12 views

Oct. 4, 2025, 9:48 AM EDTBy Freddie ClaytonIsrael airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip on Saturday, local authorities said, hours after President Donald Trump called to halt the bombing, saying that Hamas was ready for peace.Israeli fire killed six people across Gaza, Reuters reported, citing officials, while the Israel Defense Forces said a large part of the enclave remains a dangerous combat zone. One strike killed four people in a house in Gaza City while another killed two others in Khan Younis, authorities said. The attacks came after Hamas said Friday it has agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, and expressed willingness to negotiate through mediators on Trump’s 20-point plan for peace.Trump later said that Israel “must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza,” writing on Truth Social that Hamas was “ready for a lasting PEACE.” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said early Saturday that Israel was preparing “to immediately implement the first phase of Trump’s plan for the immediate release of all hostages.”Residents of Gaza, which has been largely destroyed in the nearly two-year-old war and faces a serious humanitarian crisis, responded to the developments with optimism.“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta told Reuters.Hamas agrees to release all Israeli hostages, alive and dead07:10But attacks have continued on the enclave, and the Israel Defense Forces said Saturday it continued to surround Gaza City, and that “attempting to return to it poses a significant risk.”“The area north of Wadi Gaza is still considered a dangerous combat zone,” Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said in a post on X, referring to a river valley that is considered an informal divider between the northern and southern halves of Gaza.Israeli strikes killed at least 66 people and injured over 250 in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Saturday, adding that the total death toll in the enclave had passed 67,000 after the addition of more than 700 people whose data had been verified.Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, does not say how many of those killed were civilians versus combatants, but the United Nations and other independent experts consider its figures to be reliable.It was unclear how many of the most recent deaths took place after Trump’s announcement. The Ministry of Health reported two deaths of children due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths from malnutrition to 459, including 154 children, it said. The U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, known as UNRWA, called on Israel to allow the flow of humanitarian aid to resume through the U.N.The potential breakthrough with Hamas provides “a rare window of hope” to address the suffering of more than 2 million people “with unspeakable needs,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted. Of the 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, Israel believes 20 are still alive. Under the plan proposed by Trump, Hamas would have three days to release them.Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. Reuters contributed.

- Latest News - October 4, 2025

Israel airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip on Saturday, local authorities said, hours after President Donald Trump called to halt the bombing, saying that Hamas was ready for peace

Source link.

TAGS:
11 views

Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 4, 2025, 7:30 AM EDTBy Steve KopackThe humble soybean is the latest flashpoint in the Trump administration’s campaign to reshape global trade.Used in everything from animal feed to fuel, soybeans regularly rank among the most valuable U.S. agricultural exports, towering over higher-profile crops like corn and cotton. More than $30 billion worth of American soybean products were exported in fiscal year 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.For American soybean farmers, their top overseas market has long been China, which bought around a third of the export crop — approximately $12 billion worth of American soybean products — in the last calendar year, USDA data shows.But not anymore.As President Donald Trump’s trade war leaves U.S.-China relations somewhere between frosty and openly hostile, America’s soybean farmers appear to be an early casualty.An embargo in all but nameSo far, China has not purchased any U.S. soybeans during this year’s main harvest period, with sales falling to zero in May. This has pushed many American farmers reliant on soybeans nearly to the breaking point. It has also complicated the Trump administration’s plans to provide billions in foreign economic aid to Argentina. Buenos Aires recently sold more than 2.5 million metric tons of soybeans to Beijing, after briefly suspending its export tax on the soy products. Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday.Greg Baker / AFP – Getty ImagesU.S. officials blame China for the looming crisis facing American soybean producers. “It’s unfortunate the Chinese leadership has decided to use the American farmers, soybean farmers in particular, as a hostage or pawn in the trade negotiations,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday on CNBC.Farmers view the situation differently, however. They want Trump to reach a trade deal with China that ends the unofficial embargo on soybeans. But instead, what they see is the White House preparing to bail out one of their chief rivals for the Chinese export market.“The frustration is overwhelming,” American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland said in a recent statement.Meanwhile, China — the world’s biggest buyer of soybeans —indicated last week that it won’t resume U.S. purchases unless more Trump tariffs are lifted. “As for soybean trade, the U.S. side should take proactive steps to remove relevant unreasonable tariffs, create conditions for expanding bilateral trade, and inject more stability and certainty into global economic development,” Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong told reporters in Beijing.Emergency relief is comingThe Trump administration will announce new support for farmers, “especially the soybean farmers,” on Tuesday, Bessent said.“We’re also going to be working with the Farm Credit Bureau to make sure that the farmers have what they need for the next planting season,” he added.Bessent personally owns as much as $25 million worth of farmland in North Dakota that produces corn and soybeans, according to his recent financial disclosures.He said soybeans would be a topic of discussion at the upcoming meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum later this month.Mark German loading soybeans into a truck in Dwight, Ill., in August.Scott Olson / Getty Images fileTrump is also aware of the impact his trade policies are having on American farmers, starting with soybean growers.“The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” the president posted Wednesday on Truth Social.“We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers,” Trump added.The question is whether this aid will come soon enough to save this year’s massive harvest of soybeans.At the center of the firestorm is Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who warned this week that “this moment of uncertainty in the farm economy is real.” Speaking on Fox Business Network, she emphasized that Trump has long supported U.S. farmers.Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins outside the White House on Tuesday.Aaron Schwartz / Sipa USA via AP“President Trump and Secretary Rollins are always in touch about the needs of our farmers, who played a crucial role in the President’s November victory,” the White House said in a statement Thursday. “He has made clear his intention to use tariff revenue to help our agricultural sector, but no final decisions on the contours of this plan have been made.”The Argentina factorThe current U.S.-China stalemate over soybean exports is also complicating another American foreign policy conundrum: what to do about Argentina’s faltering economy.As U.S. soybean exports to China screech to a halt, Argentina’s farmers jumped at the opportunity to sell China their own soybeans. From their perspective, a potential U.S. economic aid package has nothing to do with their soybean exports, and everything to do with the personal and political alliance between Trump and libertarian President Javier Milei. Milei was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his 2024 election victory, and he has become a familiar face at U.S. political events attended by the president’s MAGA supporters.At a Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, D.C. in February, Milei gifted then-Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk a red chainsaw. Musk then waved it around onstage, calling it “the chainsaw for bureaucracy.” Elon Musk holding a chainsaw onstage at a CPAC conference in Oxon Hill, Md., in February.Andrew Harnik / Getty ImagesEight months later, Milei’s popularity with voters has plunged, raising doubts about the future of his market-friendly economic reforms and strict austerity measures.Local elections in early September dealt a blow to Milei’s party, triggering massive turmoil in Argentina’s stock and currency markets. A few weeks after the market plunge, Bessent announced on social media that the U.S. was prepared to deploy billions of dollars to support the South American country.A presidential delegation from Buenos Aires is expected to visit the White House next week to finalize the U.S. foreign aid deal.This has infuriated the soybean farmers. “U.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina while that country drops its soybean export taxes to sell 20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days,” Ragland said.President-elect Donald Trump with Argentine President Javier Milei at the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago in November.Carlos Barria / Reuters fileMeanwhile, Milei has also secured a currency swap line for Argentina from China, a situation that gives pause to some in Washington. In response, Milei has said Argentina will maintain its mutually beneficial trade and economic relationship with China. Tensions inside the Trump administration over China, Argentina and the soybean farmers broke into the open last week.While attending the U.N. General Assembly, Bessent received a text message from a contact labeled “BR.”“We bailed out Argentina yesterday … and in return, the Argentine’s removed their export tariff on grains, reducing their price, and sold a bunch of soybeans to China at a time when we would normally be selling to China,” read the message, widely presumed to come from Rollins.“Soy prices are dropping further because of it. This gives China more leverage on us,” the message concluded.Spokespeople for Bessent and Rollins did not respond to questions about the text message exchange.

- Latest News - October 4, 2025

The humble soybean is the latest flashpoint in the Trump administration’s campaign to reshape global trade

Source link

TAGS: