YORK, Pennsylvania: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday he would consider ending a $7,500 tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases.
“Tax credits and tax incentives are not generally a very good thing,” Trump told Reuters in an interview after a campaign event in York, Pennsylvania, when asked about the EV credit.
If elected, Trump could take steps to reverse Treasury Department rules that have made it easier for automakers to take advantage of the $7,500 credit or could ask the US Congress to repeal it entirely. While president, Trump sought to repeal the EV tax credit which was later expanded by President Joe Biden in 2022.
“I’m not making any final decisions on it,” Trump said of the EV tax credit. “I’m a big fan of electric cars, but I’m a fan of gasoline-propelled cars, and also hybrids and whatever else happens to come along.”
He added that he would rescind the Biden administration rules that will prod automakers to build more EVs and plug-in hybrids to meet stricter emissions standards.
Trump also said that if elected, he would tap Tesla CEO Elon Musk for a cabinet or advisory role “if he would do it.”
Musk last month publicly endorsed Trump in the US presidential race.
Trump also said on Monday he would take steps to try to limit exports of vehicles produced by the Detroit Three automakers and others from Mexico for USconsumers by imposing new tariffs.
Separately, Trump harshly criticized Alphabet’s Google but declined to say if he thought the company should be broken up after a judge ruled this month the company was an illegal monopoly.
“They’re almost like the Wild West,” Trump said of Google, without elaborating on what penalty it should face. “They’re going to have to pay a great price.”
Trump says he would consider ending $7,500 electric-vehicle credit
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Trump says he would consider ending $7,500 electric-vehicle credit
- Trump said that he would rescind the Biden administration rules that will prod automakers to build more EVs and plug-in hybrids to meet stricter emissions standards
Tens of thousands rally in Serbia’s capital to back up their demand for an early vote
The huge crowd chanted “We want elections!” as they filled the capital’s central Slavija Square
BELGRADE: Tens of thousands of opponents of Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, rallied on Saturday in Belgrade, backing up a demand for an early parliamentary election and declaring the government “illegitimate.”
The protest was held after nearly eight months of persistent demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students that have rattled Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country.
The huge crowd chanted “We want elections!” as they filled the capital’s central Slavija Square and several blocks around it, with many unable to reach the venue.
Tensions were high before and during the gathering. Riot police deployed around government buildings and close to a camp of Vucic’s loyalists in central Belgrade.
“Elections are a clear way out of the social crisis caused by the deeds of the government, which is undoubtedly against the interests of their own people,” said one of the students, who didn’t give her name while giving a speech on a stage to the crowd. “Today, on June 28, 2025, we declare the current authorities illegitimate.”
At the end of the official part of the rally, students told the crowd to “take freedom into your own hands.”
University students have been a key force behind nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed, killing 16 people on Nov. 1.
Many blamed the concrete roof crash on rampant government corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects, leading to recurring mass protests.
“We are here today because we cannot take it any more,” Darko Kovacevic said. “This has been going on for too long. We are mired in corruption.”
Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have repeatedly refused the demand for an early vote and accused protesters of planning to spur violence on orders from abroad, which they didn’t specify.
Vucic’s authorities have launched a crackdown on Serbia’s striking universities and other opponents, while increasing pressure on independent media as they tried to curb the demonstrations.
While numbers have shrunk in recent weeks, the massive showing for Saturday’s anti-Vucic rally suggested that the resolve persists, despite relentless pressure and after nearly eight months of almost daily protests.
Serbian police, which is firmly controlled by Vucic’s government, said that 36,000 people were present at the start of the protest on Saturday.
Saturday marks St. Vitus Day, a religious holiday and the date when Serbs mark a 14th-century battle against Ottoman Turks in Kosovo that was the start of hundreds of years of Turkish rule, holding symbolic importance.
In their speeches, some of the speakers at the student rally on Saturday evoked the theme, which was also used to fuel Serbian nationalism in the 1990s that later led to the incitement of ethnic wars following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
Hours before the student-led rally, Vucic’s party bused in scores of its own supporters to Belgrade from other parts of the country, many wearing T-shirts reading: “We won’t give up Serbia.” They were joining a camp of Vucic’s loyalists in central Belgrade where they have been staying in tents since mid-March.
In a show of business as usual, Vucic handed out presidential awards in the capital to people he deemed worthy, including artists and journalists.
“People need not worry — the state will be defended and thugs brought to justice,” Vucic told reporters on Saturday.
Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2027.
Earlier this week, police arrested several people accused of allegedly plotting to overthrow the government and banned entry into the country, without explanation, to several people from Croatia and a theater director from Montenegro.
Serbia’s railway company halted train service over an alleged bomb threat in what critics said was an apparent bid to prevent people from traveling to Belgrade for the rally.
Authorities made similar moves back in March, before what was the biggest ever anti-government protest in the Balkan country, which drew hundreds of thousands of people.
Vucic’s loyalists then set up a camp in a park outside his office, which still stands. The otherwise peaceful gathering on March 15 came to an abrupt end when part of the crowd suddenly scattered in panic, triggering allegations that authorities used a sonic weapon against peaceful protesters — an accusation officials have denied.
Vucic, a former extreme nationalist, has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power more than a decade ago. Though he formally says he wants Serbia to join the European Union, critics say Vucic has stifled democratic freedoms as he strengthened ties with Russia and China.
Senior official says Home Office staff alarmed by ‘absurd’ Palestine Action ban
- A senior Home Office official, speaking anonymously, said concern over the decision was widespread within the department
LONDON: A senior British civil servant has described a “tense atmosphere” inside the Home Office department following Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s recent announcement that the protest group Palestine Action is to be banned under anti-terror laws, it was reported on Saturday.
Cooper on Monday confirmed plans to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act, a move that would make membership or support a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
It would mark the first time a non-violent protest movement is classified alongside banned terrorist organizations such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda and some far-right groups.
A senior Home Office official, speaking anonymously, said concern over the decision was widespread within the department, The Guardian newspaper reported.
“My colleagues and I were shocked by the announcement,” they said.
“All week, the office has been a very tense atmosphere, charged with concern about treating a non-violent protest group the same as actual terrorist organisations like Isis (Daesh), and the dangerous precedent this sets.
“From desk to desk, colleagues are exchanging concerned and bemused conversations about how absurd this is and how impossible it will be to enforce. Are they really going to prosecute as terrorists everyone who expresses support for Palestine Action’s work to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel as it commits war crimes?
“It’s ridiculous and it’s being widely condemned in anxious conversations internally as a blatant misuse of anti-terror laws for political purposes to clamp down on protests which are affecting the profits of arms companies,” they added.
The decision to proscribe comes after four people were arrested following a break-in at RAF Brize Norton airbase, where Palestine Action activists sprayed red paint on two military aircraft.
The group said the protest was in response to Britain’s role in “sending military cargo, flying spy planes over Gaza and refuelling US and Israeli fighter jets.”
In a statement, Cooper said the protest was part of a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action.”
Palestine Action responded by saying: “Proscription is not about enabling prosecutions under terrorism laws — it’s about cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine.”
The move comes amid wider civil service unrest over UK policy on Gaza.
Earlier this month, more than 300 Foreign Office officials signed a letter warning the government risked complicity in Israeli war crimes.
In response, the department’s top civil servants told signatories: “If your disagreement with any aspect of government policy or action is profound, your ultimate recourse is to resign from the civil service. This is an honourable course.”
The proscription order will be laid before Parliament on Monday and could come into effect by the end of the week.
When asked for comment by The Guardian, the Home Office referred to Cooper’s original statement.
Philippines’ financial center taps tourism department to become halal hub
- New agreement to help implement standards across city’s hotels, restaurants
- Makati City, perceived as trendsetter, aims to influence other regions
MANILA: Philippine business leaders in Makati City are collaborating with the Department of Tourism to make the country’s financial center an all-encompassing halal hub for both trade and tourism, the head of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Makati chapter said on Saturday.
Makati City in Metro Manila is popularly known as the Philippines’ central business district, hosting the highest concentration of banks and corporations in the country, as well as foreign embassies.
For the last few years, the predominantly Catholic Philippines — where Muslims constitute about 10 percent of the nearly 120 million population — has been working to raise 230 billion pesos ($4 billion) in investments and generate around 120,000 jobs by expanding its domestic halal industry by 2028.
The DoT signed on Friday a memorandum of agreement with PCCI Makati to pool efforts and encourage the implementation of halal standards across hotels and restaurants in the city, as part of an effort to attract Muslim tourists.
“The memorandum signed yesterday with DoT is really to encourage the local establishments in Makati City to participate or embrace the halal standards,” PCCI Makati President Nunnatus Cortez told Arab News.
“These are the initial steps to turn the city into a halal hub; that’s the main objective.”
PCCI Makati has been a leading figure in efforts to make the city a halal hub.
Friday’s agreement follows a memorandum of understanding the chamber signed last year with the Department of Trade and Industry, which sought to position the city as a central point for innovation and business in the halal sector.
“Halal, after all, is now a way of life. From the DoT’s point of view, this is how we complete the loop — the entire ecosystem required to support both halal trade and tourism,” Cortez said.
Earlier this month the Philippines was recognized as a rising Muslim-friendly destination at the Halal in Travel Global Summit, after having achieved a similar feat in previous years. The country’s halal drive has included efforts to cater to Muslim tourists, by ensuring they have access to halal products and services.
Cortez believes Makati City is at an advantage to boost halal travel as it is the location of many foreign missions, including that of Muslim nations.
“Almost all Muslim embassies are in Makati. We know that foreign delegates, embassy staff, and even their citizens often visit here — and Makati is usually their starting point,” he said.
“What we’re doing now is trying to capture the attention of all Muslim embassies. If their VIPs or citizens come to Makati and make it their base for activities, then everything else will follow.”
He believes that efforts to turn Makati into a halal hub will have a ripple effect across the archipelago nation, as the city is widely perceived as a trendsetter for other regions in the Philippines.
He added: “If we can begin by making places like malls and hotels halal-compliant, that would already be a meaningful first step. We believe that whatever Makati does, other cities will follow its lead. That’s our mindset.”
Irish rap group Kneecap set to play at Glastonbury despite criticism from politicians
- Mo Chara has been charged under the Terrorism Act with support a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London
- Members of the group say they don’t support Hezbollah or Hamas, nor condone violence
PILTON, England: Irish-language rap group Kneecap is set to perform Saturday at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio.
Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the Terrorism Act with support a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November. He is on unconditional bail ahead of a further court hearing in August.
The Belfast trio has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, but also criticized for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references and for political statements.
The band draws, often satirically, on the language and imagery of the Irish republican movement and Northern Ireland’s decades of violence. Videos have emerged allegedly showing the band shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” and calling on people to kill lawmakers.
Members of the group say they don’t support Hezbollah or Hamas, nor condone violence. They have accused critics of trying to silence the band because of their support for the Palestinian cause throughout the war in Gaza.
Several Kneecap gigs have been canceled as a result of the controversy. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, when asked by a journalist, that it would not be “appropriate” for the festival to give Kneecap a platform.
Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the publicly funded BBC should not broadcast “Kneecap propaganda.”
The BBC, which airs many hours of Glastonbury performances, has not said whether it will show Kneecap’s set.
Some 200,000 ticket holders have gathered at Worthy Farm in southwest England for Britain’s most prestigious summer music festival, which features almost 4,000 performers on 120 stages. Headline acts performing over three days ending Sunday include Neil Young, Charli XCX, Rod Stewart, Busta Rhymes, Olivia Rodrigo and Doechii.
Glastonbury highlights on Friday included a performance from UK rockers The 1975, an unannounced set by New Zealand singer Lorde, a raucous reception for Gen X icon Alanis Morissette and an emotional return for Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, two years after he took a break from touring to adjust to the impact of the neurological condition Tourette syndrome.
Uganda’s president seeks a seventh term that would bring him closer to 5 decades in power
- Museveni first took power as head of a rebel force in 1986, he has been elected six times, though recent elections have been marred by violence and allegations of vote rigging
KAMPALA: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday sought nomination for a seventh term, a move that would bring him closer to five decades in power.
Museveni, 80, has defied calls for his retirement, as critics warn that he as veered into authoritarianism with virtually no opposition even within his ruling National Resistance Movement party.
He was welcomed by a large crowd of supporters as he went to collect nomination papers from the offices of the ruling party in Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
Museveni first took power as head of a rebel force in 1986. He has since been elected six times, though recent elections have been marred by violence and allegations of vote rigging. His main opponent in the last election was the popular entertainer known as Bobi Wine, who has also declared his candidacy in the polls set for January 2026.
Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has seen many associates jailed or go into hiding as security forces cracked down on opposition supporters.
Museveni has dismissed Wine as “an agent of foreign interests” who cannot be trusted with power. Wine has been arrested many times on various charges but has never been convicted. He insists he is running a nonviolent campaign.
Decades ago, Museveni himself had criticized African leaders who overstayed their welcome in office. In Uganda, lawmakers did the same thing for him when they jettisoned the last constitutional obstacle — age limits — for a possible life presidency. His son, army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has asserted his wish to succeed his father, raising fears of hereditary rule.
A long-time opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, has been jailed since November over alleged treason charges his lawyers say are politically motivated. Besigye, a physician who retired from Uganda’s military at the rank of colonel, is a former president of the Forum for Democratic Change party, for many years Uganda’s most prominent opposition group.
The East African country has never seen a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1962.
