Trump sets new Ukraine peace deadline, presses Netanyahu for Gaza aid inflow

US President Donald Trump set a new deadline of 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress towards ending the war in Ukraine or face consequences, underscoring frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 3-1/2-year-old conflict.

Trump has threatened both sanctions on Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made. Speaking in Scotland, where he is holding meetings with European leaders and playing golf, Trump said he was disappointed in Putin and shortening a 50-day deadline he had set on the issue earlier this month. “I’m going to make a new deadline of about ... 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Starmer pressed Trump on the US taking a larger role in helping quell a growing food crisis in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in the territory.

Trump was asked if he agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks about concerns of mass starvation in Gaza being overstated and replied, “I don't know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”

Starmer was far more forceful, “I think people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they are seeing on their screens.”

Trump said Israel “has a lot of responsibility” for what’s happening but said the country was hampered by considerations of the remaining hostages it wanted to see kept alive and freed. “I want him (Netanyahu) to make sure they get the food,” Trump said. On tariffs, Trump said he expected the US to set levies in the range of 15% to 20% for those countries that did not reach a negotiated trade agreement with Washington.

“I would say it'll be somewhere in the 15 to 20 percent range,” Trump told reporters.

Trump has said his administration would send out letters soon to some 200 countries notifying them of their expected tariff rate on exports to the United States. Trump imposed an additional 10% tariff on most countries from April, with many others slated to see their tariff rates rise from August 1.

US-China meet aims to extend tariff truce by 90 days

Top US and Chinese economic officials resumed talks in Stockholm on Monday to resolve longstanding economic disputes at the centre of a trade war between the world’s top two economies, aiming to extend a truce by three months.

China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with Trump’s administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end weeks of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals.

Without an agreement, global supply chains could face renewed turmoil from US duties snapping back to triple-digit levels that would amount to a trade embargo.