FRANKFURT: French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel consulted Sunday on migration, fixing the euro currency, Europe’s defense, taxing digital companies and other issues as the two leaders looked to preserve their influence abroad while their authority flags at home.
Macron, who came to Berlin to take part in Germany’s national remembrance day for the victims of war and dictatorship, urged European government to seize more responsibility for their own fate, especially regarding defense.
Macron said that the French-German alliance “is invested with this obligation not to allow the world to slide into chaos, and to accompany it on the road of peace.”
He said that Europe can’t play its role “if it doesn’t take more responsibility for its defense and security and is content to play a secondary role on the international scene.”
The two biggest countries in Europe can be a powerful force, but their leaders at the moment are hampered by falling domestic support. Macron has seen his poll ratings sag at home, where more than a quarter-million people protested Saturday over proposed gas tax hikes. Merkel has been a lame duck since saying she wouldn’t seek another term.
Merkel has offered support for Macron’s proposal for a European army. Both leaders have said Europe needs to depend less on others — such as the US — for its defense.
US President Donald Trump has unsettled NATO allies by demanding member countries either pay more for defense or “protect themselves,” as he put it in a recent tweet.
However, ceremonial appearances and warm words offered ahead of a December summit on the euro can’t hide the persistent friction between the French and German approaches to the European Union’s economic issues.
Germany and France have apparently struck a deal on a common budget for the EU countries that use the shared euro currency, something Macron pushed for. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told the dpa news agency the proposal was to be presented to European finance ministers Monday.
The size of the budget — mentioned by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire as 20 to 25 billion euros — is far short of Macron’s idea. The amount is only 0.2 percent of the eurozone economy, less than the several percentage points of gross domestic product originally mentioned by Macron.
The compromise underscores German reluctance to sign off on anything seen as transferring taxpayer money from richer countries like Germany to more fiscally shaky ones such as Italy or Greece.
The European summit in December is to take up limited proposals to strengthen the euro currency, such as upgrading the eurozone’s bailout fund and a long-term road map for introducing EU-level deposit insurance.
The two sides can’t agree on a tax on digital companies such as Amazon and Google. The French and the European Commission have proposed imposing such a tax, but Scholz said the issue should be left with the 36-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
A European army would be a long-term prospect. Macron was advocating that Europe do more for its own defense, putting him on the same page in many ways with Trump.
Macron, Merkel seek common approaches to Trump, euro
Macron, Merkel seek common approaches to Trump, euro
- Macron urged European government to seize more responsibility for their own fate, especially regarding defense
Morocco’s Atlantic gambit: linking restive Sahel to ocean
- The “Atlantic Initiative” promises ocean access to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger through a new $1.3-billion port in the Western Sahara
- But the project remains fraught with challenges at a time when military coups in the Sahel states have brought new leaderships to power
EL ARGOUB: A planned trade corridor linking the landlocked Sahel to the Atlantic is at the heart of an ambitious Moroccan project to tackle regional instability and consolidate its grip on disputed Western Sahara.
The “Atlantic Initiative” promises ocean access to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger through a new $1.3-billion port in the former Spanish colony claimed by the pro-independence Polisario Front but largely controlled by Morocco.
But the project remains fraught with challenges at a time when military coups in the Sahel states have brought new leaderships to power intent on overturning longstanding political alignments following years of jihadist violence.
The Moroccan initiative aims to “substantially transform the economy of these countries” and “the region,” said King Mohammed VI when announcing it in late 2023.
The “Dakhla Atlantic” port, scheduled for completion at El Argoub by 2028, also serves Rabat’s goal of cementing its grip on Western Sahara after US President Donald Trump recognized its sovereignty over the territory in 2020.
Morocco’s regional rival Algeria backs the Polisario but has seen its relations with Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger fray in recent months after the downing a Malian drone.
Military coups over the past five years have seen the three Sahel states pivot toward Russia in a bid to restore their sovereignty and control over natural resources after decades within the sphere of influence of their former colonial ruler France.
French troops were forced to abandon their bases in the three countries, ending their role in the fight against jihadists who have found sanctuary in the vast semi-arid region on the southern edge of the Sahara.
After both the African Union and West African bloc ECOWAS imposed economic sanctions on the new juntas, Morocco emerged as an early ally, with Niger calling the megaproject “a godsend.”
“Morocco was one of the first countries where we found understanding at a time when ECOWAS and other countries were on the verge of waging war against us,” Niger’s Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangare said in April during a visit to Rabat alongside his Malian and Burkinabe counterparts.
The Sahel countries established a bloc of their own — the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) — in September 2023 but have remained dependent on the ports of ECOWAS countries like Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo.
Rising tensions with the West African bloc could restrict their access to those ports, boosting the appeal of the alternative trade outlet being offered by Rabat.
Morocco has been seeking to position itself as a middleman between Europe and the Sahel states, said Beatriz Mesa, a professor at the International University of Rabat.
With jihadist networks like Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group striking ever deeper into sub-Saharan Africa, the security threat has intensified since the departure of French-led troops.
Morocco was now “profiting from these failures by placing itself as a reliable Global South partner,” Mesa said.
Its initiative has won the backing of key actors including the United States, France and the Gulf Arab states, who could provide financial support, according to specialist journal Afrique(s) en mouvement.
But for now the proposed trade corridor is little more than an aspiration, with thousands of kilometers (many hundreds of miles) of desert road-building needed to turn it into a reality.
“There are still many steps to take,” since a road and rail network “doesn’t exist,” said Seidik Abba, head of the Sahel-focused think tank CIRES.
Rida Lyammouri of the Policy Center for the New South said the road route from Morocco through Western Sahara to Mauritania is “almost complete,” even though it has been targeted by Polisario fighters.
Abdelmalek Alaoui, head of the Moroccan Institute for Strategic Intelligence, said it could cost as much as $1 billion to build a land corridor through Mauritania, Mali and Niger all the way to Chad, 3,100 kilometers (1,900 miles) to the east.
And even if the construction work is completed, insecurity is likely to pose a persistent threat to the corridor’s viability, he said.
Democrats slam latest version of Trump’s budget bill as anti-poor, Musk says it would destroy jobs and harm US
- Doubling down on his previous tirade, the president's billionaire supporter called the bill “utterly insane and destructive”
- "It will take food away from hungry kids to pay for tax breaks to the rich,” says Democrat leader Schumer
- Senate version would add $4 trillion to the debt over the next decade, including interest costs, says nonpartisan group
WASHINGTON: Billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday criticized the latest version of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill released by the US Senate, calling it “utterly insane and destructive.”
As Senate Republicans prepared to vote on the measure, Democrats warned that its tax-cut elements would disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of social programs relied upon by lower-income Americans.
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Musk wrote in a post on X. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
Musk's renewed his tirade against the proposed measure, called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, weeks after the world’s richest person and Trump, the world's most powerful, ended a feud sparked by Musk’s opposition to the bill.
Senate Republicans planned to vote Saturday on the bill after agreeing on changes to address concerns about funding for rural hospitals and the deductibility of state taxes.
Several Republican senators who had previously expressed hesitancy about voting for the bill told reporters that their concerns had been assuaged and that they were ready to vote to clear a first procedural hurdle in the coming hours.
Senator John Barrasso, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said the first procedural vote on the legislation would take place shortly, though it did not start by 4 p.m. (2000 GMT), as he had predicted. The bill is Trump’s top legislative goal. With his fellow Republicans controlling both chambers, Congress has so far not rejected any of Trump’s priorities.
The 940-page megabill would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s main legislative achievement during his first term as president, cut other taxes and boost spending on the military and border security. Nonpartisan analysts estimate that a version passed by the House of Representatives last month would add about $3 trillion to the $36.2 trillion US government debt.
The Congressional Budget Office has not released a forecast for how much the Senate version — still subject to change — would add to the debt if enacted.
Partial to the wealthy
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, called for the bill’s full text to be read on the Senate floor after the vote, a procedure that was sure to run late into the night, if not past dawn.
“Under this draft Republicans will take food away from hungry kids to pay for tax breaks to the rich,” Schumer said. “Future generations will be saddled with trillions in debt.”
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget public policy organization on Saturday said its preliminary estimate is that the Senate version would add $4 trillion to the debt over the next decade, including interest costs.
“If you thought the House bill borrowed too much — and it did — the Senate manages to make things even worse,” Maya MacGuineas, the group’s president, said in a statement.
The White House said this month that the legislation, titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, would reduce the annual deficit by $1.4 trillion.
Ready to move forward
Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Susan Collins of Maine, who had opposed concern about tax-code changes that could hurt rural hospitals, told reporters they were ready to move forward.
A successful vote would kick off a lengthy process that could run into Sunday, as Democrats unveil a series of amendments unlikely to pass in a chamber that Republicans control 53-47.
“By passing this bill now, we will make our nation more prosperous and secure,” Senate Budget Committee chairman Lindsey Graham said in a statement accompanying the bill text.
Republicans from states with large rural populations have opposed a reduction in state tax revenue for Medicaid providers including rural hospitals. The newly released legislation would delay that reduction and would include $25 billion to support rural Medicaid providers from 2028 to 2032.
“If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to get and deliver for working-class people,” Hawley told reporters. “You cannot take away health care for working people.”
The legislation would raise the cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes to $40,000 with an annual 1 percent inflation adjustment through 2029, after which it would fall back to the current $10,000. The bill would also phase the cap down for those earning more than $500,000 a year.
That is a major concern of House Republicans from coastal states including New York, New Jersey and California, who play an important role in keeping the party’s narrow House majority.
Republicans are using a legislative maneuver to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation in the 100-member chamber.
Narrow path
The narrow majorities for Republicans in the Senate and House mean they can afford no more than three no votes from the party in either chamber to advance a bill that Democrats are united in opposing.
Democrats will focus their firepower with amendments aimed at reversing Republican spending cuts to programs that provide government-backed health care to the elderly, poor and disabled, as well as food aid to low-income families.
The bill also would raise the Treasury Department’s debt ceiling by trillions of dollars to stave off a potentially disastrous default on the nation’s debt in the coming months. If the Senate passes the bill, it will then return to the House for another vote before Trump could sign it into law.
Trump slams Israel’s prosecutors over Netanyahu corruption trial
- “The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States was “not going to stand” for the continued prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges.
“The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
An Israeli court on Friday rejected Netanyahu’s request to postpone giving testimony in his corruption trial, ruling that he had not provided adequate justification for his request.
In one case, Netanyahu and his wife Sara are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors.
In two other cases, Netanyahu is accused of attempting to negotiate more favorable coverage from two Israeli media outlets.
Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and has thanked Trump for his support in Israel’s war with Iran, which saw a ceasefire agreement earlier this week.
His lawyer had asked the court to excuse the leader from hearings over the next two weeks, saying he needs to concentrate on “security issues.”
Trump on Wednesday sprung to Netanyahu’s defense, describing the case against him as a “witch hunt.”
On Saturday, he described Netanyahu as a “War Hero” and said the case would distract the prime minister from negotiations with Iran and with Hamas, the Gaza-based Palestinian armed group that Israel is at war with.
“This travesty of ‘Justice’ will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations,” said Trump, although it was unclear what negotiations he was referring to with regards to Iran.
Hamas took 251 hostages during its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, with 49 still believed to be held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Negotiations are ongoing for the return of the remaining hostages and the bodies of those killed, while Israel’s punishing war on Gaza continues unabated.
The US leader also likened Netanyahu’s legal troubles to his own before he took office for his second term.
“It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure,” said Trump.
The Republican was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in May 2024 in a case related to hush money payments to a porn star.
Trump also faced two federal cases, one related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
India rejects statement by Pakistan seeking to blame it for Waziristan attack
- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and termed it a “cowardly act,” a statement from his office said
NEW DELHI: India’s ministry of external affairs said on Sunday it rejects a statement by the Pakistan Army seeking to blame India for Saturday’s attack in Waziristan.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into a Pakistani military convoy in a town near the Afghan border, killing at least 13 soldiers, the Pakistan army said on Saturday. The convoy was attacked in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan district, the army said in a statement. “In this tragic and barbaric incident, three innocent civilians including two children and a woman also got severely injured,” it said.
Fourteen militants were killed by the army in an operation launched after the attack in the region, it said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and termed it a “cowardly act,” a statement from his office said.
Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said in a statement any attempt to undermine Pakistan’s internal stability would be met with swift and decisive retribution.
“It was huge, a big bang,” a local administrator told Reuters, adding that residents of the town could see a large amount of smoke billowing from the scene from a great distance.
One resident said that the explosion rattled the windowpanes of nearby houses, and caused some roofs to collapse.
No one has so far claimed responsibility.
The lawless district, which sits next to Afghanistan, has long served as a safe haven for different militant groups, who operate on both sides of the border.
Islamabad says the militants run training camps in Afghanistan to launch attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies, saying the militancy is Pakistan’s domestic issue.
Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group of several Islamist militant groups, has long been waging a war against Pakistan in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with its own Islamic system of governance.
The Pakistani military, which has launched several offensives against the militants, has mostly been their prime target.
G7 agrees to exempt US multinationals from global minimum tax
- The deal will see US companies benefit from a “side-by-side” solution under which they will only be taxed at home
OTTAWA: The Group of Seven nations said Saturday they have agreed to exempt US multinational companies from a global minimum tax imposed by other countries — a win for President Donald Trump’s government, which pushed hard for the compromise.
The deal will see US companies benefit from a “side-by-side” solution under which they will only be taxed at home, on both domestic and foreign profits, the G7 said in a statement released by Canada, which holds the group’s rotating presidency.
The agreement was reached in part due to “recently proposed changes to the US international tax system” included in Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which is still being debated in Congress, the statement said.
The side-by-side system could “provide greater stability and certainty in the international tax system moving forward,” it added.
Nearly 140 countries struck a deal in 2021 to tax multinational companies, an agreement negotiated under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
That agreement, deeply criticized by Trump, includes two “pillars,” the second of which sets a minimum global tax rate of 15 percent.
The OECD must ultimately decide to exempt the US companies from that tax — or not.
The G7 said it looked forward to “expeditiously reaching a solution that is acceptable and implementable to all.”
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had signaled that a “joint understanding among G7 countries that defends American interests” was in the works.
He also asked US lawmakers to “to remove the Section 899 protective measure from consideration in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill” — Trump’s policy mega-bill.
Section 899 has been dubbed a “revenge tax,” allowing the government to impose levies on firms with foreign owners and on investors from countries deemed to impose unfair taxes on US businesses.
The clause sparked concern that it would inhibit foreign companies from investing in the United States.
