Swatch CEO calls on Swiss president to meet Trump to solve tariff dispute
Hayek told Reuters on Monday he was confident an agreement could still be reached before the tariffs, which were announced on Friday, went into effect on August 7.
'Karin Keller-Sutter is the boss of the Swiss government, she is the president,' Hayek said. 'She should take the plane and go to Washington. That would increase the chances of a deal enormously.
'It's not doomsday. Of course a settlement can be reached. Why would Donald Trump say tariffs are coming on August 1 and not implement them until the 7th? The door is always open,' Hayek said.
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Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
India trade unions, farmers call for nationwide protests on Trump tariffs, UK deal
Ten major trade unions and a coalition of over forty Indian farmers' unions have announced a nationwide protest on Aug. 13 against the recent India-UK trade deal and US President Donald Trump's proposal to impose 25 percent tariffs on Indian goods over the country's oil trade with Russia. The unions termed the Trump administration's actions as 'blatant economic coercion' and called on citizens to resist them. The organizers called upon 'all farmers, workers, students and patriotic citizens to join the nationwide day of resistance on August 13, 2025, with various mass actions like tractor and motorcycle rallies, protest demonstrations, public gatherings, and other forms of protest as decided by different platforms and partner organizations,' according to an official statement. Additionally, the groups demanded that the Indian government should stand firm against the threat of tariffs and assert its right to trade freely with all countries, including Russia. Meanwhile, the organizers accused the India-UK Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) of practicing corporate imperialism, while demanding that future trade deals be finalized with complete transparency and with participation of all stakeholders. 'The East India Company colonized India through trade – today, CETA and US trade deals are the new instruments of corporate imperialism,' the statement said. The groups said that US corporations were using tariffs to 'bully sovereign nations,' while criticizing the Indian government for its silence. Therefore, the planned protest aims to defend India's sovereignty and economic independence. 'On August 13, farmers and workers will rise in defense of sovereignty and freedom, sending a clear message,' the statement added.
Arab News
6 hours ago
- Arab News
Modi and Trump once called each other good friends. Now the US-India relationship is getting bumpy
NEW DELHI: The men shared bear hugs, showered praise on each other and made appearances side by side at stadium rallies — a big optics boost for two populist leaders with ideological similarities. Each called the other a good India, the bonhomie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump was seen as a relationship like no other. That is, until a series of events gummed up the Trump's tariffs and India's purchase of oil from Russia to a US tilt toward Pakistan, friction between New Delhi and Washington has been hard to miss. And much of it has happened far from the corridors of power and, unsurprisingly, through Trump's posts on social has left policy experts wondering whether the camaraderie the two leaders shared may be a thing of the past, even though Trump has stopped short of referring to Modi directly on social media. The dip in rapport, some say, puts a strategic bilateral relationship built over decades at risk.'This is a testing time for the relationship,' said Ashok Malik, a former policy adviser in India's Foreign White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking tensions over trade and tariffsThe latest hiccup between India and the US emerged last week when Trump announced that he was slapping 25 percent tariffs on India as well as an unspecified penalty because of India's purchasing of Russian oil. For New Delhi, such a move from its largest trading partner is expected to be felt across sectors, but it also led to a sense of unease in India — even more so when Trump, on social media, called India's economy 'dead.'Trump's recent statements reflect his frustration with the pace of trade talks with India, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal administration thinking. The Republican president has not been pursuing any strategic realignment with Pakistan, according to the official, but is instead trying to play hardball in doubled down on the pressure Monday with a fresh post on Truth Social, in which he accused India of buying 'massive amounts' of oil from Russia and then 'selling it on the Open Market for big profits.''They don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA,' he messaging appears to have stung Modi's administration, which has been hard-selling negotiations with Trump's team over a trade deal by balancing between India's protectionist system while also opening up the country's market to more American goods.'Strenuous, uninterrupted and bipartisan efforts in both capitals over the past 25 years are being put at risk by not just the tariffs but by fast and loose statements and social media posts,' said Malik, who now heads the India chapter of The Asia Group, a US advisory firm .Malik also said the trade deal the Indian side has offered to the US is the 'most expansive in this country's history,' referring to reports that India was willing to open up to some American agricultural products. That is a politically sensitive issue for Modi, who faced a yearlong farmers' protest a few years appears to be tilting toward PakistanThe unraveling may have gained momentum over tariffs, but the tensions have been palpable for a while. Much of it has to do with Trump growing closer to Pakistan, India's nuclear rival in the May, India and Pakistan traded a series of military strikes over a gun massacre in disputed Kashmir that New Delhi blamed Islamabad for. Pakistan denied the accusations. The four-day conflict made the possibility of a nuclear conflagration between the two sides seem real and the fighting only stopped when global powers it was Trump's claims of mediation and an offer to work to provide a 'solution' regarding the dispute over Kashmir that made Modi's administration uneasy. Since then, Trump has repeated nearly two dozen times that he brokered peace between India and Modi, that is a risky — even nervy — territory. Domestically, he has positioned himself as a leader who is tough on Pakistan. Internationally, he has made huge diplomatic efforts to isolate the country. So Trump's claims cut a deep wound, prompting a sense in India that the US may no longer be its strategic insists that Kashmir is India's internal issue and had opposed any third-party intervention. Last week Modi appeared to dismiss Trump's claims after India's Opposition began demanding answers from him. Modi said that 'no country in the world stopped' the fighting between India and Pakistan, but he did not name has also appeared to be warming up to Pakistan, even praising its counterterrorism efforts. Hours after levying tariffs on India, Trump announced a 'massive' oil exploration deal with Pakistan, saying that some day, India might have to buy oil from Islamabad. Earlier, he also hosted one of Pakistan's top military officials at a private Sundar Chaulia, an expert at New Delhi's Jindal School of International Affairs, said Trump's sudden admiration for Pakistan as a great partner in counterterrorism has 'definitely soured' the mood in said 'the best-case scenario is that this is just a passing Trump whim,' but he also warned that 'if financial and energy deals are indeed being struck between the US and Pakistan, it will dent the US-India strategic partnership and lead to loss of confidence in the US in Indian eyes.'India's oil purchases from Russia are an irritantThe strain in relations has also to do with had faced strong pressure from the Biden administration to cut back its oil purchases from Moscow during the early months of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Instead, India bought more, making it the second-biggest buyer of Russian oil after China. That pressure sputtered over time and the US focused more on building strategic ties with India, which is seen as a bulwark against a rising threat to penalize India over oil, however, brought back those Sunday, the Trump administration made its frustrations over ties between India and Russia ever more public. Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House, accused India of financing Russia's war in Ukraine by purchasing oil from Moscow, saying it was 'not acceptable.'Miller's remarks were followed by another Trump social media post on Monday in which he again threatened to raise tariffs on goods from India over its Russian oil purchases.'India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,' Trump experts, though, suspect Trump's remarks are mere pressure tactics. 'Given the wild fluctuations in Trump's policies,' Chaulia said, 'it may return to high fives and hugs again.'India says it will safeguard its interestsMany expected India to react strongly over Trump's tariff threats considering Modi's carefully crafted reputation of strength. Instead, the announcement prompted a rather careful response from India's commerce minister, Piyush Goyal, who said the two countries are working toward a 'fair, balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement.'Initially, India's Foreign Ministry also played down suggestions of any strain. But in a statement late Monday, it called Trump's criticism 'unjustified and unreasonable' and said it will take 'all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.'It said India began importing oil from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict, calling it a 'necessity compelled by global market situation.'The statement also noted US trade with Russia.'It is revealing that the very nations criticizing India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia,' the statement said.
Arab News
9 hours ago
- Arab News
Bondi moves forward on US Justice Department investigation into origins of Trump-Russia probe
WASHINGTON: Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed that the Justice Department move forward with a probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation following the recent release of documents aimed at undermining the legitimacy of the inquiry that established that Moscow interfered on the Republican's behalf in the 2016 US presidential election. Bondi has directed a prosecutor to present evidence to a grand jury after referrals from the Trump administration's top intelligence official, a person familiar with the matter said Monday. That person was not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. Fox News first reported the development. It was not clear which former officials might be the target of any grand jury activity, where the grand jury that might ultimately hear evidence will be located or which prosecutors — whether career employees or political appointees — might be involved in pursuing the investigation. It was also not clear what precise claims of misconduct Trump administration officials believe could form the basis of criminal charges, which a grand jury would have to sign off on for an indictment to be issued. The development is likely to heighten concerns that the Justice Department is being used to achieve political ends given longstanding grievances over the Russia investigation voiced by President Donald Trump, who has called for the jailing of perceived political adversaries, and because any criminal investigation would revisit one of the most dissected chapters of modern American political history. It is also surfacing at a time when the Trump administration is being buffeted by criticism over its handling of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation. The initial, years-old investigation into Russian election interference resulted in the appointment of a special counsel, Robert Mueller, who secured multiple convictions against Trump aides and allies but did not establish proof of a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign. The inquiry shadowed much of Trump's first term in office and he has long focused his ire on senior officials from the intelligence and law enforcement community, including former FBI Director James Comey, whom he fired in May 2017, and former CIA Director John Brennan. The Justice Department appeared to confirm an investigation into both men in an unusual statement last month but offered no details. Multiple special counsels, congressional committees and the Justice Department's own inspector general have studied and documented a multi-pronged effort by Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election on Trump's behalf, including through a hack-and-leak dump of Democratic emails and a covert social media operation aimed at sowing discord and swaying public opinion. But that conclusion has been aggressively challenged in recent weeks as Trump's director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and other allies have released previously classified records that they hope will cast doubt on the extent of Russian interference and establish an Obama administration effort to falsely link Trump to Russia. In one batch of documents released last month, Gabbard disclosed emails showing that senior Obama administration officials were aware in 2016 that Russians had not hacked state election systems to manipulate the votes in Trump's favor. But President Barack Obama's administration never alleged that votes were tampered with and had instead detailed other forms of election interference and foreign influence. A new outcry surfaced last week when Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a set of emails that FBI Director Kash Patel claimed on social media proved that the 'Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax.' The emails were part of a classified annex of a report issued in 2023 by John Durham, the special counsel who was appointed during the first Trump administration to hunt for any government misconduct during the Russia investigation. Durham did identify significant flaws in the investigation but uncovered no bombshells to disprove the existence of Russian election interference. His sprawling probe produced three criminal cases; two resulted in acquittals by a jury and the third was a guilty plea from a little-known FBI lawyer to a charge of making a false statement. Republicans seized on a July 27, 2016, email in Durham's newly declassified annex that claimed that Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic candidate for president, had approved a plan during the heat of the campaign to link Trump with Russia. But the purported author of the email, a senior official at a philanthropic organization founded by billionaire investor George Soros, told Durham's team he had never sent the email and the alleged recipient said she never called receiving it. Durham's own report took pain to note that investigators had not corroborated the communications as authentic and said the best assessment was that the message was 'a composites of several emails' the Russians had obtained from hacking — raising the likelihood that it was a product of Russian disinformation. The FBI's Russia investigation was opened on July 31, 2016, following a tip that a Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had told an Australian diplomat that he had learned that Russia was in possession of dirt on Clinton.
