europe", the city's financial secretary Paul Chan said last month. © 2025 AFP
