WASHINGTON: White House candidate Donald Trump on Thursday blamed US ally Ukraine for Russia’s invasion, arguing that President Volodymyr Zelensky had failed in his duty to halt hostilities before they started.
The comments — made in an interview with a podcast supportive of him — sparked an immediate backlash as critics accused the 78-year-old Republican former president of being a “traitor” and an “idiot.”
“Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen. Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been (anyone),” Trump told the two-million-subscriber PBD Podcast.
“And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. He should never have let that war start.”
Trump — who is running against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — immediately pivoted to criticizing President Joe Biden, accusing him of having “instigated” the Ukraine war.
The Trump campaign told AFP the Republican was “clearly talking about Biden” and not Zelensky when he made his remarks about culpability for the war.
Ukraine communicates little about losses for fear of demoralizing its citizens after more than two years of Russia’s invasion, but the Wall Street Journal reported last month that the war had killed or wounded a million soldiers on both sides.
The United States is one of Ukraine’s main backers, and has disbursed more than $64.1 billion in military assistance to Zelensky’s government since the start of the war.
Although Kyiv is a US ally and Moscow is considered an adversary, Trump touted his good relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin during a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky in September.
Trump was impeached for withholding vital weaponry from Ukraine after Russia’s smaller-scale 2014 invasion, as he pushed its government unsuccessfully into announcing investigations into Biden, who was then his election rival.
A federal investigation identified numerous links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, which was found to have interfered in the 2016 US election on the Republican’s behalf.
Criticism over Trump’s apparent closeness to Putin was turbocharged last week by allegations that, while president, he sent the Russian leader Covid tests despite a US shortage and that the Republican and Putin may have been in contact numerous times since 2021.
“What a despicable Traitor,” the Republicans Against Trump lobby group posted on X, alongside footage of Trump’s podcast remarks.
“He’s an idiot, and the whole world wonders why so many Americans don’t see it,” added national security analyst John Sipher, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
Trump says Zelensky ‘should never have let’ Ukraine war start
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Trump says Zelensky ‘should never have let’ Ukraine war start
France’s Macron lambasts ministers, media over alleged Israel cabinet comment leaks
- Macron denied making remarks that brought into question the creation of Israel at a cabinet meeting
- The reported comments provoked Netanyahu to link them to the French Vichy government that had collaborated with Nazi Germany
BRUSSELS: France’s president on Thursday accused some of his ministers of lacking in professionalism and spreading false information, while taking a swipe at the media over how they reported comments he allegedly made on Israel during a cabinet meeting.
In the latest sign of his political frustration, a visibly angry Emmanuel Macron berated journalists over comments they had reported that suggested he had brought into question the creation of Israel at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, and denied he had made the remarks.
“I must tell you how astonished I was to read so many comments, reactions, including from foreign or French political leaders, to remarks that I allegedly made without asking the question of what they were saying and what exactly I said,” he said at a press conference after a European Council meeting in Brussels.
“There is therefore no ambiguity. All those who would like to make it exist through this type of manipulation are not only mistaken, but are hurting some people and weakening France,” he said. “France has always stood by Israel. The existence and security of Israel are intangible for France and the French.”
The reported comments earlier this week led to a vitriolic response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who linked them to the Vichy government that had collaborated with Nazi Germany, the latest round in diplomatic sparring between the two men over Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
“All this is proof, in essence, of a breakdown in public debate and a lack of professionalism on the part of ministers who repeated distorted statements, of journalists who took them up, of commentators who did not dwell on the reality and veracity of such statements,” Macron said.
“If words that are reported, truncated and distorted are put in quotation marks, there is no point in holding press conferences or answering your questions.”
Macron has faced a tough few months since deciding to dissolve parliament earlier this year after a crushing defeat in European elections. The ensuing legislative elections left parliament divided into three political blocs and his party badly defeated.
Without a government for several months, the French leader in the end opted to pick up center-right politician Michel Barnier as prime minister despite his party finishing sixth in the vote.
The new government has left Macron scrambling to save the last 2-1/2 years of his mandate having seen his power dwindle and influence over ministers from opposing parties and his own camp curtailed.
US warns China using overproduction for global dominance
- Data showed that China had a significant overcapacity relative to projected demand for electric vehicles, batteries or semiconductors
- He said China had long used the same tactics for two decades to gain dominance in steel and solar and medical devices
WASHINGTON: The United States will use restrictive tools like tariffs to push back against China’s practice of making far more goods than it needs in order to dominate global markets, White House official Daleep Singh said on Thursday.
Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, said the Asian giant has amassed growing market power that it uses for economic and geopolitical leverage, and Washington viewed the costs as unacceptable.
“So that’s the problem, and it’s not abstract. You can see it in the numbers,” Singh told an event hosted by the Alliance for American Manufacturing. “They’re a big outlier and we’ve got to do something about it.”
Beijing and Washington have had tense relations for years due to multiple issues ranging from trade tariffs and the origins of COVID-19 to human rights, intellectual property and Taiwan. Singh gave no details on any new measures being considered by Washington.
Data showed that China had a significant overcapacity relative to projected demand for electric vehicles, batteries or semiconductors, Singh said, noting that Chinese producers were reporting “persistent losses.”
“We’re seeing an unrivaled level and rate of growth in China’s subsidies, and ... forget about the numbers, look at their public pronouncements to dominate key sectors and diffuse them with military pre-eminence,” Singh said at the event, a week before finance officials from around the world gather in Washington for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Singh said that “a growing number of countries,” including Brazil, India, South Africa and the European Union, were starting to see industrial overcapacity as a major problem like the US did, adding China was using production to gain dominance in a number of sectors.
“China is flooding strategic sectors with supply that’s well beyond what global demand can plausibly absorb, and therefore wiping out the competition,” he said.
He said China had long used the same tactics for two decades to gain dominance in steel and solar and medical devices, but the trend was now “broadening and intensifying” to include electric vehicles, batteries and semiconductors, where Washington has been investing heavily.
Washington has previously said the US may need to take further and “more creative” actions beyond tariffs to protect US industries and workers against China’s growing excess industrial capacity.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, speaking at a separate Council on Foreign Relations event in New York, said every province in China is competing to try to invest more in advanced manufacturing sectors, such as clean energy and semiconductors.
“So the level of subsidization is utterly enormous. There are many profit-losing firms that are kept in existence. And so there is a gigantic amount of overcapacity that is threatening our own attempts to build in these areas,” she said.
Britain ‘will not mourn’ Sinwar’s death, says Starmer
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday called for the release of all hostages in Gaza and said his country “will not mourn” the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Starmer said that Sinwar was the “mastermind behind the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust” when Hamas launched the October 7, 2023 attacks. “Today my thoughts are with the families of those victims. The UK will not mourn his death,” he said in a statement.
Italy’s Meloni says Sinwar death opens ‘new phase’ in Gaza conflict
ROME: Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar cleared the way for a “new phase” in the deadly conflict in Gaza.
“With the death of Yahya Sinwar, the person principally responsible for the October 7 attacks no longer exists,” Meloni said in a statement.
“I am convinced that a new phase should be launched: it is time for all the hostages to be released, for a ceasefire to be immediately proclaimed and for the reconstruction of Gaza to begin.”
UNIFIL has vital role, mission must be strengthened, Italy says
ROME: The UN peacekeeping mission to Lebanon is vital to ending war in the region and needs to be strengthened, not withdrawn from combat zones as Israel has demanded, Italy’s defense minister said on Thursday.
The UN mission known as UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel — an area that has seen fierce clashes this month between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
Israel has said the UN forces are providing a human shield for Hezbollah and has fired at the UNIFIL bases repeatedly over the past week, injuring several peacekeepers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says UNIFIL should temporarily “get out of harm’s way.”
Italy has long been a major contributor to the multi-national operation and has denounced Israel for its actions, straining relations between two nations, which have been very close under Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s leadership.
“Israel needs to understand that these (UN) soldiers are not working for any one side. They are there to help maintain peace and promote regional stability,” Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told parliament on Thursday.
He said the resolution establishing the UNIFIL mandate was last revised in 2006 and needed updating.
“UNIFIL is a complex mission with a mandate that is difficult to implement, has inadequate rules of engagement and forces that are not equipped for the current conflict,” he said.
