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Four people including a police officer were killed Monday after a gunman walked into a skyscraper in central Manhattan and opened fire in broad daylight, officials said.A fifth victim was also in critical condition after being shot, while the gunman apparently took his own life, Mayor Eric Adams told a late-night briefing at a hospital near the scene of the shooting.The gunman was caught on camera exiting a black BMW carrying an M-4 rifle, then entering the building, immediately opening fire on a police officer before “spraying the lobby” with bullets, police commissioner Jessica Tisch told the press conference.He then took an elevator to the 33rd floor, of Rudin Management which owns the building, where the man continued his spree before apparently shooting himself. He was later discovered by officers next to his weapon.The office tower block at 345 Park Avenue is also home to hedge fund giant Blackstone, auditor KPMG and the National Football League.Tisch told the briefing that the suspect was believed to have acted alone but inquiries were ongoing, with the FBI assisting in the investigation.She identified the shooter as Shane Tamura of Las Vegas and said a revolver, ammunition and magazines were found in his vehicle along with medication bearing his name. The man had a history of mental health issues according to Las Vegas law enforcement — but did appear to possess a valid firearms permit for Nevada, Tisch said.He drove cross-country from the southwestern state in recent days and arrived in New York on Monday, she said.The incident began around 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) when reports of gunfire prompted hundreds of police to swarm a busy office district on the storied Park Avenue, an area popular with tourists and visiting businesspeople.A worker from a nearby office building wept as she left the area after a local lockdown was lifted, while another described a gunman going floor to floor as staff prepared to leave for the day.Adams said the fallen police officer, an immigrant from Bangladesh who was 36 years old, was among the dead.Two other males and a female died, and another man remained in a critical condition, officials said without giving any preliminary motive for the shootings.- Rush hour -Office worker Shad Sakib told AFP that he was packing his things to leave work when a public address announcement warned him and his colleagues to shelter in place.”Everyone was confused with like, ‘wait, what’s going on?’ And then someone finally realized that it’s online, that someone walked in with a machine gun,” said the witness who wore a grey suit jacket.”He walked right into a building right next door. We saw the photo of him walking through the same area that I walked through to get lunch here.”You would think it won’t happen to you, and then it does.”Mass shootings are common in the United States, where a constitutional right to bear arms outweighs demands for stricter rules.There have been 254 mass shootings in the United States this year including Monday’s incident in New York, according to the Gun Violence Archive — which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.Police officers deployed a drone near Park Avenue at the height of the evening rush-hour as dozens of officers swarmed the area, some carrying long guns and others wearing ballistic vests.The area is home to several five-star business hotels, as well as a number of corporate headquarters. The United Nations headquarters is nearby.New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she has been briefed on the shooting.The frontrunner in the race for mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote on X that he was “heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer… in my thoughts.”

At least four people including a police officer were killed Monday after a gunman walked into a skyscraper in central Manhattan and opened fire in broad daylight, officials said.A fifth victim was also in critical condition after being shot, while the gunman apparently took his own life, Mayor Eric Adams told a late-night briefing at a hospital near the scene of the shooting.The gunman was caught on surveillance footage leaving a black BMW carrying an M-4 rifle before entering the building, immediately opening fire on a police officer before “spraying the lobby” with bullets, police commissioner Jessica Tisch told a press conference.An office tower block at 345 Park Avenue — home to hedge fund giant Blackstone, auditor KPMG and the National Football League — was apparently targeted by the gunman, Tisch said. She said that the suspect was believed to have acted alone.Tisch gave the shooter’s name as Shane Tamura from Las Vegas and said a revolver, ammunition and magazines were found in his vehicle. She said Tamura had a history of mental health issues.The incident began around 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) when reports of gunfire prompted hundreds of police to swarm a busy office district on the storied Park Avenue, an area popular with tourists and visiting businesspeople.A worker from a nearby office building wept as she left the area after a local lockdown was lifted, while another described a gunman going floor to floor as staff prepared to leave for the day.”We lost four souls to another act of senseless violence,” Adams said, without counting the gunman who also died, apparently by a self-inflicted gunshot.Adams said the fallen police officer, an immigrant from Bangladesh who was 36 years old, was among the dead.Two other males and a female died and another man remained in a critical condition, officials said without giving any preliminary motive for the shootings.Office worker Shad Sakib told AFP that he was packing his things to leave work when a public address announcement warned him and his colleagues to shelter in place.”Everyone was confused with like, ‘wait, what’s going on?’ And then someone finally realized that it’s online, that someone walked in with a machine gun,” said the witness who wore a grey suit jacket.”He walked right into a building right next door. We saw the photo of him walking through the same area that I walked through to get lunch here.”You would think it won’t happen to you, and then it does.”- ‘Floor by floor’ -Another witness, a woman who declined to give her name as she left the vicinity of the shooting, told AFP “I was in the building. He went floor by floor,” while a second woman wept as she left the scene. There have been 254 mass shootings in the United States this year including Monday’s incident in New York, according to the Gun Violence Archive — which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.Police officers deployed a drone near Park Avenue at the height of the evening rush-hour as dozens of officers swarmed the area, some carrying long guns and others wearing ballistic vests.Police repeatedly pushed back journalists and members of the public who gathered to see what was happening in the normally calm but busy area of Midtown Manhattan.The area is home to several five-star business hotels, as well as a number of corporate headquarters and financial and law firms.New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she has been briefed on the shooting.The frontrunner in the race for mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote on X that he was “heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer… in my thoughts.”

A Colombian court on Monday found Alvaro Uribe guilty of witness tampering, making him the South American country’s first ex-president to be convicted of a crime.The 73-year-old — who led Colombia from 2002 to 2010 — was found guilty of asking right-wing paramilitaries to lie about their alleged links to him.As the judge started reading out her verdict Monday, Uribe — who attended the trial virtually — sat shaking his head.The still-powerful ex-president is expected to hear his sentence on Friday. He risks 12 years in prison.The judgement brought rapid condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who decried “the weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges.”A law-and-order hardliner, Uribe was a close ally of the United States and retains close ties to the American right. At home his popularity has waned as alleged rights abuses during his tenure have come to light.Even before the ruling and Rubio’s high-profile attack, a Colombian lawyers’ guild asked for more protection for Judge Sandra Heredia, who is presiding over this case.Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro shot back at Rubio’s criticism and insisted the judiciary was independent.Allegations “to the contrary were an insult that would not be tolerated”, he said.- Dirty war -Paramilitary groups emerged in the 1980s in Colombia to fight Marxist guerrillas that had taken up arms against the state.A plethora of armed groups that emerged in the standoff adopted cocaine as their main source of income — the genesis of a deadly rivalry for resources and trafficking routes that continues to this day.Uribe led a relentless military campaign against drug cartels and the FARC guerrilla army, which signed a peace deal with his successor Juan Manuel Santos in 2016 — much to Uribe’s chagrin.After leftist senator Ivan Cepeda accused him of ties with paramilitary groups responsible for human rights violations, Uribe is alleged to have contacted jailed ex-fighters to lie for him.The judge Monday found him guilty on two charges: interfering with witnesses and “procedural fraud.”- Popular politician -Uribe remains popular in Colombia for his anti-FARC campaigns, and is still a prominent voice on the right. Recent opinion polls revealed him to be the South American country’s best loved politician.In 2019, thousands protested in Bogota and Medellin when he was indicted in the case, and on Monday, a smaller group of followers gathered outside the court wearing masks fashioned after his image and chanting: “Uribe, innocent!”They clashed with a group of critics.The investigation against Uribe began in 2018 and has had numerous twists and turns, with several attorneys-general seeking to close the case.It gained new impetus under Attorney General Luz Camargo, picked by Petro — himself a former guerrilla and a political arch-foe of Uribe.More than 90 witnesses testified in the trial, which opened in May 2024.Prosecutors produced evidence during the trial of least one paramilitary ex-fighter who said he was contacted by Uribe to change his story.- ‘Vengeance’ -The former president is also under investigation in other matters.He has testified before prosecutors in a preliminary probe into a 1997 paramilitary massacre of farmers when he was governor of the western Antioquia department.A complaint has also been filed against him in Argentina, where universal jurisdiction allows for the prosecution of crimes committed anywhere in the world.That complaint stems from Uribe’s alleged involvement in the more than 6,000 executions and forced disappearances of civilians by the military when he was president.Uribe insists his trial is a product of “political vengeance.”

Palantir, an American data analysis and artificial intelligence company, has emerged as Silicon Valley’s latest tech darling — one that makes no secret of its macho, America-first ethos now ascendant in Trump-era tech culture.The company’s reach spans the global economy, with banks, hospitals, the US government, and the Israeli military among its ever-expanding client roster.”We want and need this country to be the strongest, most important country in the world,” Alex Karp, Palantir’s CEO, recently declared at a client conference in Palo Alto, California, where AFP was the only media outlet present.In armed conflicts — most notably in Ukraine — Palantir’s tools help evaluate potential targets in real-time, using multiple sources, including biometric data and intercepted phone calls.”I’m super proud of… what we do to protect our soldiers… (using our AI) to kill our enemies and scare them, because they know they will be killed,” the graying, curly-haired billionaire continued, wearing a tight white T-shirt.Washington has been filling Palantir’s coffers.In the first quarter, the company received $373 million from the US government — a 45 percent jump from the previous year — and it’s not all miltary spending.This spring, federal immigration authorities (ICE) awarded the company a $30 million contract to develop a new platform for tracking deportations and visa overstays.- ‘Like a drug’ -The company then secured an investment of nearly $800 million from the US military, adding to the $480 million contract signed in May 2024 for its AI platform supporting the Pentagon’s “Project Maven” target identification program. This marked Palantir’s first billion-dollar contract, elevating it alongside government contracting stalwarts like Microsoft and Amazon’s AWS.However, financial results “are not and will never be the ultimate measure of the value, broadly defined, of our business,” Karp wrote in his letter to shareholders in early May, where he tossed in quotes from Saint Augustine, the Bible and Richard Nixon.”We have grander and more idiosyncratic aims.”Palantir was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel — Silicon Valley’s preeminent conservative — Karp, and others with CIA backing. The company takes its name from the magical seeing stones in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.””Young people would say we’re like pure drugs — very expensive, highly sought after… that make you stronger and better,” Karp boasted on stage.Palantir’s expanding footprint at the highest levels of government has raised eyebrows.Several members of the Trump administration’s “DOGE” cost-cutting commission, originally headed by Elon Musk, came from the company.Recent reports from The New York Times, Wired, and CNN have detailed secret government projects to create, with Palantir’s help, a central database combining data from different federal agencies.- ‘Deeply proud’ -This development has created “a lot of concerns about how that information might be used,” warned Elizabeth Laird from the Center for Democracy & Technology.Palantir maintains it isn’t building “surveillance technology” or a “central database on Americans.”Unlike most traditional Silicon Valley companies that have kept military projects discreet, Palantir now embraces its defense work openly.Sasha Spivak, director of strategy, said that when she joined Palantir ten years ago, the company kept its sense of purpose behind closed doors.”Today we’re not ashamed, we’re not afraid, and we’re deeply proud of what we do and our clients,” said Spivak. Some employee groups are pushing back. In early May, 13 former Palantir employees published a letter accusing tech giants of helping to “normalize authoritarianism under the cover of a ‘revolution’ led by oligarchs.”They argue that by supporting the Trump administration and DOGE, Palantir has betrayed its stated values of ethics, transparency, and defending democracy.”When I joined the company… there were many smart, motivated people — that’s pretty rare,” said one of the letter’s signatories, who wishes to remain anonymous, for fear of reprisal.After months of seeking management explanations about Palantir’s collaboration with Israel and ICE, several of these employees resigned.”They said, ‘We’re a company that’s very responsive to employees,’ but people asking about Israel were quickly shut down and told, ‘That’s what we do — if you don’t like it, you can leave,'” the former staffer recalled.Jeremy David, co-director of the Health division, plays down the controversies.”My daily life is more about nurses and doctors who often hate us at first and are very grateful at the end,” he told AFP at the conference. On stage, Joe Bonanno, head of data analysis at Citibank, celebrated how one operation that previously required “nine days and sometimes 50 people” now “takes just a few minutes for one person.””Like I said, and like Alex said, I came to dominate, crush and annihilate. So if you’re JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, sorry,” he concluded with a broad smile.Some potential clients quietly admit they don’t appreciate the war-like rhetoric, but they see no alternative to Palantir’s capabilities.

Five people including a police officer and the suspected gunman were dead following a shooting Monday in central Manhattan, US media reported.”Four people, including a New York Police Department officer, were killed in today’s shooting in Midtown Manhattan,” a law enforcement source told broadcaster CNN, adding that the suspected gunman died from what is believed to be a “self-inflicted injury.”Mayor Eric Adams said on X an officer had been “struck down” and expressed his “deepest sympathies” to the family of the officer, although a department spokeswoman said she could neither confirm nor deny an officer had been killed. Police said the scene, around Park Avenue and East 51st Street, had been “contained and the lone shooter is dead,” without providing details about the identity of the suspect.”At this time, the scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized,” police commissioner Jessica Tisch wrote on X.Office worker Shad Sakib told AFP that he was packing his things to leave work when a public address announcement warned him and his colleagues to shelter in place.”Everyone was confused with like, ‘wait, what’s going on?’ And then someone finally realized that it’s online, that someone walked in with a machine gun,” said the witness who wore a grey suit jacket.”He walked right into a building right next door. We saw the photo of him walking through the same area that I walked through to get lunch here.”You would think it won’t happen to you, and then it does.”- ‘Floor by floor’ -Another witness, a woman who declined to give her name as she left the vicinity of the shooting, told AFP “I was in the building. He went floor by floor.” Witnesses told AFP the incident happened in an office block that is home to the Blackstone investment company.Police officers deployed a drone near Park Avenue at the height of the evening rush-hour as dozens of officers swarmed the area, some carrying long guns and others wearing ballistic vests.A number of ambulances had gathered in the vicinity and several helicopters hovered above the scene.Police repeatedly pushed back journalists and members of the public who gathered to see what was happening in the normally calm but busy area of Midtown Manhattan.The area is home to several five-star business hotels, as well as a number of corporate headquarters, including Colgate Palmolive and auditor KPMG.Earlier the mayor had told New Yorkers that “there is an active shooter investigation taking place in Midtown right now. Please take proper safety precautions if you are in vicinity and do not go outside if you are near Park Avenue and East 51st Street.”New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she has been briefed on the shooting.

US President Donald Trump on Monday issued Moscow with a dramatic new deadline to end the war in Ukraine or face tough new sanctions, as he met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland.Saying he was not very interested in talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin anymore, the US leader also shifted his tone on Gaza, acknowledging there were signs of “real starvation” in the conflict-ravaged Palestinian territory.Trump, sitting alongside Starmer at the US leader’s luxury golf resort in Turnberry, south of Glasgow, said he was “very disappointed” with Putin over continued strikes against Ukrainian civilian targets.He announced that he was reducing an earlier 50-day deadline set on July 14 for Putin to bring the Ukraine conflict to an end to “about 10 or 12 days”, starting immediately.”There is no reason in waiting,” Trump said, adding he thought Putin would want to end things quickly.”I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it’s going to end he kills people.”I’m not so interested in talking (to him) anymore,” he added.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swiftly praised the US president’s stand, thanking Trump for his “clear stance and expressed determination”.”Right on time, when a lot can change through strength for real peace. I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war,” Zelensky said on social media.The talks between Trump and Starmer focused on ending the suffering in Gaza and reviving stalled ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.Trump announced the United States would set up walk-in “food centres” in Gaza, and said he believed a ceasefire was still possible.- Golf diplomacy -“We’re going to be getting some good strong food, we can save a lot of people. I mean, some of those kids — that’s real starvation stuff,” he said.Starmer, under domestic pressure to follow France’s lead and recognise a Palestinian state, called the situation unfolding in Gaza an “absolute catastrophe”.The pair also discussed the implementation of a UK-US trade deal that was signed on May 8 that lowered tariffs for certain UK exports but has yet to come into force.Trump hosted Starmer and his wife Victoria under tight security at Turnberry, where he had spent two days playing golf since landing in Scotland on Friday night for a five-day visit.They then flew by Air Force One to Prestwick, near Glasgow, where they boarded the helicopter Marine One to fly to Trump’s other golf resort in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, northeast Scotland, for a private dinner.Their talks came after the United States and the European Union reached a landmark deal to avert a full-blown trade war over tariffs, when EU chief Ursula von der Leyen visited Trump at the resort on Sunday.Trump hinted that he would not impose heavy tariffs on British pharmaceuticals.”We certainly feel a lot better with your country working on pharmaceuticals for America than some of the other countries,” he told Starmer.”With the relationship we have, you would not use that as a cudgel. You wouldn’t be using it as a block,” he added.Trump set out early in his second term to fulfil a decades-long desire of reshaping US trade with the world, with his administration predicting his aggressive strategy of punitive tariffs could bring “90 deals in 90 days.”After months with very little to show, he is now enjoying some success, landing accords with Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and, most importantly, the European Union.The deals are expected to kick in on August 1 to replace the current tariff regime these economies face, a White House spokesperson told AFP.The US president is due to open a new golf course at his Aberdeenshire resort on Tuesday, before heading back to the United States later in the day.

Police swarmed Midtown Manhattan on Monday as the mayor of New York City said there was “an active shooter investigation” amid reports a police officer had been struck.”New Yorkers: there is an active shooter investigation taking place in Midtown right now. Please take proper safety precautions if you are in vicinity and do not go outside if you are near Park Avenue and East 51st Street,” Mayor Eric Adams wrote on X.Police officers deployed a drone near Park Avenue at the height of the evening rush-hour as dozens of officers gathered in the area, some carrying long guns and others wearing ballistic vests.A number of ambulances had gathered in the vicinity.Officers at the scene confirmed to an AFP correspondent that there was a shooter but gave no other details.CNN reported that a police officer and at least one civilian had been shot, but AFP was unable to immediately confirm that.Police repeatedly pushed back journalists and members of the public who gathered to see what was happening in the normally calm but busy area of Midtown Manhattan.The area is home to several five-star business hotels, as well as a number of corporate headquarters, including Colgate Palmolive and KPMG, the auditor.

The dollar jumped Monday on the back of a US-EU trade deal, but the main European stock markets fell, reflecting unease at terms viewed as lopsided.Frankfurt closed sharply down, as shares in German carmakers plunged. Paris dipped, while London — outside the EU — also receded.Wall Street, meanwhile, finished mixed after a choppy session. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 edged to fresh records, while the Dow slipped.The US market’s “muted” reaction made sense given the heavy number of economic news releases this week that could move the market, said Angelo Kourkafas, senior global strategist at Edward Jones.”Because markets have run a lot in a short amount of time, we may get some good enough news, but they may not elicit the same reaction as some of the good news over the last couple of weeks when valuations were lower than they are today,” Kourkafas said. While Brussels defended the deal announced over the weekend as “better than a trade war with the United States,” several EU countries expressed unhappiness.European capitals saw the agreement’s 15 percent tariffs on most EU exports to the United States — but none on US exports to the EU — as skewed.As part of the deal, President Donald Trump said the bloc had agreed to purchase “$750 billion worth of energy” from the United States, and make $600 billion in additional investments.”While the deal has avoided a much worse outcome for now, it remains to be seen whether it will last,” cautioned Jack Allen-Reynolds, a eurozone economist at Capital Economics.With average US tariffs on EU imports now around 17 percent, “we think this will reduce EU GDP by about 0.2 percent,” he said.He predicted that “uncertainty is likely to remain high” because Trump “could still change his mind even after the deal has been finalized and signed.”Oil prices rose strongly.That was partly on relief from the deal — but also because Trump shortened a deadline for Russia to end its war in Ukraine to August 7 or 9, after which he vowed to sanction countries buying its crude.Monday also saw the start of a fresh round of trade negotiations between China and the United States ahead of August 12, when a 90-day truce between the economic superpowers is scheduled to end.Shares in European companies tracked the unease at the EU-US deal.Volkswagen, BMW and Porsche all shed more than three percent as the implications of high tariffs on their exports to the United States sank in. In Paris, shares in Pernod Ricard, which exports wine and spirits to the United States, fell more than three percent.Traders were prepared for a busy week in the United States, with a slew of corporate earnings reports — including from Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon — and macro data readings coming their way giving indications about US jobs and growth.The Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at its meeting this week, with investors focused on its outlook for the rest of the year given Trump’s tariffs and recent trade deals.- Key figures at around 2030 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 44,837.56 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP less than 0.1 percent at 6,389.77 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 21,178.58 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 9,081.44 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,800.88 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.0 percent at 23,970.36 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.1 percent at 40,998.27 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.7 percent at 25,562.13 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,597.94 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1597 from $1.1742 on FridayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3356 from $1.3438Dollar/yen: UP at 148.52 yen from 147.69 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 86.80 pence from 87.39 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 2.3 percent at $70.04 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 2.4 percent at $66.71 per barrel

US President Donald Trump asked a federal judge on Monday to expedite a deposition of Rupert Murdoch in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, citing the media baron’s advanced age.”Murdoch is 94 years old, has suffered from multiple health issues throughout his life (and) is believed to have suffered recent significant health scares,” Trump’s attorneys said in a filing with a district court in Florida.”These factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial,” they said, asking District Judge Darrin Gayles to compel an “expedited deposition.”Gayles gave lawyers for Murdoch until August 4 to respond.Trump sued Murdoch and the Journal this month after it published an article about his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The newspaper reported that in 2003, the then-real estate magnate wrote a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared “secret.”Trump denies any such letter exists.Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump and multiple high-profile men, was found hanging dead in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited hundreds of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida.The case sparked conspiracy theories, especially among Trump’s far-right voters, about an alleged international cabal of wealthy pedophiles.When Trump returned to power for a second term this January, his supporters clamored for revelations but the FBI and Justice Department released a memo this month saying Epstein had not blackmailed any prominent figures and did not have a “client list.”In another development on Monday, a lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and the only person found guilty of crimes in connection with his activities, asked the Supreme Court to throw out her 2021 sex trafficking conviction.Maxwell is seeking to have her conviction overturned on grounds that a plea deal reached in 2008 between Epstein and federal prosecutors in a Florida case ruled out prosecution of any “co-conspirators.””This case is about what the government promised, not what Epstein did,” her lawyer, David Markus said. “Petitioner’s alleged status as Epstein’s co-conspirator was the entire basis of her prosecution.”The Justice Department has previously opposed Maxwell’s motion but a top official met with her in Florida last week as the Trump administration struggles to tamp down a furor over the president’s handling of the Epstein case.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is also Trump’s former personal attorney, has declined to say what he discussed with Maxwell in the highly unusual meetings between a convicted felon and a top DOJ official.The former British socialite is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of recruiting underage girls for Epstein.

Chinese and US officials wrapped the first day in a fresh round of talks in Stockholm on Monday, with the world’s top two economies looking to extend a fragile trade truce in the face of President Donald Trump’s global tariff war.The talks came a day after Trump reached a deal with the EU that will see the bloc’s exports to the United States taxed at 15 percent.The negotiations in Sweden concluded shortly before 8:00 pm (1800 GMT), with neither side offering details on their progress, although a US Treasury department spokesman said they were expected to resume on Tuesday.The United States and China earlier this year imposed triple-digit tariffs on each other in a tit-for-tat escalation, but then walked them back under a temporary agreement reached in May.The expiry of that 90-day truce falls on August 12, but there are indications they could use the Stockholm talks to push it back further.The South China Morning Post, citing sources on both sides, reported on Sunday that Washington and Beijing are expected to extend their tariff pause by a further 90 days.Under the existing accord, US duties on Chinese goods have temporarily been lowered to 30 percent, and China’s countermeasures slashed to 10 percent.Dozens of other countries, though, face a Trump deadline of Friday this week to seal deals with Washington or see US tariffs against them rise.Beijing said ahead of the Stockholm meeting that it wants to see “reciprocity” in its trade with the United States.Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing favoured “consensus through dialogue” to “reduce misunderstandings, strengthen cooperation and promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-US relations”.The negotiating teams in Stockholm were being led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Sweden.They were meeting in the Rosenbad building, home to the Swedish government. The Chinese and US flags were raised in front of it for the talks.- ‘Shift’ seen in US approach -The previous round of China-US talks was held in London.”There seems to have been a fairly significant shift in (US) administration thinking on China since particularly the London talks,” said Emily Benson, head of strategy at Minerva Technology Futures.”The mood now is much more focused on what’s possible to achieve, on warming relations where possible and restraining any factors that could increase tensions,” she told AFP.Talks with China have not produced a deal but Benson said both countries have made progress, with certain rare earth and semiconductor flows restarting.”Secretary Bessent has also signalled that he thinks a concrete outcome will be to delay the 90-day tariff pause,” she said. “That’s also promising, because it indicates that something potentially more substantive is on the horizon.”US-China Business Council president Sean Stein said the most important thing from Stockholm “is the atmosphere coming out”.”The business community is optimistic that the two presidents will meet later this year, hopefully in Beijing,” he told AFP.Other countries in Trump’s tariffs crosshairs have been parsing Washington’s negotiations with China and the European Union for clues on what options they might have.The US president has imposed a baseline 10-percent rate on most countries around the world, but has vowed to raise that from August 1 on certain nations if they do not make a deal.He has threatened to hike tariffs up to 50 percent on partners such as Brazil and India.Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have already effectively raised duties on US imports to levels not seen since the 1930s, according to data from The Budget Lab research centre at Yale University.Trump has announced pacts so far with the European Union, Britain, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, although details have been sparse.The EU unveiled a pact with Washington on Sunday while South Korea is rushing to strike an agreement.Breakthroughs have been patchy since Washington promised a flurry of agreements after unveiling — and then swiftly postponing — tariff hikes targeting dozens of economies in April.burs-ft/rlp