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Trump’s 270-Page Dossier of JD Vance’s ‘Vulnerabilities’ Hacked by Iran

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Trump’s 270-Page Dossier of JD Vance’s ‘Vulnerabilities’ Hacked by Iran

Politico reports that it was sent communications from inside the Trump campaign, including Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) 271-page vetting file, allegedly by an Iranian hacker.

The outlet said that it has been receiving anonymous emails containing internal communications from the Trump campaign. The campaign acknowledged the authenticity of the communications on Saturday, accusing “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” for leaking them.

“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Politico. “On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee.”

“Another Iranian group, this one connected with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account of a former senior advisor,” the Microsoft report stated. “The email contained a link that would direct traffic through a domain controlled by the group before routing to the website of the provided link.”

“Within days of this activity, the same group unsuccessfully attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate,” the report added.

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Politico reported that on July 22 it began receiving emails from an AOL account only identified by the moniker “Robert” that contained internal communications from the Trump campaign.

One email contained a 271-page report on Vance entitled “POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES.” Robert told Politico they had a “variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions,” and when pressed for how they obtained them, Robert responded, “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”

This is by no means a first for Trump. In 2020, a hacker hacked his X account by guessing his password, ‘maga2020!’

Trump has also allegedly been the target of an Iranian assassination plot which resulted in a Pakistani man named Asif Merchant, with ties to the Islamic Republic, being charged by the DOJ on Wednesday.

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China threatens countermeasures to combat Trump tariffs

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China threatens countermeasures to combat Trump tariffs

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Beijing has hit out at new 10 per cent tariffs imposed by the US on Chinese exports, saying it will “take necessary countermeasures to defend its rights and interests” as trade tensions between the two powers enter a new phase.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that China opposed the tariffs, which it said were introduced “under the pretext of the fentanyl issue”.

“The US needs to view and solve its own fentanyl issue in an objective and rational way instead of threatening other countries with arbitrary tariff hikes,” the MFA said.

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China’s Ministry of Commerce said it would file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization.

The additional 10 per cent levies come alongside new 25 per cent tariffs on exports from Canada and Mexico, as President Trump embarks on an expanded trade war, following a range of measures imposed on China by the US during his first term.

Trump said the influx of “illegal aliens” and drugs, including the opiate Fentanyl, had created a “national emergency” that justified the tariffs.

During last year’s election campaign, he had warned of tariffs as high as 60 per cent against China, but subsequently signalled a rate of 10 per cent. He has linked the levies to the country’s role in the flow of ingredients or “precursors” for fentanyl.

China agreed to take actions to stem the flow of precursors at a summit between President Xi Jinping and then-president Joe Biden in San Francisco in November 2023. Since then, Beijing has taken some actions that were welcomed by the Biden administration, but critics, including some in the outgoing administration, wanted China to do much more.

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Although widely anticipated, the measures pose a significant challenge to Xi Jinping’s government at a time when weaknesses in domestic demand have made it particularly dependent on exports for economic growth. Last year, China’s trade surplus hit a record high of close to $1tn.

Tao Wang, chief China economist at UBS Investment Bank, said the tariffs had been imposed more quickly than expected and that the blanket 10 per cent rate was more expansive than phased measures under Trump’s first administration.

“This is broader and likely much bigger than the first round,” she said, adding that many expected Trump to add more tariffs once his officials completed a review of trade policy in April.

Wang said she expected a hit to China’s GDP of 0.3 to 0.4 per cent.

In a report published last week, Morningstar said the 10 per cent tariffs would most affect home appliances, home furnishings, lithium batteries and electric vehicles in China. But it added many companies would “likely see an impact of less than 5 per cent of their respective total revenue” and that they “may not be as bad as feared for some industries”.

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Beijing also faces trade tensions with the EU over tariffs imposed on its electric vehicles last summer, which have led to a wave of countermeasures on products from cognac to dairy. 

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Why Elon Musk's team now has access to Treasury's payments system – The Times of India

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Why Elon Musk's team now has access to Treasury's payments system – The Times of India
Elon Musk’s DOGE representative now has access to the government’s payments system.

Elon Musk’s growing influence has now reached the federal payment system as Treasury secretary Scott Bessent reportedly gave its access to the representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency. While this has kicked up a storm in the administration, the move is to facilitate DOGE’s monitoring of government spending so that it can limit it. The payment system sends out money on behalf of the government and Elon Musk won access to it after a week-long stand-off with a top Treasury official who did not want it to happen, the New York Times reported.

David Lebryk, the official, was put on leave and abruptly retired Friday, the report said. In his email announcing his retirement, Lebryk praised the department’s staff. “Please know that your work makes a difference and is so very important to the country. It has been an honor to work alongside you,” he wrote. “Our work may be unknown to most of the public, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t exceptionally important.”
Elon Musk Saturday suggested that this access was to root out fraud or illicit payments. “The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups,” Musk wrote. “They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once.” However, Elon Musk did not offer any evidence to back his claim.
The issue has been going on since after the election and when DOGE was announced. DOGE officials have been asking for this access since then and then stepped up the pressure after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley executive, has now been detailed to the Treasury — on behalf of DOGE.
A Washington Post report said it is precisely unclear why Musk’s team sought access to these systems.

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Donald Trump hits Canada, Mexico and China with steep tariffs

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Donald Trump hits Canada, Mexico and China with steep tariffs

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Donald Trump hit Canada, Mexico and China with steep tariffs on Saturday in a move that threatens to launch a new era of trade wars between the US and three of its largest trading partners.

Trump issued an executive order applying additional tariffs of 25 per cent to all imports from Canada and Mexico, with the exception of Canadian oil and energy products, which will face a 10 per cent levy. Canada is by far the biggest foreign oil supplier to the US, accounting for about 60 per cent of its crude imports.

A White House official said lower tariffs for Canadian energy aimed to minimise the “disruptive effects” on US petrol and home heating costs, but confirmed there would be no further exclusions.

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Imports from China will face a 10 per cent tariff, over and above the existing US tariffs.

The White House said the tariffs would apply from Tuesday.

“This is a beautiful, beautiful example of promises made, promises kept by President Trump,” a White House official said.

The official said each order contained “a retaliation clause . . . so that if any country chooses to retaliate in any way, the signal will be to take further action with respect to likely increased tariffs.”

There was no immediate response from America’s trading partners, although Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expected to announce retaliatory tariffs later tonight.

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The president used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, an executive authority that allows him to respond to emergencies through economic means, to apply the levies without needing congressional approval.

Trump’s abrupt opening move will dash the hopes of countries that expected a slower and more cautious approach to trade policy after the Trump administration ordered a raft of reviews into US commercial relationships on inauguration day. 

It also signals the president’s willingness to use tariffs to apply pressure to allies on issues ranging from immigration to drug trafficking. Trump has justified the tariffs by complaining about what he says is lax security at the borders with Mexico and Canada, and arguing that both — along with China — have failed to do enough to stem the flow of deadly opioids into the US. 

On Saturday, a White House official said the tariffs would be lifted as soon as “Americans stop dying from Made in China, distributed by Mexico and Canada fentanyl”.

The official added: “This is not just about fentanyl . . . this is really a border security issue.”

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In a question-and-answer session with reporters on Friday afternoon, Trump also pointed to the America’s trade deficit with Canada, Mexico and China, describing his tariffs as purely economic and denying that they were a negotiating tool. 

Trump also acknowledged that sweeping tariffs against US trading partners may cause some “disruption”, but added: “The tariffs are going to make us very rich, and very strong.” 

On Friday, Trump said he planned to levy tariffs on EU imports too, but Saturday’s announcement did not include any measures relating to the EU.

Trump held back from imposing the 60 per cent tariff on Chinese imports from China that he had threatened during the presidential campaign. The 10 per cent levy was designed to punish Beijing over the flow of ingredients to make fentanyl, a deadly opiate that has been the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45 over the past three years. 

Beijing cracked down on the export of fentanyl several years ago, but groups in China switched to exporting precursor chemicals to cartels in Mexico to produce the final product. 

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Dimitry Anastakis, a professor of business at the University of Toronto, said the US tariffs could be a shock to the system as painful as the Covid pandemic. 

“It is unnecessary and quite stupid,” he said. “This is taking a sledge hammer to a non-existent problem with the North American economy that was working pretty well.”

Anastakis said there will be immediate pain in the auto trade, job losses and a likely recession in Canada. 

Additional reporting by Ilya Gridneff in Toronto and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

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