New Zealand hails 'breakthrough' in trade talks with India, but no timeline for deal

New Zealand hails 'breakthrough' in trade talks with India, but no timeline for deal

NEW DELHI (AP) — New Zealand's deputy prime minister said on Friday that talks over afree trade agreementbetween his country and India were ongoing, but he didn't provide a timeline for when the two nations could eventually sign a deal. Winston Peters, who is on a two-day visit to India, said that the negotiations were "going with real meaning now," calling them "a breakthrough in our economic relationship." India and New Zealand began negotiations in March for a trade pact, and had aimed to sign a deal in 60 days. The deal will significantly bolster economic ties between the two countries, but it has faced delays because of differences over tariffs on dairy products. Bilateral trade between India and New Zealand stood at $1.7 billion in the 2023-24 financial year. Talks between India and New Zealand were taking place amid global trade tensions, after U.S.President Donald Trump's decision to impose now-paused reciprocal tariffs on imported goods from several countries, including India. Earlier this month, India and the United Kingdomclinched a trade deal. India is also engaged in trade talks with Washington. Peters, who met with India's Group of 20 emissary, Amitabh Kant, in New Delhi, said that India was New Zealand's 12th-largest partner in trade and "we are determined that we're going to work to change that." "Our strengths, from food and beverage products to agriculture, forestry, horticulture, education and tourism are world class. And our innovation in areas like outer space and renewable energy will find a welcoming partner in India," he said. Peters said that the relationship between the two countries extended to defense and security, calling it a "priority for New Zealand in the Indo-Pacific." "During a time of great uncertainty, instability and disorder, we have taken steps to work more closely on matters of defense and security with India," he said.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 30, 2025

New Zealand hails 'breakthrough' in trade talks with India, but no timeline for deal

New Zealand hails 'breakthrough' in trade talks with India, but no timeline for deal NEW DELHI (AP) — New Zealand's deputy prime...

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Macron will kick off Singapore security conference with Hegseth in attendance

Macron will kick off Singapore security conference with Hegseth in attendance

SINGAPORE (AP) —French President Emmanuel Macronand U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are among the world leaders, diplomats and top defense officials in Singapore this weekend for a security forum that will focus on China's growing assertiveness, the global impact ofRussia's war on Ukraineand the flare-up of conflicts in Asia. Macron opens the conference with a keynote address Friday night that is expected to touch on all of those issues, as well as the pressure thehefty tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump's administrationis putting on Asian allies. It's Hegseth's first time to the Shangri-La Dialogue, hosted by the International Institute for Security Studies, which is taking place against the backdrop of heightened rhetoric between Beijing and Washington. The Trump administration has threatened China with triple-digittariffs, and there's some uncertainty in the region over how committed the U.S. is to the defense of Taiwan, which also faces possible32% American tariffs. China claims the self-governing democracy as its own, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has not ruled out taking it by force. China sends military aircraft, ships and spy balloons near Taiwan as part of a campaign of daily harassment, and currently has an aircraft carrier in the waters southeast of the island. Hegseth told reporters before he boarded his plane for Singapore that Washington's policies were meant to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. "We seek no conflict with anybody, including the Communist Chinese," he said. "We will stay strong for our interests. And that's a big part of what this trip is all about." China, which usually sends its defense minister to the Shangri-La forum, sent a much lower level delegation instead, represented by Maj. Gen. Hu Gangfeng, the vice president of the People's Liberation Army National Defense University. The delegation was expected to speak Saturday on a panel on "cooperative maritime security" alongside representatives from Japan, Vietnam, Chile and the U.K. — notable in that China's aggressive global fisheries tactics have been a regular topic of concern not only in the Indo-Pacific but as far away as Latin America and the Arctic. Defense officials traveling with Hegseth, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, called the absence of a higher-level Chinese delegation an opportunity for the U.S. to make inroads. "We can't account for whether China engages or not. All we know is that we're here. And we will be here," Hegseth said as he met with Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro. Allies are worried about US commitment to their defense Hegseth's trip to Singapore is his second to the region since becoming defense secretary, following aMarch visit to the Philippines, which has seen escalating confrontations with China over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea. That trip, which also included a stop in Japan, brought a degree of relief over growing concerns from the Philippines and others in the region about U.S. support from a president who has taken more of a transactional approach to diplomacy and seems wary of foreign engagements. The U.S. has been pursuing a "free and open Indo-Pacific" policy, which includes regularly sailing warships through the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea, which isclaimed almost in its entirety by China. The European Union has adopted a more economics-driven approach, but several European nations have also regularly taken part in the freedom of navigation exercises, including France, which sent a carrier strike group on a five-month mission through the Indo-Pacific that concluded in April. France steps up its presence in Indo-Pacific In its publishedIndo-Pacific strategy, France has underscored the need to "preserve a rules-based international order" in the face of "China's increasing power and territorial claims" and its global competition with the United States. France's own ties to the Indo-Pacific are strong, with more than 1.6 million of its citizens living in the region in French overseas territories. Following a meeting Friday with Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Macron told reporters there was room in the region for more than just the two superpowers. "We are neither China nor the U.S., we don't want to depend on any of them," he said. "We want to cooperate with both as far as we can, and we can cooperate for growth and prosperity and stability for our people and the world order, and I think this is exactly the same view of a lot of countries and a lot of people of this region." Wong underscored Macron's point, saying that Singapore and the greater region were not looking for exclusive arrangements with any single power. "We want to embrace comprehensive engagement with all parties and embrace win-win arrangements rather than zero-sum competition," he said. In his speech later, Macron is expected also to stress that the war in Ukraine is having a worldwide impact and that Russia seeks to destabilize Asia, the French president's office said. While democracies from the region, including Australia, South Korea and Japan, have been aiding Ukraine, China has been growingly supportive of Russia and North Korea has sent troops to fight for Moscow. The conference comes ascivil war continues to ragein Myanmar, creating a massive humanitarian crisis that has only been compounded by the effects of adevastating earthquakethat hit in March. It also follows the outbreak of violence this week on the Thai-Cambodian border, in which a Cambodian soldier was killed in a brief exchange of fire between the two sides. Thailand and Cambodia have a long history of land disputes, though Thailand said after the short skirmish that the situation had been resolved. Of greater concern, nuclear-armed neighborsIndia and Pakistan came to the brink of warearlier this month in their most serious military confrontation in decades. The two armies exchanged gunfire, artillery strikes, missiles and drones that killed dozens of people, andPakistan shot down several Indian planesbefore a truce was declared. _____ Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 30, 2025

Macron will kick off Singapore security conference with Hegseth in attendance

Macron will kick off Singapore security conference with Hegseth in attendance SINGAPORE (AP) —French President Emmanuel Macronand U.S. Defen...

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Trump has long warned of a government 'deep state.' Now in power, he's under pressure to expose it

Trump has long warned of a government 'deep state.' Now in power, he's under pressure to expose it

NEW YORK (AP) — As he crisscrossed the country in 2024,Donald Trumppledged to supporters that voting him back into the presidency would be "our final battle." "With you at my side, we willdemolish the deep state," he said repeatedly on the campaign trail. "We will liberate our country from these tyrants and villains once and for all." Four months into his second term, Trump has continued to stoke dark theories involving his predecessors and other powerful politicians and attorneys — most recently raising the specter of nefarious intent behind former President Joe Biden's use of an autopen to sign papers. The administration has pledged to reopen investigations and has taken steps to declassify certain documents, including releasingmore than 63,000 pages of recordsrelated to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Yet many of Trump's supporters say it's not enough. Some who take him at his word are beginning to get restless as they ask why his administration, which holds the keys to chasing down these alleged government secrets, is denying them the evidence and retribution they expected. His Justice Department has not yet arrested hordes of "deep state" actors as some of his supporters had hoped it would, even as the president has been posting cryptic videos and memes about Democratic politicians. "People are tired of not knowing," conservative commentator Damani Felder said on podcaster Tim Pool's show last week. "We actually demand answers and real transparency. It's not that hard to deliver." A promise to reveal and dismantle the 'deep state' Trump has long promised to dismantle the "deep state" — a supposed secret network of powerful people manipulating government decisions behind the scenes — to build his base of support, said Yotam Ophir, a communications professor at the University at Buffalo. "He built part of this universe, which at the end of the day is a fictional universe," he said. Now that Trump is in power and has stocked loyalists throughout his administration, his supporters expect all to be revealed. Delivering on that is difficult when many of the conspiracies he alleged aren't real, said Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist who studies conspiracy theories at the University of Miami. To be sure, the president has prioritized retribution in his second administration. He has fired federal workers, installed loyalists in key positions and targetedlaw firms he disfavorsin executive orders. He has ordered therevocation of government security clearancesfor political rivals andformer employees who dissentedduring his first term. His Justice Department hasfired prosecutorswho investigated him andscrutinized career FBI agentswho investigated theJan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Even so, Trump's administration hasn't gone as far as many of his supporters would like. They want to see steps taken against people he has long claimed were involved in sinister plots against him, such as former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and formerFBI Director James Comey. The administration also hasn't offered proof of the "egregious crimes" that Trump claims have corrupted the federal government for years. Conspiracy theorists focus on Epstein and Trump's assassination attempt Tensions erupted this month when FBI DirectorKash Pateland his deputy, Dan Bongino, dismissed two of the unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that have animated Trump's base the most — that financier and sexual abuserJeffrey Epsteinwas murdered in a cover-up, and that Trump'sattempted assassinationin Butler, Pennsylvania, was a government plot. "You know a suicide when you see one, and that's what that was," Patel said about Epstein's death in a Fox News interview. "I have seen the whole file," Bongino added. "He killed himself." Conservatives online demanded to see the evidence, pointing to Bongino's past statements as apodcast host, when he suggested the government was hiding information about Epstein. "No matter who gets elected, you get the same foreign policy, you get the same economic policy, and the Epstein videos remain secret," right-wing podcaster and former Fox News hostTucker Carlsonsaid on his show. "They told us for months leading up to the Election that it wasn't suicide," Newsmax host Todd Starnes wrote on X.. "But now they tell us it was suicide." He added: "Pardon me, but what the heck is going on at DOJ?" Attorney General Pam Bondi said this month that FBI officials were poring through "tens of thousands" of videos related to Epstein and would make more materials public once they took steps to protect the victims. In the same Fox News interview, Bongino and Patel said they had been briefed on the attempted assassination of Trump during a rally in July and there was no explosive conspiracy to be revealed. "In some of these cases, the 'there' you're looking for is not there," Bongino said. Skepticism among 'deep state' believers Bongino appeared to try to throw a bone to Trump's base this week when he announced the agency would reopen some prominent cases that have attracted public interest. He said the FBI would investigate theplanting of pipe bombsfound near the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, the leak of the Supreme Court'sDobbs v. Jackson draft opinionin 2022 that overturned the constitutional right to abortion and the discovery ofcocaine in the White Housein 2023. But it wasn't enough for everyone who weighed in on his X account. "Anything to detract from the Epstein files," one user replied to his announcement. "No results," wrote another. In an interview Thursday on "Fox & Friends," Bongino teased that the FBI would soon release video captured outside Epstein's jail cell and materials related to Trump's attempted assassination. He said he understands the public's demands for transparency but called for patience and noted not all information is the FBI's to declassify. That didn't satisfy everyone who wants answers to the conspiracy theories. "I am convinced that the deep state can only be defeated by God at this point," Philip Anderson, a right-wing influencer who participated in the riot at the Capitol, wrote Thursday on X. "Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, and Pam Bondi are completely useless." Promoting conspiracy theories as a tactic to distract All the while, Trump has continued promoting conspiracy theories on his Truth Social platform and elsewhere. He shared a video this month about mysterious deaths allegedly being linked to the Clinton family and an image of himself with former President Barack Obama with the text, "ALL ROADS LEAD TO OBAMA, RETRUTH IF YOU WANT MILITARY TRIBUNALS." Ophir, the University at Buffalo professor, said it's a tactic that distracts Trump's base and helps inoculate him from criticism. "When something good happens, it's because Trump is great and his agenda is brilliant," Ophir said. "When something bad happens, it's because of the Obamas or the Clintons or whatever forces are undermining him from within Washington." Trump this week fueled newer theories, without sharing evidence, that Biden's use of a mechanical device called an autopen during his presidency meant he didn't sign his executive orders willingly or that aides profited from controlling it. He has called for people who operated it to be charged with "TREASON." The narrative has gained momentum on the right because of allegations that Biden's aidescovered up his mental and physical decline. Presidentshave used autopensfor years to sign certain documents. "Whoever used it was usurping the power of the Presidency, and it should be very easy to find out who that person (or persons) is," Trump wrote on Truth Social. At least one user of his platform was unimpressed and questioned why Trump and his allies, holding all the power, still didn't have any answers. "IF IT'S EASY," the commenter posted. "WHY HASN'T YOUR ADMINISTRATION FOUND THESE CRIMINAL'S ALREADY." ___ The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about the AP's democracy initiativehere. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 30, 2025

Trump has long warned of a government 'deep state.' Now in power, he's under pressure to expose it

Trump has long warned of a government 'deep state.' Now in power, he's under pressure to expose it NEW YORK (AP) — As he crisscr...

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Skeletal remains found at Jersey Shore identified as 19th century boat captain

Skeletal remains found at Jersey Shore identified as 19th century boat captain

There's been a break in 30-year-old cold case mystery at the Jersey Shore after experts confirmed skeletal remains found on three beachesbelonged to a 19th-century boat captain. The bones from a leg, arm and fragments of a cranium discovered on the beaches of Ocean City, Margate and Longport between 1995 and 2013 had yielded no answers until now. Authorities said the remains belong to 29-year-old Captain Henry Goodsell, who died at sea 181 years ago. Advances in DNA technology first tied the bones to the same person after cold case detectives with the state police turned tothe Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center at Ramapo College of New Jerseylast year. "Our job was to figure out who that individual was that the bones belonged to," Cairenn Binder of the college's IGG Center said. Initially, experts weren't even sure how old the bones were. "We kind of kept going back and forth between, are they historic? Are they not historic?" New Jersey State Police Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Anna Delaney said. "This is absolutely amazing because after all of this time, Henry has his name." Students at the school launched a search for genetic relatives and built out family trees that revealed ancestral ties to Connecticut. They also started looking into records of shipwrecks. It was that creative step that really helped them narrow in on the person's identity. "Delving into those they identified this ship, which then led to the ship captain," Ramapo's IGG Center Director David Gurney explained. Goodsell was the captain of the Oriental which was a schooner that was transporting marble from Connecticut to Philadelphia for Girard College in 1844. But, on that voyage, the Oriental went down just off of the coast of Brigantine and the entire crew was killed. Investigators were able to track down Goodsell's great-great-granddaughter in Maryland. She provided a DNA sample that did confirm the captain's identity. "To our knowledge, this is the oldest case that's ever been solved with investigative genetic genealogy," Binder said. As of this writing, Goodsell's family does not want his bones so they will stay at a state repository indefinitely.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 30, 2025

Skeletal remains found at Jersey Shore identified as 19th century boat captain

Skeletal remains found at Jersey Shore identified as 19th century boat captain There's been a break in 30-year-old cold case mystery at ...

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Pediatrician who helped expose Flint's water crisis now fighting poverty

Pediatrician who helped expose Flint's water crisis now fighting poverty

Flint, Michigan— At a parade last year in Flint, Michigan, every family and their babies celebrated a gift from the same woman —pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna. "How can you say no to these babies? Like how can you say no?" Hanna told CBS News. Rx kids, a program she created to give cash to pregnant moms, is an American first. "I wanted something that literally would be able to prescribe away the pathogen of poverty," Hanna said. "I wanted something that I could pull out of my doctor's bag, pull out of my white coat that literally would be able to prescribe away the pathogen of poverty. Poverty makes kids sick. So I wanted to prevent it." She's raised more than $100 million, 80% of which is from private donors. Now, every expectant mother in Flint, regardless of income, can get $1,500 during her pregnancy. Once the baby is born, it's $500 a month for up to a year — no strings attached. "So what we are hearing from our families is that this amount of money is a lifesaver, a game changer for our families," Hanna said. "They can afford to pay their rent. They can buy diapers for their baby. They can buy formula. They don't have to choose between being homeless or having a roof over their heads." When asked how to know if the money is being spent on the right things, Hanna said, "This is based on global evidence. Our families...through multiple surveys, we know that they're spending this money No. 1 on baby supplies, and then on food, rent utilities, transportation, childcare." "We are telling families, 'We see you, we hear you, and we trust you,'" she added. Hanna knows child poverty runs in Flint's bloodstream. In 2015,she brought national attentionto the city's corroding water pipes andlinked them to children with lead poisoning. Now she's tackling poverty. In four areas of Michigan, any expectant mother can apply. But in Flint, the program reports 60% of enrolled families have an annual household income of less than $10,000. When Angela Sintery was pregnant with her daughter Jolena, she remembers filling out a five-minute questionnaire. "Two weeks later, I had money in my bank account," Sintery said, adding that the money allowed her not to stress out and focus on her baby instead. Michigan State Sen. John Damoose is a conservative Republican from a red district. He's no fan of handouts, but pushed hard to get Rx Kids in his district. "It's extremely efficient. There's no government bureaucracy whatsoever. This is actually a great program that meets people right where they need it," Damoose said. Since early last year, Rx Kids has spread roughly $10 million to more than 2,200 families. "This is a plug-and-play program. It is already built with dollars at the table. We are ready to go live in communities across the nation," Hanna said. E.l.f. Beauty calls Hailey Bieber an industry disruptor amid Rhode sale These 3 record breakers have one thing in common Reporter's Notebook: John Dickerson reflects on his spelling woes

byRoger Fisher

in

May 30, 2025

Pediatrician who helped expose Flint's water crisis now fighting poverty

Pediatrician who helped expose Flint's water crisis now fighting poverty Flint, Michigan— At a parade last year in Flint, Michigan, ever...

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