Having done a trade deal with US President Donald Trump, Japan’s prime minister will soon announce his resignation, reports said Wednesday, after his latest election debacle left his coalition without a majority now in both houses of parliament.
The reports said Shigeru Ishiba had conveyed his intention to step down to those close to him, following the announcement Wednesday of a US-Japan trade deal.
Sunday’s upper house election was calamitous for Ishiba’s centre-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed almost continuously since 1955.
Voters angry at inflation turned to other parties, notably the “Japanese first” Sanseito, whose “anti-globalist” drive echoes the agenda of populist movements elsewhere.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States agreed to a “massive” trade deal with Japan, including a 15% tariff on its exports. Months of negotiations followed Trump’s global trade offensive, with steel and auto tariffs key sticking points.
The anchoring effect is one of the sneakiest tools companies use to make us spend money.
Here’s how it works. Let’s say we’re shopping for a smartphone manufactured by Dapple, which has just released two new models: a $1,200 model with a big screen and a $900 one that is more compact. The more expensive smartphone will serve as the “anchor” by which we make comparisons, so the $900 model will appear to be value for money — even if it is costly in absolute terms. But we’re likely to feel good about choosing it because we’ve “saved” $300 on our purchase.
This scenario seems to be what’s happening with the U.S-Japan trade agreement freshly announced late Tuesday stateside. U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would gain access to Japan’s markets for rice and cars — which had been sticking points during negotiations — while the latter would see 15% tariffs on its exports to America.
At first glance, that doesn’t sound too positive for Japan. But investors celebrated the news — the Nikkei 225 jumped 3.8% at 1:45 a.m. ET. After all, a 15% tariff rate is a big improvement from the 25% tariff Trump slapped on Tokyo earlier this month. Furthermore, Japanese auto exports to the U.S. — which made up 28.3% of all shipments in 2024 — will face a tariff of 15%, lower than the universal 25% other countries are subject to.
As Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, said, “It’s a sign of the times that markets would cheer 15% tariffs. A year ago, that level of tariffs would be shocking. Today, we breathe a sigh of relief.” That, in essence, is the anchoring effect at play.
More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation“ was spreading in Gaza, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than 2 million people face severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of conflict, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel.
The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect sidelining the existing UN-led system.
A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”.
The first new U.S. rare-earth mine in 70 years broke ground this month in Wyoming.
Ramaco Brook Mine, which contains 1.7 million tons of rare earth minerals, is a “groundbreaking discovery” that “marks a turning point for America,” the Department of Energy announced.
The groundbreaking discovery at the Ramaco Brook Mine marks a turning point for America as the first new rare earth facility in 7 DECADES, containing 1.7 MILLION tons of rare earth oxides.
Developing American supply chains for rare earth minerals STRENGTHENS our energy security.
— U.S. Department of Energy (@ENERGY) July 9, 2025
The federal judge who has been assigned to take care of President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal is Darrin P. Gayles, a former federal prosecutor who was appointed by Barack Obama.
Gayles, a United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, is a former US attorney who was appointed by Obama in 2014. At the time, a vote of 98-0 unanimously confirmed him in the Senate. Gayles went on to become the first openly gay Black man to serve on the federal bench. His appointment to Trump’s case happened randomly.
Trump’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in Miami on July 18. It accuses the newspaper, its parent companies, executives and journalists of falsely claiming that Trump wrote a 50th birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Trump’s lawsuit reportedly names Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp, WSJ publisher Dow Jones, executive Robert Thomson, and two WSJ journalists whose bylines were there in the story.
BREAKING: Trump announces ‘massive’ trade deal with Japan, includes $550 billion investment in US | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com Source Link Excerpt:
Trump said Japan will invest $550 billion into the US economy and that the United States will receive 90% of the profits from the deal.
President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday evening that a new trade agreement has been finalized between the United States and Japan, calling it “perhaps the largest Deal ever made.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Japan will invest $550 billion into the US economy and that the United States will receive 90% of the profits from the deal. The president says the agreement would generate “Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs” and significantly expand trade between the two countries.
“We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made. Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits. This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs — There has never been anything like it. Perhaps most importantly, Japan will open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things. Japan will pay Reciprocal Tariffs to the United States of 15%. This is a very exciting time for the United States of America, and especially for the fact that we will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” the post reads.
National security think tanks have long been funded by old-guard contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. In recent years, the Trump-tied software and data analytics firm Palantir, which is competing with those legacy contractors for federal weapons programs, has been getting in on the game.
In the first half of this year, Palantir gave nearly $1.7 million to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, according to a disclosure it filed last week with the House. The sum of the donations, made in March, is on par with what the firm gave to the nonprofit in 2023 and 2024. Palantir appears to have given far more to the Reagan Foundation—where its co-founder Joe Lonsdale is on the board of trustees, alongside figures from the Republican Party establishment—than to other defense think tanks that shape national security planning and populate the revolving door between the Pentagon and weapons companies.
Under the Trump administration, Palantir is getting a boom in government contracts, which are the company’s largest source of revenue. The Silicon Valley-style defense company, tapped in recent months to expand its technology work with federal agencies like the Department of Defense, has been cheering its rising profits in earnings calls. In May, the Army boosted Palantir’s contract for Project Maven, an A.I.-powered targeting system, to a total of $1.3 billion. The firm’s CEO Alex Karp crowed “Palantir is on fire” on a first-quarter earnings call, and its stock price just hit a record high.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said he is likely to hash out an extension of President Donald Trump‘s upcoming trade deadline with China when he meets with his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm, Sweden, next week.
The two sides in mid-May agreed to a 90-day suspension of most of the heavy tariffs on each others’ goods while they continued trade negotiations. That suspension is set to expire on Aug. 12.
But “we’ll be working out what is likely an extension” during talks in Stockholm on Monday and Tuesday, Bessent said in a Fox Business interview.
“I think trade is in a very good place with China,” he said.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson later Tuesday morning confirmed that his country would host the latest round of talks between Washington and Beijing.
“It is positive that both countries wish to meet in Sweden to seek mutual understanding,” Kristersson said on X in a translated post.
President Trump is hosting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. this afternoon at the White House amid Trump’s threat to impose 20% tariffs on imports from the Southeast Asian island nation.
Marcos also met with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this morning to discuss the military alliance between the United States and Philippines, as well as China.
Trade will be the top item on the agenda for Marcos’s meeting with the President of the United States.
In a letter, dated July 9, Trump put President Marcos on notice of the “significant Trade Deficit,” warning that tariffs of 20% will be charged starting on August 1, unless Philippine companies build and manufacture in the United States or the Philippines reduces trade barriers.
“If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 20% that we charge,” President Trump warned.
“If you wish to open your heretofore closed Trading Markets to the United States, and eliminate your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter.”
Wall Street experienced a record-breaking revenue surge in the year’s second quarter, investment bank Goldman Sachs announced Wednesday morning, following the market uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April.
Goldman Sachs’s trading revenue for the second quarter was $4.3 billion, $600 million higher than expectations and $100 million above the first quarter’s total, which was also a record. The company’s total revenue jumped 15% to $14.58 billion, a billion dollars more than what analysts expected. A similar upward trend was seen in the bank’s profit, which rose 22% to $3.72 billion.
“The economy and markets are generally responding positively to the evolving policy environment,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said. “But as developments rarely unfold in a straight line, we remain very focused on risk management.”
JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley also reported sizable increases in trading revenue, indicating that Wall Street has benefited from the tariff upheaval, despite market volatility.
After Trump’s tariffs took effect in early April, the stock market index S&P 500 took a drastic dive within minutes. Once an erroneous report indicated Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his “Liberation Day” tariffs, the S&P 500 added $3 trillion within 10 minutes. The White House quickly denied the report, calling it “wrong” and “fake news.”
Wall Street experienced a record-breaking revenue surge in the year’s second quarter, investment bank Goldman Sachs announced Wednesday morning, following the market uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April.
Goldman Sachs’s trading revenue for the second quarter was $4.3 billion, $600 million higher than expectations and $100 million above the first quarter’s total, which was also a record. The company’s total revenue jumped 15% to $14.58 billion, a billion dollars more than what analysts expected. A similar upward trend was seen in the bank’s profit, which rose 22% to $3.72 billion.
“The economy and markets are generally responding positively to the evolving policy environment,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said. “But as developments rarely unfold in a straight line, we remain very focused on risk management.”
JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley also reported sizable increases in trading revenue, indicating that Wall Street has benefited from the tariff upheaval, despite market volatility.
After Trump’s tariffs took effect in early April, the stock market index S&P 500 took a drastic dive within minutes. Once an erroneous report indicated Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his “Liberation Day” tariffs, the S&P 500 added $3 trillion within 10 minutes. The White House quickly denied the report, calling it “wrong” and “fake news.”
Once traders learned of the denial, the S&P 500 lost $2.5 trillion in five minutes. A similar pattern was seen in the Nasdaq and Dow Jones.
Soon after the higher “Liberation Day” tariffs took effect, Trump implemented a 90-day pause that ended earlier this month. The pause was made to allow time for foreign trading partners to negotiate with the United States on trade deals.
Trump has so far announced trade deals with the United Kingdom, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
The president’s pattern of threatening tariffs and then pausing them or extending the deadline to negotiate has caught the attention of traders, who have created the “Trump always chickens out,” or TACO, strategy to capitalize on it.
Trump disputed TACO, which holds that Wall Street should “buy the dip” following immediate panic caused by a new tariff announcement, considering the perception that Trump will back off on his tariff threats. Trump said his strategy is simply a negotiation tactic.
“We have the hottest country anywhere in the world … Six months ago, this country was stone-cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country, people didn’t think it was going to survive, and you ask a nasty question like that,” he told reporters in May.
“It’s called negotiation. You set a number. And if you go down, if I set a ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit, a little bit, they want me to hold that number, 145% tariff. Even I said, ‘Man, that really got up,’” Trump said, adding he brought down the said tariff rate after negotiations.
Trump is proceeding with implementing his next phase of tariffs on Aug. 1, including a 30% tariff imposed on the European Union. The 27-member bloc delayed its retaliatory tariffs this week amid negotiations with the U.S. in the hopes of reaching a trade deal before the new tariff deadline.
President Trump on Tuesday announced the United States reached a trade agreement with Indonesia.
“This morning I finalized an important Deal with the Republic of Indonesia after speaking with their Highly Respected President Prabowo Subianto. This landmark Deal opens up Indonesia’s ENTIRE MARKET to the United States for the first time in History,” Trump announced.
“Thank you to the People of Indonesia for your friendship and commitment to balancing our Trade Deficit. We will keep DELIVERING for the American People, and the People of Indonesia!” he added.
“This morning I finalized an important Deal with the Republic of Indonesia… Thank you to the People of Indonesia for your friendship and commitment to balancing our Trade Deficit. We will keep DELIVERING for the American People, and the People of Indonesia!” – President Trump pic.twitter.com/RSLscrBNKJ
… The White House has launched an investigation into the Biden autopen scandal. The investigation is being led by the White House Counsel’s Office; however, they are coordinating with the Justice Department.
[S]enior administration officials telling Fox News Digital that they already are reviewing tens of thousands of documents turned over by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). [….]
A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that they are not yet ready to discuss any discoveries, but said NARA already has provided more than 27,000 records to the White House.
The White House is reviewing the communications and the procedures in place around the use of the autopen. But there’s a lot to go through.
BEIJING — The head of Nvidia downplayed his role in getting the U.S. government to lift a ban on selling an advanced computer chip in China and said it will take time to ramp up production once orders for the AI-processor come in.
CEO Jensen Huang, speaking Wednesday in the Chinese capital Beijing, was upbeat about the prospects for the H20 chip, which was designed to meet U.S. restrictions on technology exports to China but nonetheless blocked in April.
He met U.S. President Donald Trump before his trip and his company announced this week it had received assurances that sales to China would be approved.
“I don’t think I changed his mind,” Huang told a cluster of journalists, many of whom asked for his autograph or to take selfies with him.
A carefully organized press conference at a luxury hotel descended into a crowd scene when Huang arrived in his trademark leather jacket and started taking questions randomly in his characteristic casual style.
Export controls and tariffs were something companies must adapt to in a world he said was reconfiguring itself. He described his role as informing governments in the U.S. and elsewhere of the nature and unintended consequences of their policies.
The decision to lift the ban on the H20 chip was entirely in the hands of the American and Chinese governments and whatever trade talks they had, he said.
President Donald Trump told a room full of Republican lawmakers that he will fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, after they signaled support for the move, a senior White House official told CNBC.
Amid repeated denials from administration officials and high-ranking Republicans, the exchange came Tuesday evening in the Oval Office, following Republicans blocking a vote on cryptocurrency legislation that Trump has favored.
“The President asked lawmakers how they felt about firing the Fed Chair. They expressed approval for firing him. The President indicated he likely will soon,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly on the issue.
Trump, however, indicated at a White House press event that a move is not imminent.
“We’re not planning on doing it,” he said. “I don’t rule out anything. It’s highly unlikely. … There could be something to that.”
Separately, the New York Times reported that Trump has gone so far to draft a letter for firing Powell and showed it to lawmakers during that meeting.
Russia’s economy is facing fresh turmoil as its once-buoyant property market plunges into crisis, with sales of new apartments collapsing by nearly 39% over the past year, according to new government data. From July 2024 to June 2025, just 458,727 apartments were sold across the country, representing a staggering 38.7% drop in the number of transactions compared to the previous 12 months.
The total area of property sold fell by 37.2%, down to 21.9 million square metres, according to a report by the state-owned housing firm Dom.RF. The figures are echoed by real estate platform Cian, which recorded a 39% decline in property deals year-on-year, down to 477,000 units.
The dramatic decline has been linked to the abolition of Russia’s preferential mortgage program on July 1, 2024.
The BRICS bloc of developing nations at their summit in Brazil on Sunday condemned the increase of tariffs and attacks on Iran, but refrained from naming US President Donald Trump.
The group’s declaration, which also took aim at Israeli military actions in the Middle East, spared its founding member Russia from criticism and mentioned war-torn Ukraine only once.
The bloc issued a declaration in which they raised “serious concerns” about the rise of tariffs which it said were “inconsistent with WTO (World Trade Organisation) rules.” In an indirect swipe at the US, they said those restrictions ”threaten to reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains and introduce uncertainty.”
Lula also criticised NATO’s decision to hike defence spending up to 5% of member states’ GDP. He said it was “always easier to invest in war than peace.”
The declaration also criticised the attacks on Iran without mentioning the US or Israel, the two nations who conducted them.
BRICS leaders expressed “grave concern” for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, called for the release of all hostages, a return to the negotiating table and reaffirmed their commitment to the two-state solution.
The group’s 31-page declaration mentions Ukraine just once, while condemning “in the strongest terms” recent Ukrainian attacks on Russia.
Brazil is playing host to a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies Sunday and Monday during which pressing topics like Israel’s attack on Iran, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and trade tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to be handled with caution.
Analysts and diplomats have said the lack of cohesion in an enlarged BRICS, which doubled in size last year, may affect its ability to become another pole in world affairs. They also see the summit’s moderate agenda as an attempt by member countries to stay off Trump’s radar.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has some of his priorities, such as debates on artificial intelligence and climate change, front and centre for the talks with key leaders not in attendance.
Lula said in his speech on Sunday that “we are witnessing the unparalled collapse of multilateralism” and that the meeting is taking place “in the most adverse global scenario” of the four times Brazil has hosted it. He called for the group to promote peace and mediate conflicts.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil will play host to a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies Sunday and Monday during which pressing topics like Israel’s attack on Iran, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and trade tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to be handled with caution.
Analysts and diplomats said the lack of cohesion in an enlarged BRICS, which doubled in size last year, may affect its ability to become another pole in world affairs. They also see the summit’s moderate agenda as an attempt by member countries to stay off Trump’s radar.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will have some of his priorities, such as debates on artificial intelligence and climate change, front and center for the talks with key leaders not in attendance.
China’s President Xi Jinping won’t attend a BRICS summit for the first time since he became his country’s leader in 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will make an appearance via videoconference, continues to mostly avoid traveling abroad due to an international arrest warrant issued after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The restraint expected in Rio de Janeiro marks a departure from last year’s summit hosted by Russia in Kazan, when the Kremlin sought to develop alternatives to U.S.-dominated payment systems which would allow it to dodge Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
President Trump threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on countries “aligning” themselves with the BRICS bloc of developing nations.
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday evening.
The threat comes after members of the BRICS group issued a declaration on Sunday condemning the U.S. increase in tariffs, as well as the strikes on Iran — all without mentioning Trump by name.
The group’s statement raised “serious concerns” tariffs, saying they are “inconsistent with WTO (World Trade Organization) rules” and threaten to “reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains, and introduce uncertainty.”
The European Union is considering a temporary trade agreement with the United States that would maintain a 10 percent tariff on most exports, according to a briefing by the European Commission to EU ambassadors on Friday, reported news portal Politico.The update came after a key round of negotiations in Washington on Thursday, where EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič aimed to defuse US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a sweeping 50 percent tariff on all European imports starting July 9, if a deal is not reached.Talks will continue on potential exemptions for certain sectors, including the automotive industry, two national officials familiar with the discussions said, according to the news portal..However, the outcome was seen as underwhelming in several European capitals, especially after earlier signals from the Commission’s negotiating team that some industries could receive immediate tariff relief. The US currently imposes tariffs of 25 percent on cars and 50 percent on steel and aluminum imports.
EU remains divided
Despite intensive negotiations, reaching a consensus on a trade agreement with the United States remains challenging for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, amid ongoing divisions among EU member states over how to proceed. According to three diplomats, all possibilities, including a failure to reach any deal, are still being considered.In a fresh twist, US officials have reportedly threatened to impose a 17 percent tariff on European food imports, two national officials confirmed, backing a report by the Financial Times.Von der Leyen is expected to hold one-on-one consultations with EU leaders over the weekend before deciding on the bloc’s next steps, one official said. Meanwhile, Trump is likely to meet with his advisers on Monday, meaning any official announcement would be delayed until after those discussions.
In the ongoing discussion of trade and tariffs, Politico and others reported that the US and China are following through on a deal to lift export restrictions on items essential for technology production.
The letters initially were supposed to go out on July 4 with a tariff imposition date of Aug. 1, based on Trump’s earlier comments. But US officials were busily negotiating through the holiday weekend, including with Japan, South Korea, the EU, India and Vietnam.
For more, read Bloomberg Economics’ INSIGHT: What to Expect as July 9 Trade Deadline Looms
One of Trump’s signature moves in dealmaking is a unilateral threat when negotiations reach critical stages, so it’s unclear whether the letters he describes are real, or merely meant to strike fear into trading partners still reluctant to offer last-minute concessions.
After Trump announced an agreement with Vietnam last week, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said negotiators were still coordinating with their US counterparts to finalize the details.