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Trump threatens to impose additional 100% tariff on China
US President Donald Trump has said he would impose an additional 100% tariff on imports from China from next month.
In a post on social media, Trump said the US would also put export controls on critical software.
In an earlier post on Friday, he hit back at Beijing’s move this week to tighten its rules for exports of rare earths, accusing China of “becoming very hostile” and trying to hold the world “captive”.
He threatened to pull out of a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping. He later said he had not cancelled it, but that he did not know “that we’re going to have it”. “I’m going to be there regardless,” he told reporters at the White House.
Financial markets dropped in the wake of Trump’s remarks, with the S&P 500 closing down 2.7%, its steepest fall since April.
China dominates production of rare earths and certain other key materials, which are key components in cars, smartphones and many other items.
The last time Beijing tightened export controls – after Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods early this year – there was an outcry from many US firms reliant on the materials. Carmaker Ford even had to temporarily pause production.
In addition to tightening rules for rare earth exports, China has opened a monopoly investigation into the US tech firm Qualcomm that could stall its acquisition of another chipmaker.
Although Qualcomm is based in the US, a significant portion of its business is concentrated in China.
Beijing has also said it will charge new port fees to ships with ties to the US, including those owned or operated by US firms.
“Some very strange things are happening in China!” Trump wrote in a post on social media on Friday. “They are becoming very hostile.”
The US and China have been in a fragile trade détente since May, when the two sides agreed to drop triple-digit tariffs on each others’ goods that had nearly stopped trade between the two countries.
The move left US tariffs on Chinese goods facing an added 30% levy compared with the start of the year, while US goods entering China face a new 10% tariff.
Officials have held a series of talks since then on matters including TikTok, agricultural purchases, and the trade of rare earths and advanced technology like semiconductors.
The two sides were expected to meet again this month at a summit in South Korea.
China expert Jonathan Czin, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Xi’s recent actions were a bid to shape the upcoming talks, noting that the recent rare earths directive does not go into effect immediately.
“He’s looking for ways to seize the initiative,” he said. “The Trump administration is having to play a game of whack-a-mole and deal with these issues as they come up.”
He added that he did not think China was worried about US retaliation in response.
“What China took away from the Liberation Day tariffs and the cycle of escalation followed by de-escalation is that the Chinese side had a higher pain threshold,” he said. “From their perspective, the Trump administration blinked.”
In prior rounds of trade talks, China has pushed for looser US restrictions on semiconductors. It is also interested in securing more stable tariff policies that would make it easier for its businesses to sell into the US.
Xi had previously used as leverage his country’s dominance of rare earths production.
But the export rules unveiled this week target overseas defence manufacturers, making them particularly serious, said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Nothing makes America move like targeting our defence industry,” she said. “The US is going to have to negotiate because we have limited options, and in an era of rising geopolitical tension and potential conflict, we need to build our industrial defence base.”
While a Trump-Xi meeting now looks unlikely, she said it was not necessarily completely off the table. Ms Baskaran said there’s still time and room for talks. China’s new rules don’t take effect until December.
“Negotiations are likely imminent,” she said. “Who does them and where they happen will be determined with time.”
[BBC]
An estimated 550,000 people took part in demonstrations across France today to protest against teaching conditions in schools, rising fuel prices and the cost of living.
Marches were largely peaceful and took place in several major French cities, including Paris, where 110,000 people attended.
“We just want to study, we just want a future” one student taking part in the protest in the capital told BBC News, while another said they were ” just trying to make things change”.
But French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said some groups “at the margins of these protests” caused the situation to “degenerate”.
According to the French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, 1200 people were arrested. Officials also reported looting in cities such as Marseille, where masked 8ntruders also entered the city hall. In Lyon, the tourist office was set on fire and shops were damaged.
French President Emmanuel Macron said any vandals and looters would be “prosecuted and punished”, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of left-wing party La France Insoumise, said demonstrations had been calmly mobilised.
Meanwhile, firefighters are continuing to battle a blaze at Limoges City Hall after a reported break-in and arson inside the 19th-century building during protests there.
(BBC)
A large fire near a Canadian military base in Alberta has killed and injured some people, the defence minister said, without confirming the number of casualties.
The Canadian Armed Forces were working with local authorities to manage the fire and were looking into what caused it, David McGuinty said, describing the situation as “very, very active and delicate”.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said on X that a “serious incident creating a major fire” had occurred, adding his “thoughts are with all the brave women and men affected”.
Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, where the fire broke out, is one of the country’s busiest military training bases.
The blaze “spread rapidly due to high winds” and had torn through the fences of the base, the Municipal District of Wainwright said.
McGuinty told reporters he “cannot recall an incident like this in recent memory”.
It is unclear when the fire broke out, but the district first posted about the incident at about 17:30 local time.
Local authorities have urged residents to avoid the area and give all emergency vehicles right of way.
(BBC)
The Asian Youth Games gold medallist who has run sub four minutes previously returned a time of 3:55.97 seconds to become the first athlete in his age category at these championships to run the distance under four minutes.
Achintha who has a personal best of 3:53.05 from last year was representing Prince College Ratnapura today.
In another impressive 1,500 m feat Tharushi Abhisheka of Lyceum International School, Wattala established a new meet record in the Under-20 Girls’ 1,500m as she returned a time of 4:34.59 seconds to win.
By the end of the second day of the meet seven new meet records had been established.
D. V. C. de Soysa (of Galewela Central College) Under-16 Boys’ Discus Throw – 55.83m.
D. G. Lahiru Achintha (of Ratnapura Kumara Vidyalaya) Under-18 Boys’ 1,500m – 3:55.97 secs.
W. P. Nethula Induwara (Rahula College, Matara) Under-14 Boys’ 100m – 11.70 seconds
K. V. R. Gayesha (Ira Handa Kotuwa Wewa Maha Vidyalaya, Polonnaruwa) Under-16 Girls’ High Jump – 1.70m
H. M. D. S. Herath (Maris Stella College, Thimbirigaskatuwa) Under-20 Boys’ Long Jump – 7.65m
P. M. Amaya Semindi (Vijitha Central College, Dikwella) Under-14 Girls’ High Jump – 1.58m
Record 1,600 students take Russian Classical Ballet examination in Sri Lanka
Half a million people join protests in France, but some turn violent
Deadly fire breaks out at Canada military base
Showers or thundershowers will occur in most parts of the island after 1.00 p.m.
Buddhist hierarchy demands prison perks for monk convicts
Debate on NCM against Speaker postponed indefinitely
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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