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Business Standard
5 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
World leaders use flattery, patience to handle Trump's erratic diplomacy
If world leaders were teaching a course on how to deal with US President Donald Trump early in his second term, their lesson plan might go like this: Pile on the flattery. Don't chase the policy rabbits he sends running across the world stage. Wait out the threats to see what, specifically, he wants, and when possible, find a way to deliver it. With every Oval Office meeting and summit, the leaders of other countries are settling on tactics and strategy in their pursuit of a working relationship with the emboldened American leader who presides over the world's largest economy and commands its most powerful military. The results were there to see at Nato, where leaders heaped praise on Trump, shortened meetings and removed contentious subjects from the agenda. Given that Trump dominates geopolitics, foreign leaders are learning from each other's experiences dating to Trump's first term, when he reportedly threatened to withdraw the US from the alliance. Among the learnable Trumpisms: He disdains traditional diplomacy. With him, it's "America first," it's superlative and "it's not even close." He goes with his gut, and the world goes along for the ride. They're finding, for example, that the sheer pace of Trump's orders, threats and social posts can send him pinging from the priority of one moment to another. He describes himself as "flexible" in negotiations, such as those in which he threatened big tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China only to back down during talks. And while Trump claimed credit for the ceasefire in the Iran-Israel war, he also has yet to negotiate ending the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza as promised. Trump's threat this week to levy retaliatory tariffs on Spain, for example, "is a mystery to everyone," Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told reporters Thursday during a summit in Brussels. If the tariffs never happen, he said, "It won't be the first time that things don't turn out as bad as they seem at first glance. Or that he changes his mind. I'm not the kind of leader who jumps every time Mr Trump says something." Trump management 101: Discipline vs daddy diplomacy Two summits this month, an ocean apart the Group of Seven in Canada and Nato in The Netherlands illustrate contrasting approaches to the American president on the brink of his sixth month back in office. Meeting in mid-June in Alberta, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed Trump at a press conference by wishing him a happy birthday and adding a smidgen of flattery: "The G7 is nothing without US leadership and your personal leadership of the United States." But when Trump turned partisan, Carney cut off the event, saying: "We actually have to start the meeting." Trump appeared to nod in agreement. But later, on Monday, June 16, he abruptly departed the summit a day early as the conflict between Israel and Iran intensified. Trump ordered US pilots to drop 30,000-pound bombs early Sunday on two key underground uranium enrichment plants in Iran, and by Wednesday announced on social media "a Complete and Total ceasefire." What followed was a 48-hour whirlwind during which Trump veered from elated to indignant to triumphant as his fragile Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement came together, teetered toward collapse and ultimately coalesced. Trump publicly harangued the Israelis and Iranians with a level of pique and profanity that was notable even for him. Chiding the two countries for attacking each other beyond a deadline, he dropped the f-word. Not finished, he then cast doubt on his support for Nato's mutual defence guarantee. Such was the president's mood as he winged toward a meeting of the trans-Atlantic alliance he had disparaged for years. Nato was ready for Trump with a summit set to please him Nato is essentially American, anyway. The Europeans and Canadians cannot function without American heavy lift, air refuelling, logistics and more. Most of all, they rely on the United States for its range of nuclear weapons for deterrence. The June 25 summit was whittled down to a few hours, and one Trump-driven subject: Raising the amount of money the member nations spent on defence to lighten the load carried by the United States. Emphatically not on the agenda: Russia's ongoing war with Ukraine. Trump did, however, meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has climbed his own learning curve on Trump management since Trump berated him in the Oval Office in February. The Ukrainian leader has deployed a conciliatory approach and mirrored Trump's transactional style. The goal, widely reported, was to avoid doing anything that might cause Trump to blow up the event or leave. Trump was invited to stay at the royal palace in The Hague and dine with the royal family. It was expected that most members would endorse the plan to raise their spending targets for their one-for-all defence against Russia. The other Nato ambassadors had told Secretary-General Mark Rutte to deploy his Trump-whispering skills. He sent the president a private, pre-summit text predicting Trump would achieve "BIG" success there, which Trump posted on his own socials for all to see. At the summit, Rutte likened Trump's role quieting the Iran-Israel war to a "daddy" interdicting a schoolyard brawl. "He likes me," Trump explained. Backlash was stiff. Lithuania's former foreign minister called Rutte's approach "the gushings of weakness and meekness.
Kyodo News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Kyodo News
Japan executes man convicted of 9 murders, 1st hanging since 2022
KYODO NEWS - 15 hours ago - 18:15 | All, Japan Japan executed on Friday a man convicted of the 2017 serial murders of nine people near Tokyo, the government said, marking the country's first hanging since July 2022. The death sentence of Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, dubbed Japan's "Twitter killer," was finalized in 2021, after he withdrew an appeal. He was found guilty of murdering, dismembering and storing the bodies of his nine victims, who had posted suicidal thoughts on social media, in his apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture. "I ordered the execution after careful and deliberate consideration," Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki told a press conference held to announce the hanging, which was the first since Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba took office in October last year. The execution comes as questions are raised about the country's capital punishment system after the exoneration of Iwao Hakamata, 89, who spent more than four decades on death row. He was acquitted over a 1966 quadruple murder and his retrial was finalized in October 2024. Shiraishi was also convicted of sexually assaulting all eight female murder victims and stealing cash. Using a Twitter handle that loosely translates as "hangman," he invited his eventual victims to his apartment after they had expressed suicidal thoughts. The nearly three-year hiatus in executions in Japan is thought to be due to the dismissal of former Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi over inappropriate comments about the death penalty at a political gathering in 2022. He said the ministerial post is a "low-key" position and it becomes "a top story in daytime news programs only when stamping a seal on documents of executions." Before Shiraishi, Tomohiro Kato, 39, was the last to be executed, in July 2022. He was convicted for a 2008 rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district in which seven people were killed and 10 others injured. "No one has the right to take someone's life and it cannot be justified for any reason. Amnesty objects to any form of execution without exceptions," the Japanese branch of Amnesty International said in a statement. The human rights organization urged the Japanese government to take measures to swiftly end the practice. While domestic legal experts have called for a review of the death penalty amid international pressure to end executions and following Hakamata's acquittal, a 2024 government survey on the issue showed over 80 percent of those polled support the system, calling it "unavoidable." It was the fifth consecutive time that support for capital punishment exceeded 80 percent in the government poll, conducted every five years. After the execution of Shiraishi, there are 105 inmates on death row in Japan, of whom 49 have filed retrial requests. Japan and the United States are the only Group of Seven nations still handing down capital sentences. The European Union, which bars countries with the death penalty from joining, has been vocal in calling on Japan to review its stance. According to Amnesty International, a total of 15 countries conducted executions in 2024. Related coverage: Death penalty ruling finalized for Japan's "Twitter killer" Man acquitted of 1966 murders awarded record criminal compensation FEATURE: Steady-handed prison guard remembers faces of condemned FOCUS: Japan makes major step toward revising controversial retrial system
Straits Times
10 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 28, 2025
Mr Carney (left) and Mr Trump recently met at the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Canada and agreed to try to hash out a trade agreement by the middle of July. PHOTO: REUTERS REUTERS While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 28, 2025 Trump ends trade talks with Canada, threatens to set tariff US President Donald Trump said he was ending all trade discussions with Canada in retaliation for the country's digital services tax, and threatened to impose a fresh tariff rate within the next week. 'Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period,' Mr Trump posted on June 27, on social media. Canada and the US have one of the world's largest bilateral trading relationships, exchanging more than US$900 billion (S$1.14 trillion) of goods and services in 2024. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking briefly to a television reporter, said he had not spoken with Mr Trump yet, on June 27. 'We'll continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians,' he said. READ MORE HERE Trump would consider bombing Iran again if necessary President Donald Trump said on June 27 he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran was enriching uranium to a level that concerned the United States, and he backed inspections of Iran's bombed nuclear sites. 'Sure, without question, absolutely,' Mr Trump said, when asked about the possibility of new bombing of Iranian nuclear sites if deemed necessary at some point. At a White House news conference, Mr Trump said he plans to respond soon to comments from Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei, who said Iran 'slapped America in the face' by launching an attack against a major US base in Qatar following last weekend's US bombing raid. READ MORE HERE 'Science refugees': French uni welcomes first US researchers Eight American researchers have arrived at a university in southern France, as the country pushes to offer 'science asylum' to US academics hit by federal research spending cuts under US President Donald Trump. The University of Aix-Marseille (AMU) welcomed the scholars on June 27, following the March launch of its 'Safe Place for Science' initiative, the first among 20 set to relocate there in coming months. The programme has already drawn nearly 300 applicants from top institutions such as Stanford, Nasa, and Berkeley. READ MORE HERE WHO says all Covid-19 origin theories still open All hypotheses on how the Covid-19 pandemic began remain open, the World Health Organisation said on June 27, following an inconclusive four-year investigation that was hamstrung by crucial information being withheld. The global catastrophe killed an estimated 20 million people, according to the WHO, while shredding economies, crippling health systems and turning people's lives upside-down. The first cases were detected in Wuhan in China in late 2019, and understanding where the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 came from is key to preventing future pandemics. READ MORE HERE UK man jailed for 40 years for teenager's murder A man who killed a 14-year-old boy in London during a rampage with a sword was on Jan 27 jailed for a minimum of 40 years. Marcus Arduini Monzo, 37, nearly decapitated schoolboy Daniel Anjorin during a 20-minute series of attacks in Hainault, east London, in April 2024, in which he also assaulted several other people including police officers. Prosecutors said Monzo killed and skinned his cat before driving his van at a pedestrian and slicing him with the sword, murdering Daniel and then trying to murder a police officer. READ MORE HERE Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
11 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Trump ends trade talks with Canada over digital services tax, threatens to set tariff
Mr Carney (left) and Mr Trump recently met at the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Canada and agreed to try to hash out an agreement by the middle of July. PHOTO: REUTERS WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said he was ending all trade discussions with Canada in retaliation for the country's digital services tax, and threatened to impose a fresh tariff rate within the next week. 'Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period,' Mr Trump posted on June 27, on social media. Canada and the US have one of the world's largest bilateral trading relationships, exchanging more than US$900 billion (S$1.14 trillion) of goods and services in 2024. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking briefly to a television reporter, said he had not spoken with Mr Trump yet, on June 27. 'We'll continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians,' he said. The Canadian dollar dropped more than 0.5 per cent almost immediately after Mr Trump's post before paring those losses. Canada's benchmark equity index fell, and the shares of companies that rely on moving goods across the border, including General Motors and apparel maker Canada Goose Holdings, also took a hit. Dozens of countries face a July 9 deadline for Mr Trump's higher tariffs to kick back into place, and have been engaged in negotiations with the US. That deadline does not apply to Canada and Mexico. The president imposed tariffs on the US' North American neighbours earlier this year over fentanyl trafficking and migration concerns, and talks with them are being handled on a separate track. Last week, Mr Trump and Mr Carney met at the Group of Seven leaders' summit and agreed to try to hash out an agreement by the middle of July. Canadian business groups and some politicians quickly applied pressure on Mr Carney to drop the digital tax. 'In an effort to get trade negotiations back on track, Canada should put forward an immediate proposal to eliminate the DST in exchange for an elimination of tariffs from the United States,' said Mr Goldy Hyder, chief executive officer of the Business Council of Canada. Ontario Premier Doug Ford reiterated his call for the prime minister to abandon the digital tax. 'We've long supported the idea that global tech giants should pay their fair share in the countries where they operate. But the digital services tax hasn't achieved that,' the Council of Canadian Innovators, which represents technology executives, said in a statement. 'It's functionally a pass-through cost paid by Canadian advertisers and consumers, and it leaves our economy exposed to draconian trade retaliation.' More on this Topic Carney says he and Trump aiming for Canada-US deal within 30 days US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on June 26 announced a deal with G-7 allies that will exclude US companies from some taxes imposed by other countries in exchange for removing the Section 899 'revenge tax.' However, the deal did not address digital services taxes placed on large technology firms by some countries, which are opposed by Mr Trump and his officials. Canada's digital services tax is not new. It was passed into law a year ago, but companies have not had to pay it yet. Mr Carney's government is poised to proceed with implementing it, however, with the first payments due on June 30, the country's finance department said earlier on June 27. Business groups in the country have opposed the levy, arguing it would increase the cost of services and invite retaliation by the US. A group of 21 US lawmakers wrote to Mr Trump earlier this month asking him to push for the tax's removal, estimating it will cost American companies US$2 billion. Mr Trump in his trade push has long railed against taxes and other non-tariff barriers, casting them as an impediment to US exporters. The Canadian digital services tax is similar to those implemented by other countries, including the UK. The levy is 3 per cent of the digital services revenue that a firm makes from Canadian users above C$20 million (S$18 million) in a year. It would apply to companies including Meta Platforms and Alphabet, and has been criticised by other technology companies such as Uber Technologies and Etsy. However, Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne suggested last week that the digital tax may be renegotiated as part of US-Canada trade discussions. 'Obviously, all of that is something that we're considering as part of broader discussions that you may have,' he said. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
San Francisco Chronicle
12 hours ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump Management 101: World leaders adapt to his erratic diplomacy with flattery and patience
LONDON (AP) — If world leaders were teaching a course on how to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump early in his second term, their lesson plan might go like this: Pile on the flattery. Don't chase the policy rabbits he sends running across the world stage. Wait out the threats to see what, specifically, he wants, and when possible, find a way to deliver it. With every Oval Office meeting and summit, the leaders of other countries are settling on tactics and strategy in their pursuit of a working relationship with the emboldened American leader who presides over the world's largest economy and commands its most powerful military. The results were there to see at NATO, where leaders heaped praise on Trump, shortened meetings and removed contentious subjects from the agenda. Given that Trump dominates geopolitics, foreign leaders are learning from each other's experiences dating to Trump's first term, when he reportedly threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the alliance. Among the learnable Trumpisms: He disdains traditional diplomacy. With him, it's ' America first,' it's superlative — and ' it's not even close. ' He goes with his gut, and the world goes along for the ride. They're finding, for example, that the sheer pace of Trump's orders, threats and social posts can send him pinging from the priority of one moment to another. He describes himself as 'flexible' in negotiations, such as those in which he threatened big tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China only to back down during talks. And while Trump claimed credit for the ceasefire in the Iran-Israel war, he also has yet to negotiate ending the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza as promised. Trump's threat this week to levy retaliatory tariffs on Spain, for example, 'is a mystery to everyone,' Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told reporters Thursday during a summit in Brussels. If the tariffs never happen, he said, 'It won't be the first time that things don't turn out as bad as they seem at first glance. Or that he changes his mind. I'm not the kind of leader who jumps every time Mr. Trump says something.' Trump management 101: Discipline vs 'daddy diplomacy' Two summits this month, an ocean apart — the Group of Seven in Canada and NATO in The Netherlands — illustrate contrasting approaches to the American president on the brink of his 6th month back in office. Meeting in mid-June in Alberta, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed Trump at a press conference by wishing him a happy birthday and adding a smidgen of flattery: 'The G7 is nothing without U.S. leadership and your personal leadership of the United States.' But when Trump turned partisan, Carney cut off the event, saying: 'We actually have to start the meeting.' Trump appeared to nod in agreement. But later, on Monday, June 16, he abruptly departed the summit a day early as the conflict between Israel and Iran intensified. Trump ordered U.S. pilots to drop 30,000-pound bombs early Sunday on two key underground uranium enrichment plants in Iran, and by Wednesday announced on social media 'a Complete and Total ceasefire.' What followed was a 48-hour whirlwind during which Trump veered from elated to indignant to triumphant as his fragile Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement came together, teetered toward collapse and ultimately coalesced. Trump publicly harangued the Israelis and Iranians with a level of pique and profanity that was notable even for him. Chiding the two countries for attacking each other beyond a deadline, he dropped the f-word. Not finished, he then cast doubt on his support for NATO's mutual defense guarantee. Such was the president's mood as he winged toward a meeting of the trans-Atlantic alliance he had disparaged for years. NATO was ready for Trump with a summit set to please him NATO is essentially American, anyway. The Europeans and Canadians cannot function without American heavy lift, air refueling, logistics and more. Most of all, they rely on the United States for its range of nuclear weapons for deterrence. The June 25 summit was whittled down to a few hours, and one Trump-driven subject: Raising the amount of money the member nations spent on defense to lighten the load carried by the United States. Emphatically not on the agenda: Russia's ongoing war with Ukraine. Trump did, however, meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has climbed his own learning curve on Trump management since Trump berated him in the Oval Office in February. The Ukrainian leader has deployed a conciliatory approach and mirrored Trump's transactional style. The goal, widely reported, was to avoid doing anything that might cause Trump to blow up the event or leave. Trump was invited to stay at the royal palace in The Hague and dine with the royal family. It was expected that most members would endorse the plan to raise their spending targets for their one-for-all defense against Russia. The other NATO ambassadors had told Secretary-General Mark Rutte to deploy his Trump-whispering skills. He sent the president a private, presummit text predicting Trump would achieve 'BIG' success there, which Trump posted on his own socials for all to see. At the summit, Rutte likened Trump's role quieting the Iran-Israel war to a 'daddy' interdicting a schoolyard brawl. 'He likes me,' Trump explained. Backlash was stiff. Lithuania's former foreign minister called Rutte's approach 'the gushings of weakness and meekness.' 'The wording appears to have been stolen from the adult entertainment industry,' Gabrielius Landsbergis tweeted. 'It reduces Europe to the state of a beggar — pitiful before our Transatlantic friends and Eastern opponents alike.' It was the latest confirmation that complimenting is a favorite way for leaders to deal with him, if not a popular one in some circles. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been using the tactic since at least 2018, when he called Trump 'the greatest friend Israel has ever had,' and even named a settlement in the Golan Heights after him. The late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plied him with multiple rounds of golf. French President Emmanuel Macron invited Trump to be the guest of honor at Bastille Day in 2017, featuring an elaborate military parade. What Trump left behind Rutte found a way to make Trump's demand that member countries spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense work. Their military support to Ukraine could count as a substantial slice of that money. But the agreement left big issues unresolved, including a U.S. troop reduction that is likely to be announced later in the year, and the potential for a resulting security vacuum. Posters on social media referred to NATO as the 'North Atlantic Trump Organization.' 'This summit has all been about managing him, and it's all been about trying to get him to say the right thing in the right moment,' Fiona Hill, a former senior White House national security adviser to three U.S. presidents, including Trump, told the BBC. By the end of the summit, participants were declaring it a success as much for what it prevented as for what was accomplished. Trump showed up. He did not blow it up, leave early or start fights. And critically, NATO survived — indeed, with Trump declaring himself a changed man where the alliance is concerned. And his night in the palace? He said he'd 'slept beautifully.'
