“If I didn’t have the power of tariffs, you’d be seeing at least four of the seven wars raging right now.

I use tariffs to stop wars,” Trump said while responding to a question about his trade policies.

He insisted his tariff strategy had been proven right both economically and diplomatically.

Referring to the brief but tense confrontation between Pakistan and India, Trump said his intervention linked to trade and tariffs helped defuse the situation.

“India and Pakistan were ready to go at it. Seven planes were shot down, and they were close to escalation both being nuclear powers.

I don’t want to repeat exactly what I said, but it was very effective. They stopped,” he remarked.

Highlighting the financial impact of tariffs, Trump added: “Recently, they found billions of dollars and couldn’t figure out the source.

I told them to check the tariff shelf and they came back an hour later saying, ‘Sir, you’re right.’ That’s tariff revenue. We’re a rich country again.”

Trump reiterated that tariffs had made the US both prosperous and powerful. “Tariffs are very important for the United States. We are a peacekeeper because of tariffs.

Not only do we earn hundreds of billions of dollars, but we maintain peace because of tariffs,” he said while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.

The US president has previously asserted that his mediation efforts or the threat of economic pressure helped ease tensions between India and Pakistan earlier this year.

He claimed he had warned both sides that continued fighting would lead to suspension of trade and new tariffs.

Gaza peace deal possible

Trump said he was “pretty sure” a Gaza peace deal was possible and said Hamas was agreeing to “very important” issues as talks with Israel started. “I have red lines, if certain things aren’t met we’re not going to do it,” Trump said.

“But I think we’re doing very well and I think Hamas has been agreeing to things that are very important.”

Trump said he was optimistic about the chances of a deal as delegations from Hamas and Israel began indirect talks in Egypt on ending the war under his 20-point plan.

“I think we’re going to have a deal. It’s a hard thing for me to say that when for years and years they’ve been trying to have a deal,” Trump said. “We’re going to have a Gaza deal, I’m pretty sure, yeah.”

Trump also dismissed a report that he had accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being negative about the talks, saying that Netanyahu had been “very positive about the deal.”

October 7 anniversary

Israel marks the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack on Tuesday, as Hamas and Israeli negotiators hold indirect talks to end the two-year war in Gaza under a US proposed peace plan.

Two years ago to the day, at the close of the Jewish festival of Sukkot, Hamas-led militants launched a surprise assault on Israel, making it the deadliest day in the country’s history.

Palestinian fighters breached the Gaza-Israel border, storming southern Israeli communities and a desert music festival with gunfire, rockets and grenades.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also abducted 251 hostages into Gaza, of whom 47 remain captive, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

Memorial events were scheduled in Israel on Tuesday to mark the anniversary.

Families and friends of those killed at the Nova music festival were to gather at the site of the attack, where Hamas gunmen killed more than 370 people and seized dozens of hostages.

Another ceremony was due in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, where weekly rallies have kept up calls for the captives’ release.

A state-organised commemoration is planned for October 16.

Many Israelis went to the Nova festival site on Monday.

“It was a very difficult and enormous incident that happened here,” Elad Gancz, a teacher, told AFP as he mourned the dead.

“But we want to live — and despite everything, continue with our lives, remembering those who were here and, unfortunately, are no longer with us.”

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza by air, land and sea continues unabated, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and vast destruction.

The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 67,160 people have been killed, figures the United Nations considers credible.

Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that over half of the dead are women and children.

Entire neighbourhoods have been flattened, with homes, hospitals, schools and water networks in ruins.

Hundreds of thousands of homeless Gazans now shelter in overcrowded camps and open areas with little access to food, water or sanitation.

“We have lost everything in this war, our homes, family members, friends, neighbours,” said Hanan Mohammed, 36, who is displaced from her home in Jabalia.

“I can’t wait for a ceasefire to be announced and for this endless bloodshed and death to stop… there is nothing left but destruction.”

After two years of conflict, 72 percent of the Israeli public said they were dissatisfied with the government’s handling of the war, according to a recent survey by the Institute for National Security Studies.

Herculean task

Israel has expanded its military reach over the course of the war, striking targets in five regional capitals, including Iran, and killing several senior Hamas figures and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel and Hamas now face mounting international pressure to end the war, with a UN probe last month accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and rights groups accusing Hamas of war crimes in the October 7 attack. Both sides reject the allegations.

Last week, US President Donald Trump unveiled a 20-point plan calling for an immediate ceasefire once Hamas releases all hostages, the group’s disarmament, and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Indirect talks began Monday in Egypt’s resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, with mediators shuttling between delegations under tight security.

Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian state intelligence, said the discussions were focussed on “preparing ground conditions” for a hostage-prisoner exchange under Trump’s plan.

A Palestinian source close to Hamas negotiators said the talks, which opened on the eve of the October 7 anniversary, may last for several days.

Trump has urged negotiators to “move fast” to end the war in Gaza, where Israeli strikes continued on Monday.

The US president told Newsmax TV that “I think we’re very, very close to having a deal… I think there’s a lot of goodwill being shown now. It’s pretty amazing actually”.

Although both sides have welcomed Trump’s proposal, reaching an agreement on its details is expected to be a Herculean task.

The war has previously seen two ceasefires that enabled the release of dozens of hostages.

WASHINGTON: The United States issued nearly one-fifth fewer student visas in August following a crackdown by President Donald Trump, led by a steep drop for India which was overtaken by China as top country of origin, data showed Monday.

The United States issued 313,138 student visas in August, the most common start month for US universities, a drop of 19.1% from the same month in 2024, according to the International Trade Commission.

India, which last year was the top source of foreign students to the United States, saw the most dramatic drop with 44.5% fewer student visas issued than a year earlier.

Visa issuance also dropped for Chinese students but not nearly at the same rate. The United States issued 86,647 visas to students from mainland China in August, more than double the number issued to Indians.

The statistics do not reflect overall numbers of US-based students, many of whom remain on previously issued visas.

Trump has put a top priority since returning to the White House both on curbing immigration and on weakening universities, which his administration sees as a key power base of the left.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefly suspended processing of student visas in June, a peak month, as he issued orders that US embassies vet applicants’ social media.

Rubio has revoked thousands of student visas, often due to criticism of Israel, on the grounds that he can refuse entry to people who go against US foreign policy interests.

In rules that affect Indians in particular, the Trump administration has made it more difficult for applicants to apply for visas outside jurisdictions of the US consulates in their home countries, even if there are backlogs.

Trump has taken a series of actions at odds with India, which for decades had been courted by US policymakers of both parties which saw the billion-plus nation as a natural counterweight to China.

Trump has also imposed a hefty new fee on H-1B visas, which are used largely by Indian technology workers.

Trump, however, has voiced hope for ramping up the number of Chinese students to boost relations between the two powers, a sharp contrast to earlier messaging from Rubio who had vowed to “aggressively” revoke visas from Chinese students he accuses of exploiting US technical knowhow.

The latest figures also show a sharp drop in student visas from many Muslim-majority countries, with admissions from Iran dropping by 86%.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was arrested by Israel when they intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, called out world governments for continuing to enable Tel Aviv’s genocide in the Gaza Strip after she arrived in Greece on Monday.

The 45-vessel flotilla, with activists and politicians on board, left Spain last month to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of famine.

The flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli navy, with commandos boarding the boats and arresting participants. Former Pakistani senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan was also on board and is currently in Israeli custody.

In her first public comments since her release by Israeli authorities, Greta emphasised that the real story is not the interception of the flotilla, but the genocide being carried out in the Gaza Strip.

“The Global Sumud Flotilla was the biggest-ever attempt to break Israel’s illegal and inhumane siege by sea,” the Swedish activist said. “It is a story of global, international solidarity, of people stepping up when our governments fail to do so and people are saying ‘my leaders … who are supposed to represent me continue to fuel a genocide … they do not represent me’.“

She added that the mission even existing was “a shame”, condemning Israel’s “illegal and inhumane” siege of the enclave, as well as blocking routes for humanitarian aid.

“Under international law, states have a legal obligation to act to prevent … to stop a genocide, including ending complicity, applying real pressure and ending arms transfers,” Thunberg said.

“We are not even seeing the bare minimum from our governments,” she lamented. “Our international systems are betraying Palestinians. They are not even able to stop the worst war crimes from happening.“

Thunberg said she could “talk for a very, very long time” about her imprisonment and abuse at the hands of Israeli jailers, but insisted that it was not the story.

She said the story was “Israel … continuing to worsen and escalate their genocide and mass destruction with genocidal intent; attempting to erase an entire population in front of our very eyes”.

The Israeli onslaught in Gaza began in October 2023 following an attack by Hamas in Israel. Since then, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, thousands injured and millions displaced.

Last month, UN investigators said that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza in a bid to “destroy the Palestinians”, accusing Israel’s prime minister and other top officials of incitement.