Category World News

The two leaders met at the White House on Monday to sign the agreement.

Trump claimed that negotiations had taken place over the course of four or five months. According to Trump, the two leaders will also talk about military equipment, submarines, and trade.

Albanese described it as a “ready-to-go $8.5 billion pipeline.”

The two nations will each invest $1 billion in mining and processing projects over the next six months, according to a copy of the agreement that the prime minister’s office provided. Additionally, they establish a minimum price cap for essential minerals, a move that Western miners have long demanded.

According to US Geological Survey data, Australia also has significant reserves, but China has the largest rare earths reserves in the world.

The two leaders also planned to talk about the $ 299.4 billion agreement that, under the leadership of then-US President Joe Biden, would allow Australia to purchase US nuclear submarines in 2032 before creating a new submarine class with Britain.

According to US Navy Secretary John Phelan, the two countries were “working very closely” to improve the original framework for all three parties and “clarify some of the ambiguity that was in the prior agreement.”

Trump claimed that these details were “just minor details.”

Trump argued that there shouldn’t be any more clarifications because the building is currently moving at full speed ahead.

Defence Minister Richard Marles last week claimed he was aware of the review’s conclusion, and that Australian officials have sincere assurances that it will continue.

China’s export restrictions on rare earth

Australian officials have emphasized that Canberra is making money under AUKUS, a trilateral military partnership between the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, which contributes $ 2 billion this year to boost production at US submarine shipyards and is working to keep US Virginia-class submarines at its Indian Ocean naval base from 2027.

As the Pentagon urged Canberra to reduce its defense spending, the delay of ten months has heightened some worry in Australia. Last month, the leaders of the United Nations General Assembly had a brief meeting.

As Western governments struggle to reduce their dependence on China for rare earths and minor metals, Australia is willing to sell shares of its planned strategic reserve of important minerals to allies, including Britain.

The expansion of rare earth export controls by Beijing was criticized by senior US officials last week as a threat to global supply chains. The materials are essential for everything from electric vehicles to military radars and aircraft engines, which are produced in China as the largest producer in the world.

After Gen Z-driven protests forced the former president of Madagascar to leave the country, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, the country’s coup leader, has created a new prime minister.

Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo, a businessman, was sworn in as president last week, and Randrianirina, who was sworn in as president, said he had chosen him as the new prime minister because of his expertise and “connections with the international organizations that work with us.”

Former president Andry Rajoelina, who was impeached for desertion of duty after escaping from the country last weekend, has condemned the army’s takeover and has refused to step down while in exile.

Rajoelina fled for his life as a result of the “Gen Z Madagascar” youth movement’s nationwide protests, which started out in September with calls for a system overhaul and quickly grew to include calls for system reform.

Rajoelina claims to have visited a secure location, but has not disclosed it. He also claimed last week that a resignation letter from him was fake, and that he had warned people that “lies” were spreading to “conter” the general public.

The UN and the African Union, which have suspended Madagascar’s membership, have condemned Randrianirina’s military coup.

The new president made his decision when his soldiers rebelled and joined the anti-government demonstrations led by the little-known army colonel, who has long been a vocal critic of Rajoelina.

He became the leader of the uprising, which had previously had no visible leader due to his appearance while riding an armored car among the protesters and accompanying them to a main square to demonstrate.

After a jury in the United States determined that the French bank had provided banking services that violated American sanctions, BNP Paribas shares dropped as much as 10%, posing questions about whether the lender will be subject to additional legal claims.

On Monday morning in New York, the bank’s stock dropped.

Three Sudanese plaintiffs who testified about human rights violations exposed by former President Omar al-Bashir’s rule were ordered by a federal jury in Manhattan on Friday to pay a total of $20.5 million.

The bank’s Paris, France, announced that it would challenge the decision.

The business stated in a statement on Monday that “this result is clearly wrong and ignores significant evidence that the bank was not permitted to present.”

The bank’s shares were heavily affected on Monday by uncertainty regarding whether it might face additional claims or penalties, according to traders and analysts.

The shares dropped as much as 10% at one point, and they last dropped 8.7%, which is their biggest daily decline since March 2023.

More than 20, 000 Sudanese refugees living in the US could now sue the French bank for billions of dollars in damages, according to the three plaintiffs’ attorneys, who now reside in the US.

This decision, according to BNP, should not have a wider application because it applies to these three plaintiffs. Any attempt to extrapolate is wrong, just like any speculating about a potential settlement.

Analysts predict that the news will likely have an impact on the bank’s shares over the coming months.

According to analysts at RBC Capital Markets, “a lack of visibility on the potential financial impact and next legal steps, a reminder of 2014 share price performance and a capital path that leaves relatively little room for error” is likely to hang over the shares until more information is provided.”

In 2014, BNP Paribas agreed to enter a guilty plea and pay an $ 8.97 billion fine in exchange for the US’s allegations that it had allegedly transferred billions of dollars to Sudanese, Iranian, and Cuban companies.

Trump, the president of the United States, has announced that he will travel to China early next year following a request from Beijing.

“I’ve been given a request to visit China, and I’ll do that at some point in the year.” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, “We have it sort of set.”

Despite a recent tariff dispute, the US President added that he anticipated signing a “fair” trade agreement with South Korean President Xi Jinping later this month.

He disputed a previous Pentagon assessment that China was planning to seize Taiwan in 2027, saying that he believed in his relationship with his counterpart Xi.

“I believe China will work just fine with us.” He met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and he said, “China doesn’t want to do that.”

Trump acknowledged that China was planning an invasion of Taiwan, calling it “the most important country in the world by far,” but he added that Taiwan would not be deterred from doing so.

No one will mess with Trump’s claim that “we have the best of everything.”

He declined to respond to a question about whether he would abandon Taiwan’s support under the terms of a deal with Xi.