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July 28, 2025 11:56 AM

US, China to launch new talks on tariff truce extension, easing path for Trump-Xi meeting

Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials will resume talks in Stockholm on Monday to try to tackle longstanding economic disputes at the centre of a trade war between the world's top two economies, aiming to extend a truce by three months and keeping sharply higher tariffs at bay. China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with President Donald Trump's administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end weeks of escalating ...

July 25, 2025 2:04 PM

White House touts Columbia deal, critics see dangerous precedent

Columbia University's agreement to pay more than $220 million to the U.S. government to resolve federal probes was not capitulation but a means to restore vital public funding, the university's acting president said on Thursday. But critics expressed concern about a harmful precedent in what they see as President Donald Trump's push for greater control over elite U.S. colleges. Trump has targeted Columbia and other universities over the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled coll...

July 25, 2025 9:24 AM

Trump says he wants Musk and his companies to thrive in US

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would not destroy Elon Musk's companies by taking away federal subsidies and that he wants the billionaire tech entrepreneur's businesses to thrive. The remarks follow a public clash with his former close ally over his tax bill. In July, the space and automotive billionaire announced the formation of a new political party, saying Trump's "big, beautiful" tax bill would bankrupt America. "Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon's companies by taki...

July 23, 2025 9:44 AM

Trump pulls US out of UN cultural agency UNESCO for second time

President Donald Trump has decided to pull the United States out of the "woke" and "divisive" U.N. culture and education agency UNESCO, the White House said on Tuesday, repeating a move he took in his first term that was reversed by Joe Biden. The withdrawal from the Paris-based agency, which was founded after World War Two to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science, and culture, will take effect at the end of next year. The move is in line with the Trump administ...

July 22, 2025 9:28 AM

Trump releases Martin Luther King assassination files

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday released more than 240,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., including records from the FBI, which had surveilled the civil rights leader as part of an effort to discredit the Nobel Peace Prize winner and his civil rights movement. Files were posted on the website of the National Archives, which said more would be released. King died of an assassin's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, as he increasingly...

July 22, 2025 9:23 AM

South Korea finance minister, trade envoy to hold tariff talks with US counterparts

South Korea's new finance minister and the country's top trade envoy will meet in Washington with U.S. counterparts on Friday for talks on U.S. tariffs, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said on Tuesday. The country's foreign and industry ministers will also visit the U.S. for trade discussions as early as this week, Koo told reporters after a meeting of economic ministers. Koo took office on Monday. The four officials complete a new cabinet team under President Lee Jae Myung who was sworn in on...

July 21, 2025 5:22 PM

EU to ramp up retaliation plans as US tariff deal prospects dim

The European Union is exploring a broader set of possible counter-measures against the United States as prospects for an acceptable trade agreement with Washington fade, according to EU diplomats. An increasing number of EU members, including Germany, are now considering using wide-ranging "anti-coercion" measures which would let the bloc target U.S. services and other sectors in the absence of a deal, diplomats say. The European Commission, which negotiates trade agreements on behalf of the 2...

July 18, 2025 12:14 PM

Trump asks for release of grand jury documents in Epstein case

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration will ask a court to allow the release of grand jury testimony in the case of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after some of his supporters reacted in fury to a report concluding there was no evidence to support long-running theories about his case. "Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approv...

July 18, 2025 9:22 AM

Lula says he won’t take orders from foreigner Trump, calls tariffs blackmail

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday said he would not take orders over tariffs from a foreigner, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump, and later called the United States' threatened duty "unacceptable blackmail." The comments, made during two separate events, mark a continuation of a spat between the two leaders that escalated when the U.S. announced a 50% tariff on Brazil last week. Trump attributed the tariff, set to start in August, to Brazil's treatment of former ...

July 17, 2025 12:02 PM

Trump says he’s not planning to fire Fed’s Powell

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is not planning to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but he kept the door open to the possibility and renewed his criticism of the central bank chief for not lowering interest rates. A Bloomberg report earlier Wednesday saying that Trump was likely to fire Powell soon sparked a drop in stocks and the dollar, and a rise in Treasury yields. Trump, who has been criticizing Powell on an almost daily basis for being "TOO LATE" to cut interest ra...