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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump administration plans to use ongoing tariff negotiations to pressure US trading partners to limit their dealings with China, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday citing people with knowledge of the conversations.
US officials plan to use negotiations with more than 70 nations to ask them to disallow China to ship goods through their countries and prevent Chinese firms from being located in their territories to avoid US tariffs, the report added.
KYIV: Ukrainian rescuers recovered more than a dozen more bodies from the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in Kyiv overnight, bringing the death toll from Russia’s worst air strike of the year on Ukraine’s capital to 31.
A two-year-old was among the five children found dead after Thursday’s sweeping Russian drone and missile attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday, announcing the end of a more than 24-hour-long rescue operation.
A total of 159 people were wounded in the multi-wave strike, in which Russia launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles early on Thursday, the latest in a campaign of fierce strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities.
The worst damage was to an apartment building that partially collapsed in the Sviatoshyn district in western Kyiv. Damage was also reported in at least three other districts of the capital.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday sharply criticized Russia’s “disgusting” behavior against Ukraine, while saying he was not sure whether sanctions would deter Russia. He has given President Vladimir Putin until August 8 to make a deal or else he will respond with economic pressure.
Natalia Matviyenko, 65, sitting near the damaged apartment building, said she did not place much faith in Trump’s tough rhetoric.
“Trump just says, ‘I’m upset with President Putin’s behavior.’ And what? No results,” she said.
The US leader, who returned to power on a pledge to swiftly end the war, has in recent weeks rolled back his earlier conciliatory approach toward Moscow and signalled openness to arming Ukraine.
But a diplomatic effort to end the war has stalled, with Moscow not backing down from what Kyiv and its allies describe as maximalist demands.
’WILL PUTIN LISTEN?’
On Friday, mourners laid flowers and lit candles at the wrecked apartment block, where rumbling excavators hoisted heavy pieces of rubble. The makeshift shrine included brightly colored stuffed animals.
Oksana Kinal, 43, who was placing flowers to honor a co-worker who had been killed alongside a son, said she hoped Trump would follow up on his threat but also expressed doubt.
“I think America has a lot of points of leverage that can be used against Russia,” she said.
“But will Putin listen to this? I don’t know.”
Kyiv’s air force said on Friday that Ukrainian air defenses had destroyed more than 6,000 drones and missiles across the country in July alone.
“The world possesses every instrument required to ensure Russia is brought to justice,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X on Friday. “What is lacking is not power — but will.”
GENEVA: The Swiss government said Friday it would negotiate with the United States to try to avoid the tough 39-percent US tariff rate that would harm key industries.
As part of a slew of new tariffs unveiled late Thursday on nearly 70 countries, Washington said it planned to charge a 39-percent tariff rate on Swiss goods, higher than the 31-percent rate that it had been threatening to implement.
The new rate is set to go into effect on August 7, and would also prove painful for Switzerland’s manufacturing and watchmaking industries.
The Swiss government said it remains in contact with US authorities and “still hopes to find a negotiated solution,” in a statement on X.
“The Federal Council notes with great regret the intention of the US to unilaterally burden Swiss imports with considerable import duties despite the progress made in bilateral talks and Switzerland’s very constructive position,” it added.
Senior Swiss officials had held numerous discussions with their US counterparts in an attempt to reach a deal with the administration of US President Donald Trump, like Britain and the European Union have.
President Karin Keller-Sutter, who is also finance minister, spoke with Trump on Thursday.
“The trade deficit remains the center” of Trump’s preoccupation and they could not reach an agreement on a framework trade deal, she said on X.
The United States is a key trading partner for Switzerland, taking 18.6 percent of its total exports last year, according to Swiss customs data.
Pharmaceuticals dominated at 60 percent of Swiss goods exports to the United States, followed by machinery and metalworking at 20 percent and watches at eight percent.
The trade balance was heavily in Switzerland’s favor at 40 billion Swiss francs ($49 billion) last year.
Trump has paid particular attention to trade deficits, considering them a sign that the United States is being taken advantage of by its trading partners.
Switzerland is however the sixth country in terms of foreign direct investment into the United States, particularly in research and development.
Swiss pharmaceutical giants Roche and Novartis have both announced plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in the United States in the coming five years as they try to head off threats by Trump to impose separate tariffs of up to 200 percent on medicines if foreign drugmakers do not move more production into the United States.
The trade association representing the small and medium-sized firms in Switzerland’s machine and metal-working industry urged the government to take advantage of the negotiating window before the entry into force on August 7 of the new tariffs, which it warned would have serious long-term consequences.
NAIROBI: The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have held their first talks after signing a peace deal to end decades of deadly conflict in mineral-rich eastern Congo, the two countries said on Friday.
Eastern DRC, a region bordering Rwanda with lucrative natural resources, has been plagued by violence for more than three decades and the unrest has claimed thousands of lives.
The crisis intensified early this year when the M23 armed group and Rwandan troops captured the major city of Goma in January, followed by Bukavu in February, setting up parallel administrations in each.
Kinshasa had previously opposed direct dialogue with the M23 and diplomatic attempts, including mediation by Angola, failed.
But the surprise intervention of Qatar succeeded in bringing together Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame of Rwanda in Doha in mid-March.
A peace agreement followed, inked by their foreign ministers in Washington at the end of June.
On Thursday, representatives from both countries as well as observers from the United States, Qatar and the African Union held their first meeting in Washington since signing the peace deal, according to a joint statement released by both nations on social media.
They “discussed progress on implementing the agreement” among other things, it said.
The agreement was hailed as a significant milestone by the African Union and the United Nations and follows a long series of truces and ceasefires that have been systematically broken.
The deal outlines provisions for the “respect for territorial integrity and halting hostilities” in eastern DRC, which are still however to be implemented.
It also includes economic measures but has few details.
According to the Congolese government and the UN, the violence has left thousands dead and exacerbated a humanitarian crisis for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Since February, the front has stabilized. But violence continued between the M23 and a motley group of pro-Kinshasa militias engaged in guerrilla warfare.
In a parallel Qatar-led process, the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group and Kinshasa also signed a declaration of principles in Qatar earlier this month, including a commitment to a permanent ceasefire.
Rwanda denies providing military support to the M23 but says its security has long been threatened by armed groups, including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), established by ethnic Hutus linked to the massacres of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The DRC is the world’s leading producer of cobalt and has deposits of gold and other valuable minerals including coltan, a metallic ore that is vital in making phones and laptops.
Tshisekedi said in April he had discussed a deal for access to the DRC’s mineral wealth with US special envoy Massad Boulos.
On July 17, the DRC government signed an agreement with US group Kobold Metals, which committed to investing in the digitization of geological data and the development of a lithium mine in southeast DRC.
The Congolese president then resolved to hold direct talks with the M23, having previously refused to do so, leading to the Doha agreement.
That agreement saw the government and M23 commit to a “permanent ceasefire” and “dialogue and negotiation” to facilitate the “voluntary” return of refugees and displaced people.
Kinshasa and the M23 gave themselves until July 29 to implement the declaration, with the deal setting an August 8 deadline for formal negotiations on a comprehensive peace accord, to be signed by August 17.
Analysts view the deadlines as tight, especialy as differences quickly emerged including over the issue of a withdrawal by the M23 from areas it has seized.
LONDON: The family of elderly British couple Peter and Barbie Reynolds, detained for six months without charge in Afghanistan, fears the worst as their health declines.
“I don’t know if they’re still alive,” said their son, Jonathan Reynolds, who has not spoken to his parents since their last phone call on June 15.
“How would I know if they were no longer alive? Who’s going to call me? The Taliban’s never called me. Who’s going to call? I don’t know,” asked Reynolds, one of the couple’s four children.
Peter Reynolds, 80, and his 76-year-old wife were arrested in February along with Chinese-American friend, Faye Hall, who was released in March, and an Afghan translator.
The couple were married in Kabul in 1970, and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan running educational programs after moving there. They also became official Afghan citizens.
Taliban officials have refused to detail why the couple was arrested in February as they were returning to their home in central Bamiyan province.
“They were told by the judge that they were not guilty of any crimes,” said their son.
“So many times we’ve been told two to three days and then you’ll be released ... But it’s six months on Saturday,” he added.
The couple were first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul, according to UN experts.
In late July, the independent UN human rights experts called for the Taliban to free the pair warning of the “rapid deterioration” of their physical and mental health, stating that they “risk irreparable harm or even death.”
UN experts shared a voice message from the couple with their son, but he has not been reassured.
“You have to remember their age,” Reynolds, 45, told AFP during a video call from his home in Chicago.
“Are they in danger? Yeah, they’re an elderly couple who are unjustly held ... in captivity. They are not free,” he said.
“Their bodies are not used to being put through this, they’re being trapped, they’re sleeping on a little mattress on the floor,” he said.
The couple’s children have set up a website called Free Peter and Barbie to campaign for their release, which counts down the number of days they have been held.
Since being detained, Peter Reynolds has suffered two eye infections and intermittent tremors in his head and left arm, according to the UN experts.
“My dad has had heart attacks ... he has a stent in his heart. He has had skin cancer,” Jonathan Reynolds said.
“So he needs an ECG (electrocardiogram), blood test, EEG (electroencephalogram), CT scans. He needs all of that,” he added.
His mother suffers from malnourishment and anaemia after months of being “fed once a day in prison,” her son added.
She is “weak and fragile,” the experts said.
The Taliban government’s top diplomat Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the couple had been receiving medical care.
“Their human rights are being respected,” he told a press conference in Kabul.
“They are being provided with medical care. They are in occasional contact with their families.”
“Their case isn’t anything serious,” the Taliban interior ministry said in April, adding they hoped it would be “resolved soon.”
The couple run an organization in Afghanistan called Rebuild, which provides educational programs for women and children.
“My parents have never thought about their security and safety,” Reynolds said, it was “no way to treat an elderly couple who’ve given the last two decades of their life for the good of Afghanistan.”
When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the couple remained in Afghanistan against the advice of the British embassy.
Their son recalled the embassy asking them: “’Why are you staying? You’re on your own’.”
His parents had replied: “’How could we leave these people in their darkest hour? We came here because we love these people, and that’s what we’ll give the rest of our lives to, even if it means we die’.”
