Moment wife of Emmanuel Macron pushes him in face as they land in Vietnam
Footage shows the moment Brigitte Macron pushed the French president away as they touched down in Hanoi for a state visit. The president played down the incident as he told reporters in Hanoi that they were 'joking about'
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Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Taiwan central bank says US debt rising too fast may impact trust in Treasuries
TAIPEI, June 21 (Reuters) - Taiwan's central bank governor warned on Saturday that rapidly rising U.S. debt could be "unfavourable" to the outlook for U.S. Treasuries and that U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies have made investors cautious. Taiwan's $593 billion in foreign exchange reserves are more than 80% made up of U.S. Treasury bonds, according to the central bank, which said earlier this month that Treasuries were "sound" and still favoured by investors. It added there were no worries about the dollar's position as the leading international reserve currency. Governor Yang Chin-long, in a speech posted on the central bank's website, said Trump's repeated criticisms of the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy have caused concerns about its independence. "In addition, Trump 2.0's trade policy has made investors hesitant about holding U.S. Treasury bonds; Trump's budget, the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' may cause U.S. debt to expand too quickly, which is unfavourable to the outlook for U.S. sovereign debt," he said. "All of these have had a significant impact on the international monetary system centred on the U.S. dollar and based on U.S. creditworthiness." Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill is the centerpiece of his domestic agenda. The bill would lead to a larger-than-expected $2.8 trillion increase in the federal deficit over the decade, despite a boost to U.S. economic output, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected on Tuesday. Trump, in his first few weeks in office, also announced sweeping tariffs on a broad swathe of countries and trading partners, including Taiwan, only to pause them for 90 days in April to allow for talks to take place. Yang said Trump had been hoping the tariffs could resolve the U.S. trade deficit. "However, the tariff policy not only fails to solve the structural problems, it will also impact the U.S. economy, and threaten to further affect the outlook for global trade and the economy."
Reuters
11 hours ago
- Reuters
Japan scraps US meeting after Washington demands more defense spending -FT
WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) - Japan has canceled a regular high-level meeting with its key ally the United States after the Trump administration demanded it spend more on defense, the Financial Times reported on Friday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had been expected to meet their Japanese counterparts in Washington on July 1 for annual 2+2 security talks. But Tokyo scrapped the meeting after the U.S. side asked Japan to boost defense spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, higher than an earlier request of 3 per cent, the paper cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter, including two officials in Tokyo, as saying. A U.S. official who did not want to be identified confirmed Japan had "postponed" the talks but said the decision was made several weeks ago. The source did not cite a reason. A non-government source familiar with the issue said he had also heard Japan had pulled out of the meeting, but not the reason for it doing so. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said she had no comment on the FT report when asked about it at regular briefing, and the Pentagon also had no immediate comment. Japan's embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The Financial Times said the new higher spending demand was made in recent weeks by Elbridge Colby, the third-most senior Pentagon official, who has also recently upset another key U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific by launching a review of a project to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. In March, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that other nations do not decide Japan's defense budget after Colby called in his nomination hearing to be under secretary of defense for policy for Tokyo to spend more to counter China. Japan and other U.S. allies have been engaged in difficult trade talks with the United States over U.S. President Donald Trump's worldwide tariff offensive. The FT said the decision to cancel the July 1 meeting was also related to Japan's July 20 Upper House elections, at which the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is expected to suffer a loss of seats. It comes ahead of a meeting of the U.S.-led NATO alliance in Europe next week, at which Trump is expected to press his demand that European allies boost their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP.
Sky News
12 hours ago
- Sky News
Trump's credibility gap and why Iran may want to take its chances in Israel conflict
After hours of talks, the ayatollah's chief diplomat emerged giving little away. All eyes were on Abbas Aragchi. Would he give ground in the face of Israel's fierce bombardment of his country? Yes, but only if Israel stops that bombardment which is not going to happen. Especially after a day when two of Israel's big cities suffered direct hits from Iranian missiles. The best that can be said for almost four hours of talks, is they happened and might again. There were no breakthroughs to report, no ground shifting on either side. The talks were flawed in concept from the beginning. The countries meeting Aragchi here are not involved in the conflict. Israel and America were absent. The US did send a message, via Britain's foreign secretary David Lammy. We want to talk but we're serious about getting involved with military force if you do not. But the UK was delivering an American ultimatum and threat of force it does not itself believe to be a good idea. Britain and its European partners want de-escalation and oppose any idea of Donald Trump and his military getting involved. Iran is embattled, beleaguered and bombarded. But if its government is worried, its calm and collected foreign minister was showing none of it. The Iranians know Trump may send in the bombers and bunker busters within two weeks, but do they believe him? The president for whom they coined the acronym 'Trump Always Chickens Out' has a credibility gap. And if he takes action that leads to a chain of events where Americans end up dying, he will be crucified for it by his own MAGA movement.
