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Rubio will meet Russian foreign minister in Malaysia with Ukraine tensions high

Rubio will meet Russian foreign minister in Malaysia with Ukraine tensions high

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart will meet Thursday in Malaysia for what could be a testy conversation as tensions between the countries rise over Moscow's increasing attacks on Ukraine and questions about whether Russia's leader is serious about a peace deal.
Rubio and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are to see each other in Kuala Lumpur, where both men are attending the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum, which brings together all 10 ASEAN members and their most important diplomatic partners, including Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, the Europeans and the U.S.
The meeting is set to take place shortly after the U.S. resumed some shipments of defensive weapons to Ukraine following a pause — ostensibly for the Pentagon to review domestic munitions stocks — that was cheered in Moscow.
The resumption comes as Russia fires escalating air attacks on Ukraine and as President Donald Trump has become increasingly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
'Putin is not, he's not treating human beings right,' Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, explaining the pause's reversal. 'It's killing too many people. So we're sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I've approved that.'
A US diplomatic push could be overshadowed by tariff threats
Rubio will also see other foreign ministers, including many whose countries face tariffs set to be imposed on Aug. 1. That threat could overshadow the top diplomat's first official trip to Asia, just as the U.S. seeks to boost relations with Indo-Pacific nations to counter China's growing influence in the region.
Trump notified several countries on Monday and Wednesday that they will face higher tariffs if they don't make trade deals with the U.S. Among them are eight of ASEAN's 10 members.
State Department officials said tariffs and trade will not be Rubio's focus during the meetings, which Trump's Republican administration hopes will prioritize maritime safety and security in the South China Sea, where China has become increasingly aggressive toward its small neighbors, as well as combating transnational crime.
But Rubio may be hard-pressed to avoid the tariff issue that has vexed some of America's closest allies and partners in Asia, including Japan and South Korea and most members of ASEAN, which Trump says would face 25% tariffs if there is no deal.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has warned that global trade is being weaponized as U.S. tariffs loom over Southeast Asia. Speaking at an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting on Wednesday, Anwar urged the bloc to strengthen regional trade and reduce reliance on external powers.
Rubio's 'talking points on the China threat will not resonate with officials whose industries are being battered by 30-40% tariffs,' said Danny Russel, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific during the Obama administration.
When Anwar said 'ASEAN will approach challenges 'as a united bloc' — he wasn't talking about Chinese coercion but about U.S. tariffs,' Russel noted.
8 of ASEAN's 10 members face major tariff hikes
Among ASEAN states, Trump has so far announced tariffs on almost all of the 10 members of the bloc, which would face a 25% tariff that could specifically hit its electronics and electrical product exports to the United States.
Trade Minister Zafrul Aziz said Wednesday that while Malaysia is ready to resume tariff negotiations, it would not cross its red lines, including U.S. requests for changes to government procurement, halal certification, medical standards and digital taxes.
Trump sent tariff letters to two more ASEAN members Wednesday: Brunei, whose imports would be taxed at 25%, and the Philippines, at 20%.
Vietnam recently agreed to a trade deal for 20% tariffs on its imports, while Singapore wasn't part of Trump's original April 2 tariffs. Both are ASEAN countries. The Trump administration has courted most Southeast Asian nations in a bid to blunt or at least temper China's push to dominate the region.
In Kuala Lumpur, Rubio also will likely come face-to-face with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his brief visit of roughly 36 hours.
Russel noted that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is a veteran of such gatherings and 'fluent in ASEAN principles and conventions,' while Rubio 'is a rookie trying to sell an 'America First' message to a deeply skeptical audience.'
Issues with China, including on trade, human rights, the militarization of the South China Sea and China's support for Russia in Ukraine, remain substantial.
U.S. officials continue to accuse China of resupplying and revamping Russia's military industrial sector, allowing it to produce additional weapons that it can use attack Ukraine.
___
Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
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DOGE sprouts in red states, as governors embrace the cost-cutter brand and make it their own
DOGE sprouts in red states, as governors embrace the cost-cutter brand and make it their own

San Francisco Chronicle​

time32 minutes ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

DOGE sprouts in red states, as governors embrace the cost-cutter brand and make it their own

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The brash and chaotic first days of President Donald Trump 's Department of Government Efficiency, once led by the world's richest man Elon Musk, spawned state-level DOGE mimicry as Republican governors and lawmakers aim to show they are in step with their party's leader. Governors have always made political hay out of slashing waste or taming bureaucracy, but DOGE has, in some ways, raised the stakes for them to show that they are zealously committed to cutting costs. Many drive home the point that they have always been focused on cutting government, even if they're not conducting mass layoffs. 'I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,' Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in announcing her own task force in January. Critics agree that some of these initiatives are nothing new and suggest they are wasteful, essentially duplicating built-in processes that are normally the domain of legislative committees or independent state auditors. At the same time, some governors are using their DOGE vehicles to take aim at GOP targets of the moment, such as welfare programs or diversity, equity and inclusion programs. And some governors who might be eyeing a White House run in 2028 are rebranding their cost-cutting initiatives as DOGE, perhaps eager to claim the mantle of the most DOGE of them all. No chainsaws in the states At least 26 states have initiated DOGE-style efforts of varying kinds, according to the Economic Policy Institute based in Washington, D.C. Most DOGE efforts were carried out through a governor's order — including by governors in Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire and Oklahoma — or by lawmakers introducing legislation or creating a legislative committee. The state initiatives have a markedly different character than Trump's slash-and-burn approach, symbolized by Musk's chainsaw-brandishing appearance at a Conservative Political Action Committee appearance in February. Governors are tending to entrust their DOGE bureaus to loyalists, rather than independent auditors, and are often employing what could be yearslong processes to consolidate procurement, modernize information technology systems, introduce AI tools, repeal regulations or reduce car fleets, office leases or worker headcounts through attrition. Steve Slivinski, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute who researches state government regulatory structures, said that a lot of what he has seen from state-level DOGE initiatives are the 'same stuff you do on a pretty regular basis anyway' in state governments. States typically have routine auditing procedures and the ways states have of saving money are 'relatively unsexy," Slivinski said. And while the state-level DOGE vehicles might be useful over time in finding marginal improvements, "branding it DOGE is more of a press op rather than anything new or substantially different than what they usually do,' Slivinski said. Analysts at the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute say that governors and lawmakers, primarily in the South and Midwest, are using DOGE to breathe new life into long-term agendas to consolidate power away from state agencies and civil servants, dismantle public services and benefit insiders and privatization advocates. 'It's not actually about cutting costs because of some fiscal responsibility,' EPI analyst Nina Mast said. Governors promoting spending cuts Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry rebranded his 'Fiscal Responsibility Program' as Louisiana DOGE, and promoted it as the first to team up with the federal government to scrub illegitimate enrollees from welfare programs. It has already netted $70 million in savings in the Medicaid program in an 'unprecedented' coordination, Landry said in June. In Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt — who says in a blurb on the Oklahoma DOGE website that 'I've been DOGE-ing in Oklahoma since before it was cool" — made a DOGE splash with the first report by his Division of Government Efficiency by declaring that the state would refuse some $157 million in federal public health grants. The biggest chunk of that was $132 million intended to support epidemiology and laboratory capacity to control infectious disease outbreaks. The Stitt administration said that funding — about one-third of the total over an eight-year period — exceeded the amount needed. The left-leaning Oklahoma Policy Institute questioned the wisdom of that, pointing to rising numbers of measles and whooping cough cases and the rocky transition under Stitt of the state's public health lab from Oklahoma City to Stillwater. Oklahoma Democrats issued rebukes, citing Oklahoma's lousy public health rankings. 'This isn't leadership,' state Sen. Carri Hicks said. 'It's negligence." Stitt's Oklahoma DOGE has otherwise recommended changes in federal law to save money, opened up the suggestion box to state employees and members of the general public and posted a spreadsheet online with cost savings initiatives in his administration. Those include things as mundane as agencies going paperless, refinancing bonds, buying automated lawn mowers for the Capitol grounds or eliminating a fax machine line in the State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order in February creating a task force of DOGE teams in each state agency. In the order, DeSantis recited 10 points on what he described as his and Florida's 'history of prudent fiscal management' even before DOGE. Among other things, DeSantis vowed to scrutinize spending by state universities and municipal and county governments — including on DEI initiatives — at a time when DeSantis is pushing to abolish the property taxes that predominantly fund local governments. His administration has since issued letters to universities and governments requesting reams of information and received a blessing from lawmakers, who passed legislation authorizing the inquiry and imposing fines for entities that don't respond. After the June 30 signing ceremony, DeSantis declared on social media: 'We now have full authority to DOGE local governments.' In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders launched her cost-cutting Arkansas Forward last year, before DOGE, and later said the state had done the 'same thing' as DOGE. Her administration spent much of 2024 compiling a 97-page report that listed hundreds of ways to possibly save $300 million inside a $6.5 billion budget. Achieving that savings — largely by standardizing information technology and purchasing — would sometimes require up-front spending and take years to realize savings.

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