White House trade adviser Peter Navarro again criticized India for its ongoing purchases of Russian oil and said he anticipates the planned 50% punitive tariffs on Indian imports will take effectnext week.
“I see that taking place,” Navarro told reporters in front of the White House when asked about the tariffs on India that are set to double on Aug. 27. “India doesn’t appear to want to recognize its role in the bloodshed. It simply doesn’t. It’s cozying up to Xi Jinping, is what it’s doing.”
A Chinese official voiced support for India regarding US tariffs on its exports, highlighting growing cooperation between the two Asian neighbors.
“The United States has imposed tariffs of up to 50% on India, and it has even threatened for more. China firmly opposes this,” said China’s ambassador to India, Xu Feihong.
On Thursday, the US and the EU established a written framework for the trade deal agreed to on July 27. The terms include a 15% US tariff on most EU imports: These include autos, pharmaceutical goods, semiconductors, and lumber — but not wine and spirits.
The two sides also outlined the EU's promise to remove tariffs on US industrial goods and give better access to US seafood and agricultural products.
On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US is content with its current tariff setup with China, signaling the Trump administration wants stability ahead of the November trade truce deadline.
In a Fox News interview, Bessent said the status quo is "working pretty well" and called China the biggest source of tariff revenue.
Bessent went on to add in a further interview with CNBC that he expects tariff revenues under President Trump to exceed his earlier $300 billion estimate, with the money going to pay down the federal debt rather than rebate checks for Americans.
Earlier this month, Trump unveiled "reciprocal" tariffs on dozens of US trade partners (which you can see in the graphic below).
The biggest negotiations to watch in the coming months are Canada, Mexico, and China.
A new analysis from the Bank of America Institutefound that consumer spending on live sporting events has risen markedly compared to pre-pandemic levels, which has also spurred a rise in spending at nearby restaurants and bars.
David Tinsley, senior economist at the Bank of America Institute, told FOX Business in an interview that consumers have picked up their spending on live experiences, like sporting events and concerts, which have surged in the years since the pandemic.
"There was a lot of attention to things like Taylor Swift's 'Eras Tour' and those kind of live gigs. But alongside that, spending on spectator sports has actually been stronger than some of that more live entertainment, music-orientated spending," Tinsley explained.
The Bank of America Institute's analysis found that consumer spending on live sports is up 25% compared with 2019 – outpacing the growth in spending on live entertainment like concerts, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Attendance at sporting events has also risen, helping to drive that spending higher.
The analysis looked at the impact of live sporting events on local economies using Bank of America Institute data, including aggregated and anonymized credit and debit card data, to look at spending in zip codes and stadiums across sporting events and seasons. It reviewed the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup along with Major League Baseball (MLB) games to compare a one-off event to a recurring seasonal event.
At the 12 venues across the U.S. that hosted Club World Cup games, Tinsley said that "within the zip codes in which those games were played over the tournament, we saw big jumps in spending. Roughly speaking, the average spend in zip codes where the tournament took place rose 7% year-over-year, but it peaked at 10% at one point."
Tinsley explained that the rise was driven mostly by consumers spending on food and drinks, though increased spending on parking also factored in. He noted that in the case of the zip code for the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which hosted the semifinals and championship of the Club World Cup, the spending was backloaded around the timing of those games.
The analysis found similar patterns at MLB games, with spending in the zip code around Yankee Stadium in the Bronx up about 25% compared with the offseason, while Citi Field in Queens is also up nearly 29%. Spending on food and drink drove much of that – up about 76% at Yankee Stadium and 66% at Citi Field.
When the Mets and Yankees clashed in the "Subway Series" this year, the average daily spending nearly doubled near Yankee Stadium and was up 60% near Citi Field when compared to the average daily amounts in the same month last year.
"We found the biggest impact in St. Louis and Boston, and spending there is up about 60%, and some with slightly smaller effects," Tinsley said. "That's partly because we've got some where there's a lot more going on, and then also it's sometimes a bit hard to discern the spending impact from games with other activities going on in the neighborhood."
Aside from the usual seasonal sporting events, the U.S., Canada and Mexico will also host the FIFA World Cup next year with an expanded field of 48 countries whose teams will play a total of 104 games at stadiums around the continent. Eleven stadiums in the U.S. will host games, along with three in Mexico and two in Canada.
"It will not be surprising at all to see a bigger impact next year. It's a bigger deal essentially in the soccer world, the football world, than the Club World Cup," Tinsley added.
The U.S. last hosted the World Cup in 1994, when it was the sole host of the event, and the event's return is expected to provide economic benefits.
The Bank of America Institute's analysis noted that a study by FIFA and the World Trade Organization estimated the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament will boost the economy by about $17 billion and support up to 185,000 jobs.
Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.
The Russian president met Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday for the first Russia-US summit in more than four years and spent almost all of their three-hour closed meeting discussing what a compromise on Ukraine might look like, according to the sources who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters
Speaking afterwards beside Trump, Putin said the meeting would hopefully open up the road to peace in Ukraine – but neither leader gave specifics about what they discussed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Acting Governor of the Jewish Autonomous Region Maria Kostyuk in Moscow, Russia, on Aug. 20, 2025.via REUTERS
In the most detailed Russian-based reporting to date on Putin’s offer at the summit, Reuters was able to outline the contours of what the Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace deal to end a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people.
In essence, the Russian sources said, Putin has compromised on territorial demands he laid out in June 2024, which required Kyiv to cede the entirety of the four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia: Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine – which make up the Donbas – plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
Kyiv rejected those terms as tantamount to surrender.
In his new proposal, the Russian president has stuck to his demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from the parts of the Donbas it still controls, according to the three sources. In return, though, Moscow would halt the current front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, they added.
Russia controls about 88% of the Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to US estimates and open-source data.
Moscow is also willing to hand over the small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine it controls as part of a possible deal, the sources said.
Putin is sticking, too, to his previous demands that Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and for a legally binding pledge from the US-led military alliance that it will not expand further eastwards, as well as for limits on the Ukrainian army and an agreement that no Western troops will be deployed on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, the sources said.
President Trump and Putin shake hands during a press conference following their meeting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 2025.REUTERS
Yet the two sides remain far apart, more than three years after Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in a full-scale invasion that followed the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and prolonged fighting in the country’s east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the proposals.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and has said the industrial Donbas region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine.
“If we’re talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that,” he told reporters in comments released by Kyiv on Thursday. “It is a matter of our country’s survival, involving the strongest defensive lines.”
Joining NATO, meanwhile, is a strategic objective enshrined in the country’s constitution and one which Kyiv sees as its most reliable security guarantee. Zelensky said it was not up to Russia to decide on the alliance’s membership.
The White House and NATO didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the Russian proposals.
Political scientist Samuel Charap, chair in Russia and Eurasia Policy at RAND, a US-based global policy think-tank, said any requirement for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas remained a non-starter for Kyiv, both politically and strategically.
“Openness to ‘peace’ on terms categorically unacceptable to the other side could be more of a performance for Trump than a sign of a true willingness to compromise,” he added. “The only way to test that proposition is to begin a serious process at the working level to hash out those details.”
The Zakarpattia Region Prosecutor’s Office shows the site of a Russian strike on an industrial facility, after a massive overnight attack on Mukachevo, Western Ukraine, on Aug. 21, 2025.ZAKARPATTIA REGION PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA/Shutterstock
TRUMP: PUTIN WANTS TO SEE IT ENDED
Russian forces currently control a fifth of Ukraine, an area about the size of the American state of Ohio, according to US estimates and open-source maps.
The three sources close to the Kremlin said the summit in the Alaskan city of Anchorage had ushered in the best chance for peace since the war began because there had been specific discussions about Russia’s terms and Putin had shown a willingness to give ground.
“Putin is ready for peace – for compromise. That is the message that was conveyed to Trump,” one of the people said.
The sources cautioned that it was unclear to Moscow whether Ukraine would be prepared to cede the remains of the Donbas, and that if it did not then the war would continue. Also unclear was whether or not the United States would give any recognition to Russian-held Ukrainian territory, they added.
A fourth source said that though economic issues were secondary for Putin, he understood the economic vulnerability of Russia and the scale of the effort needed to go far further into Ukraine.
Zelensky signs the guest book in the Roosevelt Room before a meeting with President Donald Trump, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025.Daniel Torok/White House/UPI/Shutterstock
Trump has said he wants to end the “bloodbath” of the war and be remembered as a “peacemaker president”. He said on Monday he had begun arranging, opens new tab a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, to be followed by a trilateral summit with the US president.
“I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended,” Trump said beside Zelensky in the Oval office. “I feel confident we are going to get it solved.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Putin was prepared to meet Zelensky but that all issues had to be worked through first and there was a question about Zelensky’s authority to sign a peace deal.
Ukrainian emergency worker using a water hose on a fire following a Russian air attack, in Lviv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Aug. 21, 2025.UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE/AFP via Getty Images
Putin has repeatedly raised doubts about Zelensky’s legitimacy as his term in office was due to expire in May 2024 but the war means no new presidential election has yet been held. Kyiv says Zelensky remains the legitimate president.
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany have said they are sceptical that Putin wants to end the war.
SECURITY GUARANTEES FOR UKRAINE
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was instrumental in paving the way for the summit, and the latest drive for peace, according to two of the Russian sources.
From left to right: President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission; Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom; President Alexander Stubb of Finland; President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine; United States President Donald J Trump; President Emmanuel Macron of France; Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of the Italian Republic; Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany; and Mark Rutte, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) pose for a ‘family photo’ in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, DC.Shutterstock
Witkoff met Putin in the Kremlin on August 6 with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.
At the meeting, Putin conveyed clearly to Witkoff that he was ready to compromise and set out the contours of what he could accept for peace, according to two Russian sources.
If Russia and Ukraine could reach an agreement, then there are various options for a formal deal – including a possible three-way Russia-Ukraine-US deal that is recognised by the UN Security Council, one of the sources said.
Another option is to go back to the failed 2022 Istanbul agreements, where Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine’s permanent neutrality in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, the sources added.
“There are two choices: war or peace, and if there is no peace, then there is more war,” one of the people said.
