Politics
Trump pauses 75 countries’ ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, raises China rate to 125% – National TenX News
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is pausing his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs for 90 days on more than 75 countries that have begun trade negotiations with the U.S., lowering their tariff rate to the baseline of 10 per cent.
The pause was announced hours after his global tariff policy took effect at midnight Wednesday, capping a chaotic week for global financial markets and uncertainty about the world economy.
Trump also announced he was raising tariffs on China once again, to a staggering 125 per cent rate, “based on the lack of respect that China has show to the World’s Markets,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“Conversely,” he added, more than 75 countries that have reached out to the Trump administration “to negotiate a solution” on trade issues and “have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape or form against the United States” will get a 90-day pause and have their tariff rate lowered to 10 per cent, “also effective immediately.”
U.S. markets surged in response to Trump’s announcement after sharp losses in the morning and nearly a week of vanishing wealth on Wall Street.
The pause does not affect ongoing sector-specific tariffs on steel, aluminum and foreign auto sectors, or the 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods outside of free trade rules and 10 per cent levies on Canadian energy.
The White House did not immediately specify which countries would see a pause, but U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and India were among the countries he and other Trump administration officials were speaking with.
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“Every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you, we’re going to go down to a 10 per cent baseline tariff for them,” he told reporters outside the White House.
“China will be raised to 125 (per cent) due to their insistence on escalation.”
The new rate for China was the latest in a tit-for-tat trade war that has seen both countries increase tariffs on each other since Trump announced his reciprocal tariff policy last Wednesday. That program, which the White House says reflects countries’ tariffs and trade deficits with the U.S., set a 34 per cent rate for China on top of existing 20 per cent levies on Chinese goods.
China vowed to match the 34 per cent rate and ultimately raised duties on the U.S. to 84 per cent Wednesday, after the U.S. upped the Chinese tariff another 50 per cent.
Bessent said China’s continued escalation was an “own goal” that was a result of Trump’s overall strategy on forcing countries to the negotiating table.
“You might even say that (Trump) goaded China into a bad position,” he said. “They have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors. We are willing to cooperate with our allies and with our trading partners who did not retaliate.
“It wasn’t a hard message: ‘Don’t retaliate, things will turn out well.’”
Consumer prices in Canada and around the globe are likely to be impacted by the quickly escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing, the world’s two largest economies.
The pause and promises of global trade talks came after days of confusion and conflicting messages from Trump administration officials on whether the reciprocal tariffs could be negotiated lower or eliminated altogether.
Trump himself had said his tariffs “give us great power to negotiate” while insisting they are also “here to stay.”
“I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass,” he said during a speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner on Tuesday night.
Bessent said Trump “want to be personally involved” in what he said will be a “separate, bespoke negotiation” with each trading partner that comes to the U.S. for discussions.
He also dismissed the huge swings in financial markets worldwide amid the week-long uncertainty over Trump’s endgame.
“The market didn’t understand, those were maximum levels,” he said, referring to the higher rates for several countries on a tariff list released by the White House last week. “Countries can think about those levels as they come to us to bring down their tariffs, their non-trade barriers.
“The only certainty we can provide is that the U.S. is going to negotiate in good faith, and we assume that our allies will too.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is running as Liberal leader in the federal election, has said he and Trump agreed Canada will enter “comprehensive negotiations” on trade and security after Canadians elect a new government on April 28.
The federal government has retaliated against separate U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods and industries, including 25 per cent duties on nearly $60 billion worth of U.S. products.
Wednesday also saw the start of Canadian counter-tariffs of 25 per cent on American-made vehicles and auto parts that don’t comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) on free trade.
More to come…
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Politics
UK refuses to invite Israeli government officials to London arms fair over the war in Gaza – National TenX News
The U.K. has barred Israeli government officials from attending the country’s biggest arms fair over growing concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The decision does not cover representatives of Israeli defense contractors, who will be allowed to attend the DSEI UK exhibition, scheduled for Sept. 9-12 in London. The event was formerly known as Defense and Security Equipment International.
“The Israeli Government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong,” the British government said in a statement. “As a result, we can confirm that no Israeli government delegation will be invited to attend DSEI UK 2025.”
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The decision comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer in July announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel takes steps to end the crisis in Gaza, agrees to a ceasefire with Hamas and commits to a long-term peace agreement. Britain previously barred sales to Israel of any arms that could be used in the nearly 23-month war in Gaza.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said the decision was based on politics and “serves extremists.”
“These restrictions amount to a deliberate and regrettable act of discrimination against Israel’s representatives,” the ministry said.
The Israeli ministry said it would withdraw from the exhibition and will not establish a national pavilion.
Pro-Palestinian and anti-war groups have announced plans to for protests during DSEI, which will take place at the Excel center in east London.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Politics
Israel soon will halt or slow aid to northern Gaza as military offensive grows – National TenX News
Israel will soon halt or slow humanitarian aid into parts of northern Gaza as it expands its military offensive against Hamas, an official said Saturday, a day after Gaza City was declared a combat zone.
The decision was likely to bring more condemnation of Israel’s government as frustration grows in the country and abroad over dire conditions for both Palestinians and remaining hostages in Gaza after nearly 23 months of war.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, told The Associated Press that Israel will stop airdrops over Gaza City in the coming days and reduce the number of aid trucks arriving in the north as it prepares to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people south.
Israel on Friday ended recently imposed daytime pauses in fighting to allow aid delivery, describing Gaza City as a Hamas stronghold and alleging that a tunnel network remains in use, despite previous large-scale raids. The United Nations and partners have said the pauses, airdrops and other measures fell far short of the 600 trucks of aid needed daily in Gaza.
A ‘massive population movement’ coming
AP video footage showed several large explosions across Gaza overnight. Israel’s military Saturday evening said it had struck a key Hamas member in the area of Gaza City, with no details.
In recent days, Israel’s military has increased strikes on the outskirts of Gaza City, where famine was recently documented and declared by global food security experts.
By Saturday there had been no airdrops for several days across Gaza, a break from almost daily ones. Israel’s army didn’t respond to a request for comment or say how it would provide aid to Palestinians during another major shift in Gaza’s population of over 2 million people.
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“Such an evacuation would trigger a massive population movement that no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care,” Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement.
It’s impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City can be done in a safe and dignified way, she said.
Hundreds of residents have begun leaving Gaza City, piling their remaining possessions onto pickup trucks or donkey carts. Many have been forced to leave their homes more than once.
Killed while seeking food
Israeli gunfire killed four people trying to get aid in central Gaza, according to health officials at Al-Awda Hospital, were the bodies were taken.
An Israeli strike on a bakery in Gaza City’s Nasr neighborhood killed 12 people including six women and three children, the Shifa Hospital director told the AP, and a strike on the Rimal neighborhood killed seven.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said another 10 people died as a result of starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, including three children. It said at least 332 Palestinians have died from malnutrition-related causes during the war, including 124 children.
At least 63,371 Palestinians have died in Gaza during the war, said the ministry, which does not say how many are fighters or civilians but says around half have been women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
“There is no food and even water is not available. When it is available, it is not safe to drink,” said Amer Zayed, as he waited for food from a charity kitchen in Deir al-Balah on Friday.
“The suffering gets worse when there are more displaced people,” he added.
Israelis rally again to demand a ceasefire deal
Israelis waited to hear the identity of the remains of a hostage that Israel on Friday said had been recovered in Gaza. It also said it recovered the remains of hostage Ilan Weiss.
Forty-eight hostages now remain in Gaza of the over 250 seized in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war. Israel had believed 20 are still alive.
Their loved ones fear the expanding military offensive will put them in even more danger, and they were rallying again Saturday to demand a ceasefire deal to bring everyone home.
“Netanyahu, if another living hostage comes back in a bag, it will not only be the hostages and their families who pay the price. You will bear responsibility for premeditated murder,” Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of hostage Avraham Munder, said in Tel Aviv.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
The Trump administration said Friday it was denying and revoking U.S. visas from members of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
That comes ahead of next month’s United Nations General Assembly, where Canada and several other countries have said they intend to officially recognize a Palestinian state.
The U.S. State Department cited the groups’ efforts to secure statehood recognition at the UN, along with their appeals to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to investigate alleged Israeli crimes in Gaza, as reasons for the decision by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks,” the department said in a statement.
“The Trump Administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace.”
The statement did not name the officials being denied entry. It was not immediately clear if the list included Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was expected to travel to New York for the UN gathering.
The Palestinians’ ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters at the UN headquarters that they were checking exactly what the U.S. move means “and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly.”
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Representatives assigned to the Palestinian Authority mission at the UN, led by Mansour, will be granted waivers so they can continue their New York-based operations, the U.S. statement said.
Mansour said Abbas still intends to lead the delegation to the high-level meetings and is expected to address the General Assembly — as he has done for many years — and to attend a meeting on the afternoon of Sept. 22 on a two-state solution co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.
U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to New York and address the general assembly on Sept. 23, the White House said on Thursday.
Canada, Britain, Australia and France in recent weeks have announced or signalled their intention to recognize a Palestinian state during the meeting.
The countries have said their recognition is conditional on the Palestinian Authority — which has limited self-rule over parts of the occupied West Bank and has for years been positioning itself as a legitimate government alternative to Hamas in Gaza — undergoing reforms and new elections.
Abbas has signalled he will co-operate with the Western nations’ demands.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization is an internationally recognized coalition that represents Palestinian people in its occupied territories and abroad.
The Trump administration has staunchly backed Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. The U.S. has also refused to condemn expanded Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Canada and other allies have said undermine two-state solution efforts.
Rubio hosted Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in Washington on Wednesday “to reaffirm our two nations’ close cooperation,” the U.S. secretary said in a post on X.
Saar, asked after the meeting what the plan was for a Palestinian state, said there would not be any.
The Israeli minister on Friday thanked Rubio for holding the PA and PLO “accountable for rewarding terrorism, incitement and efforts to use legal warfare against Israel” in a social media statement.
Officials with the Palestinian Authority reject that they’ve undermined peace prospects.
Under the 1947 UN “headquarters agreement,” the U.S. is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York. But Washington has said it can deny visas for security, terrorism and foreign policy reasons.
Hamas earlier this month said it had accepted a U.S.-backed proposal on a ceasefire in Gaza that would see the release of some hostages in exchange for talks with Israel that would end the conflict and see the return of all remaining hostages.
But Israel has said it will only accept the full return of all the hostages and has pressed ahead with a plan to occupy Gaza City, which international monitors like the UN have warned could worsen a famine already afflicting the Palestinian territory.
Rubio last week announced sanctions against multiple International Criminal Court judges and prosecutors involved in the court’s investigation into Israel’s actions in Gaza and the issuing of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
—With files from Reuters
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
UK refuses to invite Israeli government officials to London arms fair over the war in Gaza – National TenX News
Israel soon will halt or slow aid to northern Gaza as military offensive grows – National TenX News
U.S. scraps Palestinian officials’ visas ahead of UN General Assembly – National TenX News
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