Trump | Pakistan

Pakistan and the US finalised a trade deal on Wednesday night, expected to lower tariffs — although no figure was announced — while US President Donald Trump cited a pact aimed at helping develop Pakistan’s oil reserves. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is currently in Washington for negotiations on a tariff deal and also began meetings with senior US officials on Wednesday. “In a landmark development, Pakistan and the United States finalised a trade agreement today aimed at boosting bilateral trade, expanding market access, attracting investment, and fostering cooperation in areas of mutual interest,” the Pakistani embassy in the US posted on X on Thursday morning. Trump announced the deal on his platform Truth Social early Thursday morning. “We have just concluded a deal with the country of Pakistan, whereby Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive oil reserves,” Trump wrote. “We are in the process of choosing the oil company that will lead this partnership. Who knows...

United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the sweeping tariffs he has imposed on nations around the world were making the country “great and rich again”, as governments raced to strike deals with Washington less than 24 hours before an August 1 deadline. “Tariffs are making America great and rich again,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “One year ago, America was a dead country, now it is the ‘hottest’ country anywhere in the world,” he added. A day earlier, the US president imposed new tariffs to punish or favour several major trading partners — the latest round of sweeping measures that have roiled markets around the world. South Korea squeezed in at the last moment, securing agreement on a 15 per cent tariff for exports to the US — significantly below the 25pc that Trump had earlier threatened to introduce. But Trump also announced crippling 50pc tariffs on Brazil and a 25pc levy on Indian exports, while warning Canada it would face trade repercussions for planning to recognise a Pal...

United States President Donald Trump’s administration, seeking to ease an uproar plaguing his presidency, urged two judges to release testimony to a grand jury that indicted Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges. In late-night court filings on Tuesday, US federal prosecutors said unsealing the materials would be appropriate given the “abundant public interest” in the case of Epstein, the late financier, and Maxwell, an imprisoned British socialite. The Republican Trump had promised to make public Epstein-related files if reelected and accused Democrats of covering up the truth. But this month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said a previously touted Epstein client list did not in fact exist, angering Trump’s supporters. DOJ first sought court permission on July 18 to make public transcripts of the confidential testimony given by witnesses years ago in the two cases, but Manhattan-based US District Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer asked the government to flesh out the legal ...

United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia “10 days from today” if Moscow showed no progress toward ending its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine. Trump first announced on Monday that he was shortening the initial 50-day deadline he set a month ago for action from Moscow, and mentioned a new deadline of 10 to 12 days. On Tuesday, he told reporters he had not heard a response from Russia. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said he was not worried about the potential impact of Russian sanctions on the oil market or prices, vowing to boost domestic oil production to offset any impact. “I don’t know if it’s going to affect Russia, because [Russian President Vladimir Putin] wants to, obviously, probably keep the war going,” Trump said. “But we’re going to put on tariffs and the various things that you put on.” The US president, who has in the past spoken about having a good relationship with Putin, has grown increasingly frustr...

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he had reached a trade agreement with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen. “We have reached a deal. It’s a good deal for everybody,” Trump told reporters after talks with von der Leyen at his golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland. The EU chief also hailed it as a “good deal”. Earlier, the US president told reporters he felt the two sides had a 50-50 chance of a deal with the European Union. The bloc faces an across-the-board US levy of 30 per cent unless it strikes a trade pact by August 1. Washington warned on Sunday there would be “no extensions” and Trump confirmed “the deals all start on August 1”. Von der Leyen’s European Commission, negotiating on behalf of EU countries, is pushing hard for a deal to salvage a trading relationship worth an annual $1.9 trillion in goods and services. The EU chief said at the start of the talks at Trump’s luxury golf resort in southwestern Turnberry that if they reached a deal, “I think it would be the biggest deal each of ...

United States President Donald Trump’s superpowers as a public figure have long included the ability to redirect, evade and deny. But the Republican’s well-worn methods of changing the subject when a tough topic stings politically are not working as his White House fends off persistent unrest from his usually loyal base about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. Trump has scolded reporters, claimed ignorance and offered distractions in an effort to quash questions about Epstein and the suspicions still swirling around the disgraced financier’s case years after his 2019 death in prison. The demand for answers has only grown. “For a president and an administration that’s very good at controlling a narrative, this is one that’s been harder,” said Republican strategist Erin Maguire, a former Trump campaign spokeswoman. Unlike political crises that dogged Trump’s first term, including two impeachments and a probe into alleged campaign collusion with Russia, the people propelling the push for ...

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the leaders of Cambodia and Thailand had agreed to meet immediately to quickly work out a ceasefire, as he sought to broker peace after three days of fighting along their border left at least 33 people dead. In a series of social media posts during a visit to Scotland, Trump said he had spoken to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thailand’s acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, warning them that he would not make trade deals with either of their governments if the border conflict continued. Following calls for restraint on both sides from Trump’s senior aides, he became directly involved on Saturday, speaking to each leader and saying he relayed messages back and forth. “Just spoke to the prime minister of Cambodia relative to stopping the war with Thailand,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network. “I have just spoken to the acting prime minister of Thailand, and it was a very good conversation,” he said soon after in a new post. “Thailand,...

Small business owners used the festive backdrop of Comic-Con on Thursday to discuss a sobering topic: the negative impact that US President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs are having on the toy industry. “Not the most sexy topic,” Jonathan Cathey, chief executive of collectibles company The Loyal Subjects, admitted at a panel titled “Toys, Tariffs, and Trade Wars” at the four-day convention in San Diego, California. “But this ultimately affects you guys, it affects the end user,” he said. “Prices will go up, and our rate of sales will go down.” Toy companies have been fretting about the impact of Trump’s global tariff blitz on the industry, particularly when it comes to China. Of over $17 billion worth of toys imported to the United States last year, more than $13bn came from China. But a rollercoaster tariff row between Washington and Beijing has caused havoc for US businesses and their Chinese suppliers. Panel moderator Daniel Pickett argued that the Trump administration is “imposing truly exaggerated, some...

U.S. President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of “treason” on Tuesday, accusing him, without providing evidence, of leading an effort to falsely tie him to Russia and undermine his 2016 presidential campaign. A spokesperson for Obama denounced Trump’s claims, saying “these bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.” While Trump has frequently […]

US President Donald Trump has announced a “massive” trade deal with Japan, as China said it will send its vice premier to US trade talks next week to secure its own agreement ahead of a looming deadline. In an attempt to slash his country’s colossal trade deficit, the US president has vowed to hit dozens of countries with punitive “reciprocal” tariffs if they do not hammer out a pact with Washington by August 1. The Japan agreement, along with another pact with the Philippines also announced on Tuesday, means Trump has now secured five agreements since his administration promised in April “90 deals in 90 days”. The others are with Britain, Vietnam and Indonesia, which the White House said Tuesday would ease critical mineral export restrictions. Negotiations are still ongoing with much larger US trading partners China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union. Representatives from China and the United States will meet next week in the Swedish capital Stockholm to try and hammer out a deal before an August 12 dead...

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the UN culture and education agency Unesco on Tuesday, repeating a move he had already ordered during his first term, which had been reversed under 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 on December 31, 2026. “President Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from Unesco — which supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. The State Department said remaining in Unesco was not in the national interest, accusing it of having “a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy”. Unesco chief Audrey Azoulay said she deeply regretted Trump’s decision, but that it was “expected, and Unesco has prepar...

United States President Donald Trump’s lunch meeting with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir prompted a private diplomatic protest from India in a warning to Washington about risks to their bilateral ties while New Delhi is recalibrating relations with China as a hedge, officials and analysts said. The meeting and other tensions in the US-India relationship, after decades of flourishing ties, have cast a shadow in trade negotiations, they said, as Trump’s administration weighs tariffs against one of its major partners in the Indo-Pacific. India blames Pakistan, especially the military establishment, for supporting what it alleges is cross-border terrorism and has told the US it is sending the wrong signals by wooing Field Marshal Munir, three senior Indian government officials directly aware of the matter told Reuters. It has created a sore spot that will hamper relations going forward, they said. Pakistan has denied accusations that it supports militants who carried out an attack in Ind...

US President Donald Trump might visit China before going to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit between October 30 and November 1, or he could meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC event in South Korea, The South China Morning Post reported on Sunday, citing multiple sources. The two countries have been trying to negotiate an end to an escalating tit-for-tat tariff war that has upended global trade and supply chains. The two sides have discussed a potential meeting between the leaders in the region this year, but they have not confirmed a date or location yet, according to a person familiar with the matter. Trump has sought to impose tariffs on US importers for virtually all foreign goods, which he says will stimulate domestic manufacturing and which critics say will make many consumer goods more expensive for Americans. He has called for a universal base tariff rate of 10 per cent on goods imported from all countries, with higher rates for imports from the most “problematic” on...

INDIA’S opposition Congress party has demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi provide a clear explanation after US President Donald Trump claimed that five fighter jets were shot down during the recent military confrontation between India and Pakistan. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led the charge on Saturday, calling on Modi to address the nation regarding the fate of the jets. “Modi ji, what is the truth about the five [jets]? The country has the right to know!” Mr Gandhi posted on X, as criticism from the opposition mounted over the government’s han­­dling of the brief but intense conflict. The controversy erupted after Trump, speaking at a White House dinner with Republican lawmakers on Friday, said, “In fact, planes were being shot out of the air. Five, five, four or five, but I think five jets were shot down actually,” referring to the hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Indian premier asked to ‘speak truth’ Trump did not specify which side’s aircraft were downed, nor did he provide furth...

United States President Donald Trump said on Friday that five jets were shot down during the recent India-Pakistan conflict that began after a deadly attack in India-occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam, with the situation calming after a ceasefire in May. Trump, who made his remarks at a dinner with some Republican US lawmakers at the White House, did not specify which side’s jets he was referring to. Pakistan had said it downed six Indian planes after the latter carried out deadly attacks in Punjab and Azad Kashmir, while New Delhi had claimed it had downed “a few planes”. “Something I’m very proud of [is that] we stopped a lot of wars. A lot of wars. And these were serious, serious wars; would have been going on,” Trump said. “You had India-Pakistan that was going, and in fact, planes were being shot out of the air. Five, five, four or five, but I think five jets were shot down actually,” Trump said while talking about the India-Pakistan hostilities, without elaborating or providing further detail. “It was getting ...

United States President Donald Trump sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for at least $10 billion on Friday over the publication of a bombshell article on his friendship with the infamous alleged sex trafficker of underage girls, Jeffrey Epstein. The defamation lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, saw the 79-year-old Republican hitting back at a scandal threatening to cause serious political damage. “We have just filed a powerhouse lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, fake news ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is The Wall Street Journal,” Trump posted on Truth Social late on Friday. The Journal reported on Thursday that in 2003, the then-real estate magnate wrote a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared “secret”. The lawsuit, which also names two reporters, the Dow Jones corporation and Murdoch’s parent company News Corp as defendants, claims that no such letter exists and tha...

LONDON: The Bank of England has asked some lenders to test their resilience to potential U.S. dollar shocks, three sources said, the latest sign of how the Trump administration’s policies are eroding trust in the U.S. as a bedrock of financial stability. As the leading currency for global trade and capital flows, the U.S. dollar […]

US President Donald Trump threatened to sue The Wall Street Journal on Thursday over a story about an alleged off-colour letter he wrote to Jeffrey Epstein, amid lingering political fallout over his administration’s handling of the late financier’s sex trafficking case. The Journal story says the letter featuring a sketch of a naked woman and Trump’s signature was part of a collection of notes for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. The newspaper says it reviewed the letter but did not print an image. Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker “was told directly by (White House press secretary) Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network. “Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway,” he said. “President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. (Rupert) Murdoch, shortly. The press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist.” The Republic...

The White House on Thursday said that no visit of United States President Donald Trump was scheduled to Pakistan “at this time” after widespread reports of a trip. Earlier in the day, some local television news channels reported, citing sources, that Trump was expected to visit Pakistan in September. The news channels said that Trump would also visit India after arriving in Islamabad in September. The channels later withdrew their reports. The White House dismissed the rumours. “A trip to Pakistan has not been scheduled at this time,” a White House official said. Talking to Dawn.com on the reported visit earlier, Foreign Office Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said: “We have no information about this matter.” Similarly, a US embassy spokesperson in Islamabad told Reuters, “We have nothing to announce,” and said that the White House might be able to provide confirmation on the president’s schedule. George W Bush was the last US president to visit Pakistan in 2006. US-Pakistan relations saw a major boost when Trum...

For years, United States President Donald Trump and his Republican allies benefited from conspiracy theories that fuelled the conservative MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement and targeted his political enemies. Now the persisting furore over files related to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has forced Trump into an unfamiliar role: trying to shut a conspiracy theory down. Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, was facing federal charges of sex trafficking minors when he died by suicide in jail in 2019. He had pleaded not guilty, and the case was dismissed after his death. The saga burst back into the news last week after the Trump administration reversed course on its pledge to release documents it had suggested would reveal major revelations about Epstein and his alleged clientele. That reversal has enraged some of Trump’s most loyal followers. To contain the fallout, Trump and White House officials are weighing a range of options, including unsealing new documents, appointing a ...