BEDMINSTER, NEW JERSEY: Even as he seeks Beijing’s help on North Korea, President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order asking his trade office to consider investigating China for the alleged theft of American technology and intellectual property, an administration official said Saturday.
That step is expected Monday but won’t come as a surprise to the Beijing government. There is no deadline for deciding if any investigation is necessary. Such an investigation easily could last a year.
In a phone call Friday, Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for backing the recent UN vote to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea, and the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. But Trump also told Xi about the move toward a possible inquiry into China’s trade practices, according to two US officials familiar with that conversation. They were not authorized to publicly discuss the private call and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump wants government officials to look at Chinese practices that force American companies to share their intellectual property in order to gain access to the world’s second largest economy. Many US businesses must create joint ventures with Chinese companies and turn over valuable technology assets, a practice that Washington says stifles US economic growth.
Trump’s action amounts to a request that his trade representative determine whether an investigation is needed under the Trade Act of 1974. If an investigation begins, the US government could seek remedies either through the World Trade Organization or outside of it.
China’s foreign and commerce ministries did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment Sunday.
While Beijing has promised to open more industries to foreign companies, it also has issued new rules on electric car manufacturing, data security, Internet censorship and other fields.
Trump, who is on a working vacation at his New Jersey golf club, said Friday that he planned to be in Washington on Monday “for a very important meeting’” and “we’re going to have a pretty big press conference.” It was not immediately clear whether he was talking about trade was the subject.
The administration official who confirmed that Trump would sign the order contended it was unrelated to the showdown with North Korea. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the order before Trump’s formal announcement.
As the crisis has unfolded, Trump has alternated praising China for its help and chiding it for not ratcheting up pressure on its Asian neighbor.
“I think China can do a lot more,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “And I think China will do a lot more.”
Trump has escalated his harsh criticism of North Korea for days, tweeting Friday that the US had military options “locked and loaded.” Xi, in his phone conversation with Trump, urged calm.
“At present, relevant parties should exercise restraint and avoid words and actions that would escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” Xi said, according to the statement provided by China’s government.
Trump, in the past, has tied trade policy to national security. In April, he said he wouldn’t label China a currency manipulator, in return for help in dealing with North Korea. This past week, Trump said he could soften his views on trade if China stepped up its assistance, leading to speculation that the investigation could be a negotiating tactic.
The forced sharing of intellectual property with Chinese firms has been a long-standing concern of the US business community.
A 2013 report by a commission co-chaired by Jon Huntsman, ambassador to China under President Barack Obama and Trump’s nominee to be Russian envoy, pegged the losses from US intellectual property theft at hundreds of billions of dollars annually that cost the US economy millions of jobs.
Trump has requested similar inquiries on trade, but the reports haven’t been delivered on deadline. Trump made addressing the US trade deficit with China a centerpiece of his campaign last year and has suggested raising tariffs on goods from China.
At the end of March, Trump asked the Commerce Department to prepare a report on the causes of the trade deficit, country by country and product by product, in 90 days. The report has yet to be released.
Similarly, the president also asked for a review about whether steel and aluminum imports were jeopardizing national security. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had hoped to finish the review by June, but parts of it remain in the final stages of interagency review.
Trump to request possible probe of China trade practices
Trump to request possible probe of China trade practices
India orders curfew after violence over tomb of 17th-century Muslim ruler
- Violence in the central Indian city of Nagpur damaged many vehicles and injured several people
- Situation escalated after several members of Muslim groups marched near a police station and threw stones at police
Monday’s violence in the central Indian city damaged many vehicles and injured several people, among them at least 15 police personnel, one of whom was in serious condition, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of the western state of Maharashtra, where the city is located, criticized the violence in a video message, calling for every effort to maintain law and order.
“I have told the police commissioner to take whatever strict steps are necessary,” Fadnavis added.
Police said in a statement that members of the group, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), burnt an effigy of the Emperor Aurangzeb and his tomb as they chanted slogans demanding its removal from the nearby city of Aurangabad.
The police officer said the situation escalated after several members of Muslim groups marched near a police station and threw stones at police.
The attackers, wearing masks to hide their faces, carried sharp weapons and bottles, a resident of the area told the ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake.
The VHP denied accusations of engaging in any violence. It wants the tomb to be replaced with a memorial for rulers from the local Maratha community, its general secretary, Milind Parande, said in a video message.
Nagpur is also the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The VHP belongs to the same family of organizations.
Modi’s critics have often accused him of discriminating against Muslims, and failing to act against those targeting them. He and his government have denied the accusations.
Strange foam and dead fish wash ashore at 2 Australian beaches as surfers fall sick
- The goverment closed Waitpinga Beach and neighboring Parsons Beach on Monday. Dozens of dead fish have reportedly been washed shore
- Surfers have been complaining since the weekend of getting sore eyes, sore throats and coughing after contact with the water
MELBOURNE: An Australian state closed two beaches after dead fish and an unusual off-white foam washed ashore while surfers reported feeling unwell, officials said on Tuesday.
A microalgal bloom created by unusual weather conditions was suspected to have sickened humans and marine life as well as creating the foam that has covered hundreds of meters (yards) of coastline, South Australian Environment Protection Authority principal scientific officer Sam Gaylard said.
“It is very concerning,” Gaylard told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“It is unusual at this scale. At this time of year, when the weather conditions allow, we do occasionally get isolated blooms, but something of this scale is definitely a little bit unusual,” Gaylard added.
Waitpinga Beach and neighboring Parsons Beach, both south of the South Australia state capital Adelaide, have been closed to the public since Monday in response to a “fish mortality event in the area,” the Department for Environment and Water said in a statement.
“The beaches will be re-opened as soon as possible,” the department said.
Dozens of dead fish have reportedly been washed shore.
Surfers have been complaining since the weekend of getting sore eyes, sore throats and coughing after contact with the water, said local Anthony Rowland, who surfed at Waitpinga on Saturday.
“While we were out there, we started coughing,” Rowland said, refering to his surfing comrads. He said he was overwhelmed by the response from other surfers after posting his experience online.
“Lots of people reached out – so many people have said they’re had exactly the same symptoms,” Rowland said.
Marine scientists took water samples from the foam, which is a byproduct of the toxic organisms’ decay, on Monday, but it could take until the end of the week to identify the organism, Gaylard said.
A bloom of microalgae – microscopic, single-celled organisms – could have been caused by a recent extended period of hot and dry weather with little wind and low tides, Gaylard said.
A swell has picked up in the area since Sunday, and the turbulence could break up the algae while generating more foam, he said.
“At the moment, we’re not sure how long this will last,” Gaylard said.
Turkiye’s Erdogan seeks meeting with Trump, Bloomberg News says
- Erdogan’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is working to secure a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, potentially by late April, Bloomberg News said on Tuesday, citing Turkish officials familiar with the matter.
Erdogan sees closer US-Turkiye ties as crucial for regional stability, particularly as Ankara seeks a bigger role in mediating conflicts from Ukraine to Syria, the report added.
Erdogan’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments.
In the battle against militant group Islamic State in Syria, the United States is allied with a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkiye regards as a terrorist group. Turkiye has sharply criticized this US stance as a betrayal of a NATO ally.
Turkiye’s 2019 purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems also led to US sanctions and the country’s removal from the F-35 fighter jet program.
On Sunday, Erdogan spoke by telephone with Trump, discussing efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and to restore stability in Syria.
He told Trump that Turkiye supported his “decisive and direct initiatives” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and would continue to strive for a “just and lasting peace,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement.
NASA astronauts head home on SpaceX capsule after drawn-out space station stay
- Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ homecoming caps an end to an unusual, drawn-out mission filled with uncertainty and technical troubles
- The astronaut pair had launched into space as Starliner’s first crew in June for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission
WASHINGTON: NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams departed the International Space Station early on Tuesday morning in a SpaceX capsule for a long-awaited trip back to Earth, nine months after their faulty Boeing Starliner craft upended what was to be a roughly week-long test mission.
Wilmore and Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots, strapped inside their Crew Dragon spacecraft along with two other astronauts and undocked from the orbiting laboratory at 1.05 a.m. ET (0505 GMT), embarking on a 17-hour trip to Earth.
The four-person crew, formally part of NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission, is scheduled for a splashdown off Florida’s coast later on Tuesday at 5:57 p.m. ET.
Wilmore and Williams’ homecoming caps an end to an unusual, drawn-out mission filled with uncertainty and technical troubles that have turned a rare case of NASA’s contingency planning – as well as failures of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft – into a global and political spectacle.
The astronaut pair had launched into space as Starliner’s first crew in June for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission. But issues with Starliner’s propulsion system led to cascading delays in their return home, culminating in a NASA decision last year to have them take a SpaceX craft back this year as part of the agency’s crew rotation schedule.
The mission has captured the attention of US President Donald Trump, who upon taking office in January called for a quicker return of Wilmore and Williams and alleged without evidence that former President Joe Biden “abandoned” them on the ISS for political reasons.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, echoed his call for an earlier return. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is the United States’ only orbital-class crew spacecraft, which Boeing had hoped its Starliner would compete with before the mission with Wilmore and Williams threw its development future into uncertainty.
The astronauts will be flown to their crew quarters at the space agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of health checks, per routine for astronaut returns, before NASA flight surgeons approve they can go home to their families.
Living in space for months can affect the human body in multiple ways, from muscle atrophy to possible vision impairment.
Upon splashing down, Wilmore and Williams will have logged 286 days in space – longer than the average six-month ISS mission length, but far short of US record holder Frank Rubio. His continuous 371 days in space ending in 2023 was the unexpected result of a coolant leak on a Russian spacecraft.
Williams, capping her third spaceflight, will have tallied 608 cumulative days in space, the second most for any US astronaut after Peggy Whitson’s 675 days. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set the world record last year at 878 cumulative days.
Replacement crew
Swept up in NASA’s routine astronaut rotation schedule, Wilmore and Williams could not begin their return to Earth until their replacement crew arrived, in order to maintain adequate US staffing levels, according to NASA.
Their replacements arrived on Friday night – four astronauts as part of NASA’s Crew-10 mission briefly put the station’s headcount at 11.
“We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this month, adding that he did not believe NASA’s decision to keep them on the ISS until Crew-10’s arrival had been affected by politics.
“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about,” he said, “planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”
Wilmore and Williams have been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the station’s other five astronauts. Williams had performed two six-hour spacewalks for maintenance outside the ISS, including one with Wilmore.
The ISS, about 409 kilometers in altitude, is a football field-sized research lab that has been housed continuously by international crews of astronauts for nearly 25 years, a key platform of science diplomacy managed primarily by the US and Russia.
Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was looking forward to returning home to see her two dogs and family. “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” she said.
Canada reviews F-35 fighter jet deal, says it relies on US too much for security
- Canadian PM: ‘It is clear that our security relationship ... is too focused on the United States. We must diversify’
- US President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Canada and mused about turning it into the 51st state
OTTAWA: Canada is looking for possible alternatives to its deal to buy US fighter jets in part because it relies too much on the United States for security, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday.
Carney made the comments just days after ordering a review of a C$19-billion ($13.29 billion) contract for 88 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. Canada is locked in a trade war with the United States.
Canada’s defense ministry says the contract remains in place and Ottawa has made a legal commitment of funds for the first 16 F-35 aircraft. Carney made clear Canada would seriously look elsewhere.
“It is clear that our security relationship ... is too focused on the United States. We must diversify,” he told reporters during a visit to London, noting that Canada spent about 80 percent of its defense budget on American weapons.
“Given the need for value for money, given the possibility of having substantial production of alternative aircraft in Canada... it’s prudent and in the interest of Canada to review those options,” he said.
Carney did not mention specific firms. Sweden’s Saab, which lost out on the fighter jet contract to Lockheed Martin, had promised to assemble its planes in Canada.
Canadian firms also benefit from the relationship. Bombardier CEO Eric Martel said he was concerned Washington could target the planemaker’s US contracts if Canada canceled the Lockheed Martin deal.
US President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Canada and mused about turning it into the 51st state.
Philippe Lagasse, a professor at Carleton University who specializes in procurement, said buying 16 F-35s and then adding another jet would be expensive.
Canada, pressured by successive US administrations to increase defense spending, last year pledged billions more for the armed forces and said military expenditures would be closer to the NATO target by 2030.
In a statement, Lockheed Martin said it valued its ties with Canada and referred procurement questions to the government.
The US Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment.
