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Hong Kong stocks climb on call for ‘forceful’ state support to curb market rout

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Hong Kong stocks climb on call for ‘forceful’ state support to curb market rout

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Shares in Hong Kong posted their biggest daily gains this year following a call from China’s premier for “forceful” state support to halt a punishing market rout.

The city’s benchmark Hang Seng index rose 2.6 per cent on Tuesday after Premier Li Qiang’s called for “more forceful and effective measures to stabilise the market and boost confidence”.

The Hang Seng fell almost 14 per cent last year, making it one of the worst-performing benchmark indices across all large markets. Stocks in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong are continuing to lose ground as a result of slowing economic growth in China, an unresolved financial crisis in the property sector and worsening tensions between Beijing and Washington.

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Traders said Li’s comments prompted a handful of global funds to begin to strategically buy up undervalued shares in Hong Kong, where shares are down about 10 per cent this year. But they added that the gains would prove fleeting if state support did not materialise.

“This is healthy buying, but unless there’s evidence of deployment then the impact of this sort of rhetoric will die out as quickly as it went on,” said the trading desk head at one investment bank in Hong Kong. “This could be the boy that cried wolf.”

Chinese equities in Shanghai and Shenzhen were little changed. The benchmark CSI 300 index was up just 0.4 per cent on Tuesday. “The rebound may be short-lived,” said Dickie Wong, head of research at Kingston Securities.

Separately on Tuesday, China’s video game regulator removed from its website draft rules that proposed controls on players’ spending, boosting shares in Hong Kong-listed game developers Tencent and NetEase and helping the Hang Seng tech index rise 3.8 per cent.

Authorities in Beijing have over the past year tried to halt a protracted sell-off in Chinese equities. Public measures to boost demand included cuts to stock trading fees and purchases of bank shares by a government investment fund.

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Regulators have also started issuing private instructions to Chinese mutual funds and securities companies that forbid them from being net sellers of equities on certain days.

The lack of interest from investors forced the city’s government to convene a liquidity task force last year to recommend measures to boost trading activity.

But that effort has had little impact, according to estimates by analysts at Goldman Sachs, which showed the share of listings in Hong Kong with less than $1mn of daily turnover had risen to about 60 per cent by the end of 2023, compared with a historic average of about 30 per cent.

“US capital and investors have been more cautious when it comes to positioning in Hong Kong-listed Chinese equities,” said Kinger Lau, chief China equity strategist at Goldman Sachs.

But he added that increased investment flows from the Middle East and south-east Asian investors “had partially offset the reduction in positioning from US and European investors.”

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Trump does deal with Nato allies to arm Ukraine and warns Russia of severe sanctions

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Trump does deal with Nato allies to arm Ukraine and warns Russia of severe sanctions

Donald Trump said he has sealed an agreement with Nato allies that will lead to large-scale arms deliveries to Ukraine, including Patriot missiles, and warned Russia that it will face severe sanctions if Moscow does not make peace within 50 days.

After a meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, Trump said they had agreed “a very big deal”, in which “billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States, going to Nato … And that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”

Speaking in the White House alongside a clearly delighted Rutte, the US president said the arms deliveries would be comprehensive and would include the Patriot missile batteries that Ukraine desperately needs for its air defences against a daily Russian aerial onslaught.

“It’s everything: it’s Patriots. It’s all of them. It’s a full complement, with the batteries,” Trump said.

He did not go into any more detail, but made clear the weapons would be entirely paid for by Washington’s European allies, and that initial missile deliveries would come “within days” from European stocks, on the understanding they would be replenished with US supplies.

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At a White House lunch with religious leaders later in the day, Trump said the deal was “fully approved, fully done”.

“We’ll send them a lot of weapons of all kinds and they’re going to deliver those weapons immediately … and they’re going to pay,” he said.

At his meeting with Trump, Rutte said there was a significant number of Nato allies – including Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada – ready to rearm Ukraine as part of the deal.

“They all want to be part of this. And this is only the first wave. There will be more,” he said.

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said last week that Berlin was ready to acquire additional Patriot systems.

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Trump claimed there was one country, which he did not name, but which had “17 Patriots getting ready to be shipped”. Monday’s deal would include that stockpile, or “a big portion of the 17”, he said.

Such an arms delivery would represent a significant reinforcement of Ukraine’s air defences. Kyiv is currently thought to have only six Patriot batteries, at a time when it is coming under frequent and intense Russian drone and missile bombardments.

At the same time, Trump expressed increased frustration with Vladimir Putin, whom he accused of giving the impression of pursuing peace while intensifying attacks on Ukrainian cities. He gave the Russian president a new deadline of 50 days to end the fighting or face 100% tariffs on Russian goods, and more importantly, sweeping “secondary tariffs”, suggesting trade sanctions would be imposed on countries who continue to pay for Russian oil and other commodities.

“The secondary tariffs are very, very powerful,” the president said.

The announcement marked a dramatic change for the administration, both in substance and tone.

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The Trump White House had not only made clear it would continue its predecessor’s policy of continuing to supply Ukraine out of US stocks, but the president and his top officials have been derisive about Kyiv’s chances of prevailing.

On Monday, Trump delivered his most admiring language on Ukraine and its European backers to date, with Rutte on one side and the US vice-president, JD Vance, the administration’s biggest sceptic on US involvement in Europe, on the other.

“They fought with tremendous courage, and they continue to fight with tremendous courage,” Trump said of the Ukrainians.

“Europe has a lot of spirit for this war,” he said, suggesting he had been taken by surprise by the level of commitment shown by European allies at the Nato summit in The Hague last month. “The level of esprit de corps spirit that they have is amazing,” he said. “They really think it’s very, very important.

“Having a strong Europe is a very good thing. It’s a very good thing. So I’m okay with it,” he said.

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Trump described his deepening disillusion with Putin, and suggested his wife, Melania, may have played a role in pointing out the Russian leader’s duplicity in talks over a peace deal.

“My conversations with him are always very pleasant. I say, isn’t that a very lovely conversation? And then the missiles go off that night,” Trump said. “I go home, I tell the first lady: I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation. She said: Really? Another city was just hit.”

Ukrainian regional officials reported at least six civilians killed and 30 injured by Russian bombing in the past 24 hours. The country’s air force said Moscow had attacked with 136 drones and four S-300 or S-400 missiles.

“Look, I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy. It’s been proven over the years. He’s fooled a lot of people,” Trump said, listing his predecessors in the White House.

“He didn’t fool me. But what I do say is that at a certain point, ultimately talk doesn’t talk. It’s got to be action,” he said.

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Russian officials and pro-war bloggers on Monday largely shrugged off Trump’s announcement, declaring it to be less significant than anticipated.

Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian lawmaker, wrote on Telegram that it amounted to “hot air”.

It was broadly welcomed in Kyiv, where there has been longstanding and deep anxiety about Trump’s intentions. Andrii Kovalenko, a member of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, posted a one-word response: “Cool.”

There was still scepticism however, over whether even the promise of new weaponry for Ukraine combined with the threat of trade sanctions would be enough to halt Russia’s offensive.

Illia Ponomarenko, a Ukrainian journalist and blogger wrote: “How many Ukrainian lives could have been saved if, from the very beginning, Trump had listened to wise and honest people about helping Ukraine, instead of the artful lies of that cannibal Putin on the phone?”.

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Senate committee details failures by Secret Service in preventing Trump shooting

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Senate committee details failures by Secret Service in preventing Trump shooting

Then-candidate Donald Trump is rushed offstage by U.S. Secret Service agents after being struck by a bullet during a rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images


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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

A Senate committee report released Sunday blames the U.S. Secret Service for a “cascade of preventable failures” that led up to the assassination attempt against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pa., last summer.

Trump was injured in the shooting when a bullet whizzed past his head, grazing his ear. Two attendees were wounded, and rally-goer and former fire chief Corey Comperatore was killed.

A Secret Service sniper shot and killed the perpetrator, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa.

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In its report, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said the Secret Service’s “lack of structured communication was likely the greatest contributor to the failures” on the day of the rally. The report was released by the committee’s chairman, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

For instance, the Secret Service security room agent, who is responsible for collecting and disseminating information, learned about a suspicious person with a rangefinder from a counterpart in the Pennsylvania State Police roughly 25 minutes before the shooting. That agent relayed the report to a fellow Secret Service agent in the room, but the information did not go out over the radio or make it to Trump’s security detail in time for them to prevent him from taking the stage.

There were communication gaps both within the Secret Service hierarchy, and also among the agency and the state and federal law enforcement agencies on scene, the committee said.

There were organizational mistakes, too. The committee noted that one of the Secret Service countersniper teams protecting Trump at the Butler rally had an obstructed view of the roof of the nearby American Glass Research building where Crooks was located.

The report, released one year to the day after the shooting, also found that the Secret Service had denied some resources to Trump’s detail during the 2024 presidential election and said former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle had falsely testified to Congress when she said no requests were denied for the Butler rally.

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In a statement on Sunday, Secret Service Director Sean Curran said the agency “took a serious look at our operations” following last year’s shooting and “implemented substantive reforms to address the failures that occurred that day.”

The agency announced last week that it had put in place 21 of 46 recommendations made by congressional oversight bodies, including streamlining communication procedures and clarifying the responsibilities of advance teams.

The Secret Service also said it had disciplined six employees in relation to the Butler shooting, with suspensions ranging from 10 to 42 days without pay. Still, the committee said in its report that “not a single person has been fired.”

Curran, who was one of the agents who surrounded Trump as shots were fired in Butler, added in his statement that the Secret Service will “continue to work cooperatively with the committee as we move forward in our mission.”

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Texas flood death toll rises as search continues for victims – UPI.com

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Texas flood death toll rises as search continues for victims – UPI.com

A young girl carries a stuffed bear during a vigil for those lost in the Texas floods at the “Wall of Hope” fence memorial in Kerrville, Texas, on Friday. Photo by Dustin Safranek/EPA

July 12 (UPI) — More than 2,100 searchers from a dozen Texas Counties, other states and Mexico are continuing recovery efforts to find more victims of the deadly flash flooding in central Texas.

The confirmed-deaths toll rose to 129 with 170 still missing after officials in Travis and Kerr counties reported the recovery of more bodies, USA Today reported.

Most of the dead, 103, were found in Kerr County, including 36 children and 67 adults.

Among those missing is Volunteer Fire Chief Michael Phillips, whose rescue vehicle was swept away when flash flooding struck Burnet County.

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Search crews later found the vehicle, but Phillips was not inside.

“Specialist teams and equipment continue to deploy into the search area and work themselves to exhaustion or until nightfall in the effort to find him,” the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office announced on Saturday, according to USA Today.

Many states and Mexico sent entire first responder teams, including Indiana, which deployed personnel from 15 fire and police departments to help the recovery effort, The New York Times reported.

Many volunteer groups also traveled to Kerr County, where most search efforts are focused.

“It’s overwhelming to see so many people come and help in the search,” Kerrville, Texas, resident Amy Vanlandingham told The New York Times.

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“This is our town,” she said. “I do it so I can sleep.”

The Guadalupe River’s flash flooding during the early morning hours of July 4 decimated several local camps and other popular visitor destinations on one of their busiest days of the year.

The bodies of victims likely are situated in debris fields located along more than 100 miles of narrow and shallow valleys along the Guadalupe River in the mostly rural area of Texas Hill Country.

President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and others visited Kerr County on Friday to assess the situation and better gauge the need for federal assistance.

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