United States President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Sunday (local time) declaring February 9 as “the first-ever Gulf of America Day,” celebrating the renaming of the area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico. Trump was on his way to the New Orleans for the Super Bowl 59 and signed this proclamation as Air Force One flew over the area he was renaming. This follows the signing of Executive…

The European Union (EU) would retaliate by replicating any tariffs imposed on it by the United States, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, warned on Monday. Cautioning the US authorities not to trigger a trade war, Barrot said in an interview with TF1 after US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Washington will this week impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium products, “There is no hesitation…

Report offers rare insight into how Moscow sees invasion of Ukraine harming ties with close allies Russian officials believe western pressure is hampering Moscow’s efforts to draw former Soviet nations closer into its orbit and build economic ties with the global south, according to a leaked government report. The internal presentation, shown at a strategy session led by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin last April, offers a rare insight into how…

Esma chair says national pushback to harmonising rules risks undermining its push to become a European SEC The EU’s top financial markets regulator has warned that Brussels’ efforts to streamline bureaucracy are likely to face resistance from national watchdogs as it pushes to become a European equivalent of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) is pressing for greater powers to harmonise rules, including…

The township of Fateng Tse Ntsho houses some 7,000 Black South Africans, its huddle of corrugated metal roofs surrounded on all sides by vast tracts of mostly empty grassland owned by prosperous white farmers. The contrast illustrates the gaping land inequalities that persist more than three decades after the end of white minority rule – and which an expropriation act President Cyril Ramaphosa signed last month partly seeks to redress. That law,…

The world’s richest person and a top advisor to US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, said he has no interest in acquiring social media platform TikTok’s operations in the United States, in comments released Saturday. “I’ve not put in a bid for TikTok and I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” said Musk in comments made via videolink at a German forum in…

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would announce 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States on Monday. Speaking on Air Force One on the way to New Orleans to attend the 2025 Super Bowl, Trump said he would also announce “reciprocal tariffs” on Tuesday or Wednesday, which he said would go into effect immediately. This means that the U.S. would impose import duties…

The billionaire’s aggressive efficiency drive has critics warning of a constitutional crisis. Allies say he’s just getting started Before Donald Trump re-entered the White House last month, his top donor Elon Musk’s grand plan to slash trillions of dollars in US government spending appeared to consist of little more than a logo of a dog wearing sunglasses, and a stream of provocative social media posts. But behind the scenes,…

Beijing may be better prepared this time for renewed trade conflict with Trump, analysts say  China’s embassy in Washington said on Sunday that it has imposed retaliatory tariffs on the US,hitting about $14bn worth of goods and dashing hopes that a trade war between the world’s two largest economies could be avoided. Beijing announced the tariffs last week in response to a US decision to impose an additional 10 per…

He (Putin) wants to see people stop dying – Donald Trump The war in Ukraine may be approaching a resolution as former U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding ending the conflict, according to an exclusive report from the New York Post. During an interview aboard Air Force One, Trump acknowledged multiple discussions with the Russian leader but refrained from revealing specific…

Andrew Gwynne is alleged to have written a series of racist and sexist comments in a WhatsApp group with other local Labour Party figures. A Labour minister has been sacked and suspended from the party after messages were exposed in which he said he hoped pensioners who did not support him would die before the next set of elections. Andrew Gwynne, who was a health minister, was also accused of…

Donald Trump’s shock tactics may have pushed Beijing away from negotiating table, experts say China and the US risk renewing a full-blown trade war unless the two largest economies can defuse the dispute before Chinese tariffs on $14bn of American exports take effect on Monday, analysts warned. President Donald Trump last week unveiled an extra 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods to force Beijing to do more to…