US President Donald Trump said he would “100 percent” reach a tariffs deal with the European Union as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia led a charm offensive at the White House on Thursday.Trump complimented the “fantastic” far-right leader, the first from Europe to visit the Republican since he slapped 20 percent tariffs on EU exports that he has since suspended for 90 days.Casting herself as the only European who can de-escalate Trump’s trade war with Europe, Meloni highlighted her conservative common ground with Trump.”The goal for me is to make the West great again, and I think we can do it together,” she told reporters in the Oval Office, highlighting shared views on immigration and “woke ideology.”Meloni said Trump had accepted an invitation to visit Rome in the “near future” and that he might also meet European leaders there.The two leaders talked up the chances of a deal, one of a series that Trump says he will extract from major trading partners over his world-shaking tariffs.”There will be a trade deal, 100 percent,” Trump said during an earlier working lunch with Meloni, who said she was “sure” they could reach an agreement.But in a sign of the potential challenges ahead, Trump said that he was in “no rush” and that Meloni had not changed his mind on his overall tariff policy.”Everybody wants to make a deal — and if they don’t want to make a deal, we’ll make the deal for them,” Trump added.Meloni was the only European leader to be invited to Trump’s January 20 inauguration, and US officials said she was “eye-to-eye with the president on a lot of issues like immigration and Ukraine.”Trump said that Europe needed to “get a lot smarter” on immigration, returning to his administration’s repeated attacks on the bloc on the subject.- ‘Aware of what I am defending’ -Russia’s war in Ukraine however remained a touchy subject.Meloni has been a staunch ally of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky since Russia’s invasion of the country in 2022, most recently calling Moscow’s Palm Sunday attack on the city of Sumy “horrible and vile.” Trump however has stunned allies with a pivot towards Moscow and repeated attacks on Zelensky, whom he berated in an Oval Office meeting in February.The US leader said with Meloni beside him that “I don’t hold Zelensky responsible but I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started,” adding that he was “not a big fan” of the Ukrainian.Meloni had earlier acknowledged the uncertainty weighing on her trip as Europe reels from repeated blows from a country that has been the continent’s defender for decades.”Surely, I am aware of what I represent and I am aware of what I am defending,” Meloni said Tuesday.Italian newspapers reported that one of the goals of Meloni’s visit was to pave the way for a meeting between Trump and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.Meloni’s decision to personally intercede with Trump has caused some disquiet among EU allies, who are concerned that her visit could undermine bloc unity.”If we start having bilateral discussions, obviously it will break the current dynamic,” France’s Industry Minister Marc Ferracci warned last week. A European Commission spokeswoman said that while the EU alone could negotiate trade agreements, Meloni’s “outreach is very welcome” and was coordinated with Brussels.Following Thursday’s meeting with Trump, Meloni will fly back to Rome on Friday in time to host US Vice President JD Vance, with whom she has a meeting planned.Trump’s threatened tariffs could have a major impact on Italy, the world’s fourth-largest exporter, which sends around 10 percent of its exports to the United States.

At least six people were hurt, one of them critically, after a mass shooting at a Florida university on Thursday, hospital officials said.The campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee was locked down after gunfire erupted, with students ordered to shelter in place.Local media, citing a police spokesperson, reported one man was in custody.The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper said the spokesperson did not confirm the identity of the man, or comment on social media reports that there was more than one shooter.Witnesses spoke of chaos as people began running through the sprawling campus when shots rang out in the area of the student union.”Everyone just started running out of the student union,” a witness named Wayne told local news station WCTV.”About a minute later, we heard about eight to 10 gunshots.”The eyewitness said he saw one man who appeared to have been shot in the midsection.”The whole entire thing was just surreal. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”Everything was really quiet, than all chaotic.”The university, a public institution with more than 40,000 students, warned all those on campus to take shelter.”An active shooter has been reported in the area of Student Union,” the university said on social media.”Police are on scene or on the way. Continue to seek shelter and await further instructions. Lock and stay away from all doors and windows and be prepared to take additional protective measures.”A statement from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital said doctors were “actively receiving and caring for patients.”A spokesperson for the hospital told AFP: “We have six patients, one in critical condition, and the rest in serious condition,” confirming they were hurt in the shooting.Student Sam Swartz told the Tallahassee Democrat he had been in the basement of the student union when shooting started. “Everyone started freaking out,” Swartz said, adding he had heard around 10 shots.A group of eight people, who were working on a project, huddled in a hallway and barricaded themselves with trash cans and plywood.”I remember learning to do the best you can to make them take time because they don’t want to do anything that takes time, they’re just trying to get as many people,” Swartz said.Footage on social media showed a stream of young adults walking through corridors with their hands in the air as they evacuated the building.Mass shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, where a constitutional right to bear arms trumps calls for stricter rules.Despite widespread public support for tighter control on firearms, including  restricting the sale of high-capacity clips and limiting the availability of automatic weapons of war, an entrenched political establishment refuses to act.A tally by the non-profit Gun Violence Archive shows there have been at least 81 mass shootings — which it defines as four or more people shot — in the United States so far this year.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted that he could force out the head of the independent Federal Reserve, lashing out after Jerome Powell warned of tariffs-fueled inflation.Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said Powell would “leave if I ask him to.” He added: “I’m not happy with him. I let him know it and if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.”Earlier, in a scathing post on Truth Social, Trump repeated a demand for Powell to lower interest rates, saying his “termination… cannot come fast enough.” Sources also told the Wall Street Journal that Trump has privately discussed firing Powell for months but has not made a final decision, and raised it during private meetings at Mar-a-Lago with former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh.The US president does not have direct authority to fire Federal Reserve governors, but Trump could initiate a lengthy process to attempt to unseat Powell by proving there was “cause” to do so.Powell warned Wednesday that Trump’s sweeping tariffs on virtually every trade partner could put the Fed in the unenviable position of having to choose between tackling inflation and unemployment.Trump’s stop-start tariff policy has unnerved investors and governments around the world, leaving them unsure about his long-term strategy and what it might mean for international trade.The US central bank has adopted a wait-and-see attitude to cutting rates, holding them steady at 4.25 to 4.5 percent since the start of this year.Trump has frequently criticized the Fed chairman, whom he originally nominated during his first term, accusing Powell of playing politics.Trump’s earlier post suggested Powell’s decisions were “Too Late” and that he should have followed the European Central Bank’s lead, which on Thursday lowered its benchmark deposit rate by a quarter point.ECB chief Christine Lagarde expressed her confidence in Powell following Trump’s remarks, saying she had “a lot of respect for my friend and esteemed colleague.”On the campaign trail in August, Trump suggested the White House should have a “say” in setting monetary policy. Democrats, however, have defended the independence of the institution.”An independent Fed is vital for a healthy economy — something that Trump has proved is not a priority for him,” senior Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said on X in response to Trump’s criticism of Powell.- Powell pledges to stay -While presidents have a long history of clashing with Fed chiefs, any move to force Powell to leave office would be unprecedented in modern US political history.Speaking on April 4, Powell insisted he had no plans to step down as Fed chairman before his term ends next year. “I fully intend to serve all of my term,” he said at an event in Virginia.At the time, Powell also suggested that the Fed was in no rush to cut its benchmark lending rate from its current elevated level.Financial markets see a roughly two-thirds chance that policymakers will vote to keep rates unchanged again at the next Fed interest rate meeting in May, according to data from CME Group.Setting key interest rates is one of the primary levers the Fed exercises in its dual mandate of managing inflation and unemployment.Lowering interest rates serves to make borrowing cheaper and tends to kickstart the economy by encouraging investment, while raising them — or keeping them steady at higher rates — can help cool inflation.US year-on-year consumer inflation slowed to 2.4 percent in March, bringing it closer to the Fed’s long-term two-percent target.That drop was aided by a 6.3 percent fall in gasoline prices, according to official data.