Trump says 19 percent tariff to be charged on Indonesian goods
He also said the United States will have full access to Indonesia.
Earlier in the day, Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social: "Great deal, for everybody, just made with Indonesia. I dealt directly with their highly respected President."
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New Straits Times
22 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
Unfazed by Trump, Putin digs in on Ukraine war goals
PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by United States President Donald Trump's threats of tougher sanctions, and his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance, said three sources close to the Kremlin. Putin, who ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in the country's east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops, believed that Russia's economy and its military were strong enough to weather any additional Western measures, said the sources. Trump on Monday expressed frustration with Putin's refusal to agree to a ceasefire and announced a wave of weapons supplies to Ukraine, including Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. He also threatened further sanctions on Russia unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days. Three Russian sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking, said Putin would not stop the war under pressure from the West and believed that Russia — which has survived the toughest sanctions imposed by the West — could endure further economic hardship, including threatened US tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil. "Putin thinks no one has seriously engaged with him on the details of peace in Ukraine — including the Americans — so he will continue until he gets what he wants," said one source. "Putin values the relationship with Trump and had good discussions with (Steve) Witkoff, but the interests of Russia come above all else," the person added. Putin's conditions for peace included a legally binding pledge that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) would not expand eastwards, Ukrainian neutrality and limits on its armed forces, protection for Russian speakers who lived there, and acceptance of Russia's territorial gains, said the sources. He was also willing to discuss a security guarantee for Ukraine involving major powers, though it was far from clear how this would work, they added. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine will never recognise Russia's sovereignty over its conquered regions and that Kyiv retains the sovereign right to decide whether it wants to join Nato. A second source said Putin considered Moscow's goals far more important than any potential economic losses from Western pressure, and he was not concerned by US threats to impose tariffs on China and India for buying Russian oil. Two of the sources said Russia had the upper hand on the battlefield and its economy, geared towards war, was exceeding the production of the US-led Nato alliance in key munitions, like artillery shells. Russia, which already controls nearly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has advanced some 1,415 sq km in the past three months, according to data from the DeepStateMap, an open-source intelligence map of the conflict. Russia currently controls Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, plus all of the eastern region of Luhansk, more than 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Putin's public position is that those first five regions — Crimea and the four regions of eastern Ukraine — are now part of Russia and Kyiv must withdraw before there can be peace. Putin could fight on until Ukraine's defences collapsed and widen his territorial ambitions to include more of Ukraine, said the sources. The US says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war. Trump, since returning to the White House in January after promising a swift end to the war, has sought to repair ties with Russia, speaking at least six times by telephone with Putin. Putin portrays the war as a watershed moment in Moscow's relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union by enlarging Nato and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence, including Ukraine and Georgia. Despite existing sanctions and the cost of fighting Europe's biggest conflict since World War 2, Russia's US$2 trillion economy has performed far better than many in Russia or the West expected. The economic ministry forecasts a slowdown to 2.5 per cent annual growth in 2025 from 4.3 per cent last year. Looking ahead, one of the sources said there was likely to be an escalation of the crisis in coming months. And, he predicted, the war would continue.
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Asia shares struggle, dollar soars on lowered Fed rate cut bets
TOKYO: Asian stock markets were under pressure on Wednesday while the dollar climbed to its firmest against the yen since early April, after U.S. inflation suggested tariffs are pushing prices up, dampening expectations for Federal Reserve policy easing. U.S. Treasury yields ticked to the highest in more than a month, lifting the dollar against the yen in particular. However, tech shares remained resilient following a 4% rally in artificial intelligence darling Nvidia overnight. Brent crude continued to hover around $69 per barrel. Data on Tuesday showed U.S. consumer prices rose 0.3% in June, in line with forecasts, but the largest gain since January. Economists attributed the rise in prices across goods such as coffee and home furnishings to the Trump administration's escalating import tariffs. The Fed has been keeping interest rates steady as it has waited for indications of the inflationary impact from tariffs, which Chair Jerome Powell had said he expected in the summer. "We know the revealed preference of Fed Chair Powell, along with a few of his colleagues, is to wait for these tariff impacts to come through, and those in that camp are seeing that view bolstered by this data," Taylor Nugent, senior economist at National Australia Bank, said in a podcast. As a result, markets saw "a fairly significant trimming of Fed expectations" for rate cuts, knocking back so-called risk assets such as equities, Nugent said. Traders currently price in 44 basis points of U.S. rate reductions for the rest of this year, with 56.5% odds of a quarter-point cut in September. Investors will now carefully monitor producer price data due later on Wednesday, looking for signs of whether inflationary pressures are also building on the factory floor. Australia's equity benchmark lost 0.8% and South Korea's KOSPI slumped 1%. Mainland Chinese blue chips slipped 0.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat after giving up early gains. Japan's tech- and exporter-heavy Nikkei was little changed after alternating between small gains and losses, with the weak yen offering support. Taiwan's tech-heavy benchmark added 0.9%. U.S. S&P 500 futures eased 0.2%, after a 0.4% decline for the cash index overnight. Pan-European STOXX 50 futures pointed 0.3% lower. Beyond the Fed and U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, the earnings season is another focal point for investors. Results from JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup beat expectations, but were met with a mixed market response. Wells Fargo cut its 2025 net interest income guidance even as it beat second-quarter profit expectations. Bank earnings due on Wednesday include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America. U.S. 10-year Treasury yields rose as high as 4.495% on Wednesday, the highest since June 11. The dollar stuck close to a multi-week high against major peers. The dollar index was little changed at 98.525 after rising as high as 98.699 on Tuesday for the first time since June 23. The U.S. currency was steady at 148.835 yen, and earlier rose to 149.19 yen for the first time since April 3, in the aftermath of Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement. The euro rebounded 0.2% to $1.1619, trying to pull away from Tuesday's three-week low of $1.1593. Cryptocurrency bitcoin added about 1% to $117,890, as it stabilised following its 6% pullback earlier this week from Monday's all-time high of $123,153.22. Gold added 0.5% to trade around $3,338 an ounce. Brent crude futures fell 18 cents to $68.89 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined 31 cents to $66.83 a barrel. Both contracts settled more than $1 lower in the previous session. - Reuters
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
US envoy supports Trump's claim on Netanyahu trial as witch hunt
TEL AVIV: US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee publicly supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after attending his corruption trial, echoing former President Donald Trump's description of the case as a 'witch hunt.' Netanyahu has consistently denied wrongdoing, while his allies argue the trial is politically driven. Huckabee attended the proceedings and later posted on social media, stating, 'I stopped by the trial of [Netanyahu] in Tel Aviv today. My conclusion? [Trump] is right... again.' His post linked to Trump's earlier statement on Truth Social, where the former president compared Netanyahu's legal troubles to his own, calling it a 'political witch hunt.' Trump has frequently accused opponents of weaponizing the justice system against him. In May 2024, he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments. He also faces federal cases tied to alleged election interference. Netanyahu and his wife Sara are accused of accepting luxury gifts worth over $260,000 from billionaires in exchange for political favors. In separate cases, he allegedly sought favorable media coverage from Israeli outlets. Since returning to power in late 2022, Netanyahu's government has pursued judicial reforms critics say weaken the courts, sparking mass protests before the Gaza war shifted public focus. – AFP
