The US president’s escalation comes despite a 90-day pause on increased tariffs that has already been agreed, and as negotiations between the world’s two largest economies loom.
United States President Donald Trump has said that China must give the US more magnets or “we have to charge them 200 percent tariff or something” amid a trade dispute between the two nations.
The US president made the claim to reporters on Monday.
China is increasingly sensitive about rare earth elements and its control over their supply, adding several rare earth items and magnets to its export restriction list in April in retaliation for tariff hikes by the US.
Beijing represents 90 percent of the global magnet market, which is critical to key products, including semiconductor chips used in products like smartphones.
The remarks come after the US announced a 10 percent stake in Intel, one of the world’s largest semiconductor chipmakers, which rely on rare earth materials for their products.
China’s exports of rare earth minerals surged in July, with data from the General Administration of Customs showing imports of rare earth ore rose by more than 4,700 tonnes compared to June.
The US president’s comments come amid the ongoing tariff standoff between the world’s two largest economies, which had shown signs of easing earlier this month. President Trump signed an executive order extending a 90-day deadline on tariffs against Chinese goods, allowing more time for negotiations.
Had the order not been signed, tariffs would have jumped to 145 percent. In May, the two countries had agreed on 30 percent US tariffs, while dropping levies to 10 percent, down from 125 percent.
PM US President Donald Trump added one to his latest list of wars he claims to have stopped — oscillating between the numbers six and seven yet again — as he spoke to reporters at the White House on Monday.
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press after signing some orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on August 25.(AFP)
He said four of these wars he stopped using trade tariffs as leverage. His list has mostly remained at six so far, including the claim that he “stopped potential nuclear war” between India and Pakistan in May — a claim India has denied but Trump has reiterated over two dozen times.
On Monday, he added to the list, yet again, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that he is currently mediating to resolve, but then he moved from “stopped” to “settled”.
“I thought that of the seven that we settled, this was going to be the easiest, but you never what happens in a war,” he said in response to a question about his recent mediation meetings.
He has met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month in quick succession, and said, “I think we will have a deal soon.”
Trump blamed “bombs being loaded up in Kyiv (Ukraine’s capital) and someplace” as a hindrance to “every time we are close to a deal”.
He praised Putin for coming to Alaska in the US, and termed his visit for talks “a big statement that he wants to end [the war]”.
To questions about NATO and funding Ukraine in its war efforts, Trump criticised his predecessor Joe Biden for giving “billions of dollars” to Ukraine. He said the US now gives no money to Ukraine.
“We sell weapons to NATO,” he said, stressing that the security grouping pays the US “in full” and can then gives the missiles and other ammunition to Ukraine. “But I don’t want to make any money from the war,” he added. He spoke also about how he sells more superior weapons to NATO than Joe Biden’s administration did.
Trump’s mediation has so far not made visible progress, analysts say, but JD Vance, his deputy, has recently said that negotiations would take time.
How India ends up in middle of claims
India, meanwhile, finds itself at the centre of this rhetoric too.
US officials, including Vance, have claimed that the 25+25% tariffs on India — billed as “penalty” for buying Russian oil — were “aggressive economic leverage” that got Putin to the table.
The Modi government in India, meanwhile, is responding both with new domestic pledges and a diplomatic realignment.
PM Modi on Monday reiterated that Indians must buy “swadeshi” (indigenous) goods. He is set to visit China soon as part of a thaw in relations were all but frozen over historical and newer border disputes. That visit will come by the end of this month, before which the additional 25% tariffs, the “penalty”, will kick in.
Which wars is he counting? 6 he mentions repeatedly
As for Trump’s and his office’s claims about stopping wars — seen as part of his consistently desperate bid for a Nobel Peace Prize — he counts the landmark agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
A second is the end to the most recent Israel-Iran conflict, in June of this year. He endorsed the Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, and claimed his ultimatum to Iran to “make a deal or face more brutal attacks” worked.
The Egypt-Ethiopia dispute over the Nile river is another one on his list, though both countries have disputed his claims.
He also announced a peace treaty between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At number five, in no particular order, is the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia. He said the truce was brokered with his phone call. Later, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote a “nomination” letter for Trump to the committee that gives the Nobel Peace Prize.
Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, whom Trump hosted for lunch soon after India’s retaliatory strikes for an attack in J&K’s Pahalgam, has also made such a “nomination”.
The lunch and mutual praise came after Munir backed Trump’s claim that he stopped a “potential nuclear war” between India and Pakistan. That makes it six as he remains unfazed by India’s denials.
Trump had claimed before taking up the presidency in January that he would end the war in Gaza, but he has not been able to prevail over Israel on that.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday strongly condemned Israel’s escalatory rhetoric and unveiled measures to end Palestinian suffering, warning that Gaza has become both a graveyard for innocent lives and for international law.
In his statement at the 21st Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) in Jeddah, Dar denounced the Israeli cabinet’s plan to extend full military control over Gaza and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s reference to creating a so-called “Greater Israel,” calling it a brazen attempt at annexation and a direct threat to Arab and regional security.
Dar urged the OIC to unite and take concrete steps beyond words.
He said Gaza has endured indiscriminate bombardment, blockade, forced displacement, and starvation, with over 60,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, killed in Israel’s assault.
Hospitals, schools, aid convoys, and refugee camps, he noted, were being deliberately targeted as acts of collective punishment.
Outlining Pakistan’s position, Dar called for seven urgent steps: an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, support for UNRWA, an end to settlements and annexation, reconstruction of Gaza, revival of a political process for a two-state solution, and accountability for Israeli war crimes.
He stressed that “another Nakba cannot, and must not, be allowed to happen,” adding that desecration of Al Aqsa Mosque and incursions into Al Quds Al Sharif were intolerable provocations.
Dar warned that the Palestinian crisis was a litmus test for the credibility of the so-called “rules-based order.”
He urged the UN Security Council to impose costs on Israel, including considering an international protection force for Gaza.
“Palestine remains a priority for Pakistan,” he said, pledging Islamabad’s continued efforts at the UN and OIC to mobilise global support for the Palestinian right to self-determination and peace.
Meetings with Saudi, Iranian Foreign Ministers
Ishaq Dar also held crucial meetings with the Foreign Ministers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran in Jeddah on the sidelines of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers 21st Extraordinary Session.
In his meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Ishaq Dar “discussed the grave situation in Gaza, strongly condemning Israeli aggression, genocide and famine, and emphasised the urgent need for unhindered humanitarian aid and a lasting ceasefire.”
According to the tweet by Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, both the Iranian and Pakistani delegations reaffirmed “close and brotherly ties” between them.
Ishaq Dar, in his meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal Bin Farhan, discussed the current humanitarian crises in Gaza. Both leaders stressed “permanent ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, reconstruction, and lasting peace” for the people of Palestine.
“We also reviewed our brotherly bilateral ties in diverse areas and exchanged views on key regional & international developments of mutual interest,” Dar wrote in his tweet.
Earlier, upon his arrival in Saudi Arabia, the deputy prime minister was received at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the OIC Ambassador Fawad Sher, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmad Farooq, and Consul General in Jeddah Khalid Majid.
KHAN YOUNIS: An Israeli airstrike hit the fourth floor of southern Gaza’s main hospital Monday, killing at least 20 people, Gaza’s health ministry said.
The ministry said the victims on the fourth floor of Nasser Hospital were killed in a double-tap strike — one missile hitting first, then another moments later as rescue crews arrived.
The victims of the strike included four journalists, Palestinian health officials said.
Cameraman Hossam Al-Masri, who was killed in the strike, was a contractor for Reuters. Photographer Hatem Khaled, who was also a Reuters contractor, was wounded, the officials said.
Al Jazeera also confirmed photojournalist, Mohammad Salama, was killed in the hospital strike.
The other victims included, Mariam Abu Daqa, who had worked for various outlets including The Independent Arabic and Associated Press as well as Moaz Abu Taha, a journalist with NBC network.
Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, the largest in southern Gaza, has withstood raids and bombardment throughout 22 months of war, with officials citing critical shortages of supplies and staff.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the strike.
The Israeli military said Monday it will investigate a strike in the area of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
Israeli attacks on hospitals are not uncommon. Multiple hospitals were struck or raided across the strip with Israel claiming attacking militants operating from inside the medical facilities without providing evidence.
A June strike on Nasser hospital killed three people and wounded 10. At the time Israeli military said it had precisely struck Hamas militants operating from within a command and control center at the hospital, however, no evidence was provided of the claim.
