Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said a tariff pact between the EU and Washington should be “fair and balanced,” although both sides remain far from a deal as a July deadline approaches.”There is still a long way to go to reach an agreement, but there remains the will to do so,” Cuerpo told AFP in an interview on Thursday.His comments came on the sidelines of a trip to Houston, Texas, as he sought to reassure Spanish businesses rattled by US President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs.Trump has slapped a 10 percent tariff on almost all trading partners including the European Union since returning to the presidency in January.He also threatened to impose heftier duties of 50 percent on the bloc, although pausing the higher rate until July 9.For now, Trump’s existing tariffs, including 25 percent US duties on imported automobiles and 50 percent levies on steel and aluminum, are affecting European companies, Cuerpo said.Pressure is mounting as July approaches.US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC this week that an EU deal will likely be among the last that Washington completes, even as he remained optimistic that both sides would reach this goal.Arriving at a deal by July 9 would be ideal as it signals “certainty and confidence,” Cuerpo said.He maintained that things are “progressing,” stressing that “there is unanimity among the 27 member states to reach a fair and balanced agreement.”- No ‘overreaction’ -He added that while Europe has prepared a response package to Trump’s tariffs, Brussels is holding off implementation so that it cannot be “interpreted as an escalation in this tariff conflict.”It is critical that the EU gives a “very clear signal” that it wants to strike a deal with the Trump administration, he said.”The fundamental thing is to avoid any element of overreaction,” he added.Besides the EU, higher US tariffs on goods from dozens of economies including Japan and India are also due to take effect in July.Trump has taken an especially harsh stance on China as Beijing pushed back on US levies, with both sides engaging in an escalating tariffs war that has only been temporarily rolled back.The Spanish minister expects Trump’s tariffs to have limited effect on his country’s economic growth this year, given its smaller exposure to the US market.But he warned that certain sectors like olive oil and wine are at higher risk as more of such exports head to the United States.In the interim, Cuerpo noted the importance too of the Mercosur agreement, a trade deal between the European Union and four South American nations including Brazil.Asked if a new global trade order is emerging, Cuerpo said: “This feeling is widely shared.””We are witnessing a rebalancing of these trade relations at the international level and what nobody knows is what’s the new point we will reach,” he added.

Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo is eying a political comeback after being dogged by sex assault claims, hoping to become mayor of the largest US city New York. But to take the big chair, he must first get around an insurgent leftist candidate who is closing the gap on the political scion with major financial firepower.The other major obstacle facing Cuomo at the June 24 Democratic party mayoral primary, in a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one, might prove to be his past.In August 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Cuomo, whose father was also governor, of sexually harassing eleven women. He resigned and then his brother Chris, a star anchor on CNN, had to leave for advising him. It marked a spectacular downfall for the Cuomo dynasty. But just four years later, cries of “Cuomo, Cuomo, Cuomo” rang out at a small Harlem venue, where the candidate and his Hollywood smile, were welcomed by cheering supporters.As mayor of the mega-city, the winner of the November election will have a unique berth from which to stand up to President Donald Trump and his campaign against migrants in diverse metropolises.”We have that existential threat, called Donald Trump, and now, that is a serious threat… he has declared war on New York City,” Cuomo said from the podium.When a handful of reporters pressed Cuomo on his checkered past with women, the former governor fired back.”This would have been a high-profile case against the governor of New York, it would have got a lot of headlines, they could have been hero to the ‘MeToo’ movement… and there was no case,” he said.In the audience, Iris, a Democratic activist, said she does not want to revisit the past but wants to focus on the future.  Cuomo can be the future of resistance to Trump and improve the lives of the middle class and the most disadvantaged in society by building social housing, she said.As forward-looking as his supporters might be, Cuomo still has to contend with his complicated legacy.”Cuomo did not erase the scandal from the past. His sexual harassment scandals are still on voters’ minds,” said Ester Fuchs, a professor of political science at Columbia University. But the central issue of the campaign is who can stand up to Donald Trump, Fuchs continued. “And this is where Cuomo rises above the rest of the candidates in the pool.”- Trump’s ‘worst nightmare’? -Once the front-runner, the 67-year-old centrist candidate has seen his lead shrink against openly “socialist” Zohran Mamdani, 33, in a battle that has laid bare divisions within the Democratic Party. A fresh survey by Public Policy Polling had Mamdani beating Cuomo 35 percent to 31 percent for the first time, with the rest split between seven other candidates. In the primary, Democratic voters rank the candidates in order of preference. The winner will be the first to pass the 50 percent support mark, whether outright or after votes have been reapportioned according to voters’ candidate rankings. Born in Uganda, Mamdani is the son of renowned historian Mahmood Mamdani, author of the book “Saviors and Survivors” about the Darfur war, and filmmaker Mira Nair, who directed the classic “Salaam Bombay!” While former New York Mayor billionaire Michael Bloomberg and Democratic heavyweights have endorsed Cuomo, the young Democratic Congressional star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has thrown her support behind Mamdani. “The difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in DC,” said Mamdani, whose eye-catching posters adorn storefronts in neighborhoods including Brooklyn. A New York State Assembly representative, Mamdani bills himself as Trump’s “worst nightmare” and champions social policies like free bus travel, raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030, and a tax hike for the wealthy. “Trump would go through Mr Mamdani like a hot knife through butter,” Cuomo said during a debate, criticizing his rival for lacking the experience to run a city with a $112 billion annual budget and 300,000 employees. Mamdani insists he is ready, and more than capable of addressing the number one issue for New Yorkers — the high cost of living.

The timing of Israel’s plan to attack Iran was top secret. But Washington pizza delivery trackers guessed something was up before the first bombs fell.About an hour before Iranian state TV first reported loud explosions in Tehran, pizza orders around the Pentagon went through the roof, according to a viral X account claiming to offer “hot intel” on “late-night activity spikes” at the US military headquarters. “As of 6:59 pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity,” the account “Pentagon Pizza Report” posted on Thursday.Not confining its analysis to pizza, the account noted three hours later that a gay bar near the Pentagon had “abnormally low traffic for a Thursday night,” and said this probably pointed to “a busy night at the Pentagon.”While far from scientific, the Pentagon pizza theory “is not something the internet just made up,” The Takeout, an online site covering restaurants and food trends, noted earlier this year.Pentagon-adjacent pizza joints also got much busier than usual during Israel’s 2024 missile strike on Iran, it said, as there are “a multitude of fast food restaurants in the Pentagon complex, but no pizza places.”Pizza deliveries to the Pentagon reportedly doubled right before the US invasion of Panama in December 1989, and surged again before Operation Desert Storm in 1991.President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal he was fully aware in advance of the bombing campaign, which Israel says is needed to end Iran’s nuclear program. “We know what’s going on.”For the rest of Americans, pepperoni pie activity was not the only way to tell something was about to happen.Washington had already announced it was moving some diplomats and their families out of the Middle East on Wednesday.And close to an hour before Israel unleashed its firepower on Iran, the US ambassador in Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee, sent out a rather revealing X post: “At our embassy in Jerusalem and closely monitoring the situation. We will remain here all night. ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!'”