President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration plans new measures to tackle the high cost of housing in the coming weeks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
Emphasizing the urgency of the situation, Bessent described it as an &#8220;all hands on deck&#8221; challenge.
Bessent told the Washington Examiner in a separate interview that Trump may declare a national housing emergency this fall to address rising prices and dwindling supply.
The housing market has been hardest hit by the U.S. central bank&#8217;s tight monetary policy stance and high housing costs are a top concern for many Americans.
The Treasury secretary told Reuters rents were now dropping, which was important for Americans who do not own their homes.
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He said he was expecting an increase in real estate transactions and home sales once interest rates began falling, which could encourage people who were locked into low mortgages to put their existing homes on the market.
Bessent said the Trump administration was also exploring ways to simplify permitting and encourage standardization to boost construction, which would boost housing supply and help to bring high costs down.
Affordability would be a big focus for the administration, Bessent said, noting Trump&#8217;s push to drive down prescription prices.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Jeff Mason and Jasper Ward; Editing by Scott Malone, Ross Colvin and Edmund Klamann)

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Bessent: Trump May Declare National Housing Emergency

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that India has offered to reduce its tariffs on U.S. goods to zero, even as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was making public shows of solidarity with Chinese and Russian leaders in the face of trade pressure from Washington.
While calling the U.S. relationship with India &#8220;one sided,&#8221; Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: &#8220;They have now offered to cut their Tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago.&#8221;
The Indian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to Trump&#8217;s comments, which follow the implementation of total duties as high as 50% on Indian goods that have raised questions about the future of the U.S.-India relationship.
Trump&#8217;s remark came as Modi was in China for a summit of more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a China-backed initiative given renewed impetus by Trump&#8217;s global tariff offensive.
At the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping pressed his vision for a new global security and economic order that prioritizes the &#8220;Global South,&#8221; in a direct challenge to the U.S.
The U.S.-India relationship has strengthened in recent years, including during Trump&#8217;s first term, given shared concerns about China&#8217;s growing power, but Trump threatened the tariffs on India after it refused to stop buying Russian oil in defiance of his efforts to end Moscow&#8217;s war in Ukraine.
In China, in an image designed to convey solidarity, Putin and Modi were shown holding hands as they walked jovially toward Xi before the summit opened. The three men stood shoulder-to-shoulder, laughing and surrounded by interpreters.
Beijing has used the summit to mend ties with New Delhi. Modi, visiting China for the first time in seven years, and Xi agreed on Sunday their countries are development partners, not rivals, and discussed ways to improve trade.
The U.S. State Department and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the meetings in China.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward and David Brunnstrom; editing by Scott Malone, Rod Nickel)

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Trump Says His Tough Trade Stance Is Working In Stand-Off With India

KABUL (Reuters) -One of Afghanistan&#8217;s worst earthquakes killed more than 800 people and injured at least 2,800, authorities said on Monday, as rescuers struggled to reach remote areas due to rough mountainous terrain and inclement weather.
The disaster will further stretch the resources of the war-torn nation&#8217;s Taliban, already grappling with crises ranging from a sharp drop in foreign aid to deportations of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighbouring countries.
Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the health ministry in Kabul, called for international aid to tackle the devastation wrought by the quake of magnitude 6 that struck around midnight local time, at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).
&#8220;We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses,&#8221; he told Reuters.
The quake killed 812 people in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, administration spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
Ziaul Haq Mohammadi, a student at Al-Falah University in the eastern city of Jalalabad, was studying in his room at home when the quake struck. He said he tried to stand up but was knocked over by the power of the tremor.
&#8220;We spent the whole night in fear and anxiety because at any moment another earthquake could happen,&#8221; Mohammadi said.
Rescuers were battling to reach remote mountainous areas cut off from mobile networks along the Pakistani border, where mudbrick homes dotting the slopes collapsed in the quake.
&#8220;The area of the earthquake was affected by heavy rain in the last 24-48 hours as well, so the risk of landslides and rock slides is also quite significant &#8211; that is why many of the roads are impassable,&#8221; Kate Carey, an officer at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), told Reuters.
Rescue teams and authorities are trying to dispose of animal carcasses quickly so as to minimise the risk of contamination to water resources, Carey said.
Casualties could rise as rescue teams access more isolated locations, authorities said.
&#8220;All our &#8230; teams have been mobilised to accelerate assistance, so that comprehensive and full support can be provided,&#8221; said health ministry spokesperson Abdul Maten Qanee, citing efforts in areas from security to food and health.
Reuters Television images showed helicopters ferrying out the affected, while residents helped security forces and medics carry the wounded to ambulances in an area with a long history of earthquakes and floods.
Military rescue teams fanned out across the region, the defence ministry said in a statement, with 40 flights carrying away 420 wounded and dead.
The quake razed three villages in Kunar, with substantial damage in many others, authorities said. At least 610 people were killed in Kunar with 12 dead in Nangarhar, they added.
It was Afghanistan&#8217;s third major deadly quake since the Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew, triggering a cut to the international funding that formed the bulk of government finances.
Diplomats and aid officials say crises elsewhere in the world, along with donor frustration over the Taliban&#8217;s policies towards women, including curbs on those who are aid workers, have spurred the cuts in funding.
Even humanitarian aid, aimed at bypassing political institutions to serve urgent needs, has shrunk to $767 million this year, down from $3.8 billion in 2022.
APPEALS FOR FUNDING
Humanitarian agencies say they are fighting a forgotten crisis in Afghanistan, where the United Nations estimates more than half the population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
&#8220;So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work,&#8221; a spokesperson of Afghanistan&#8217;s foreign office said on Monday.
Later, a spokesperson for China&#8217;s foreign ministry said it was ready to provide disaster relief assistance &#8220;according to Afghanistan&#8217;s needs and within its capacity&#8221;.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar of India said it had delivered 1,000 family tents to Kabul and was moving 15 tonnes of food material to Kunar, with more relief material to be sent from India starting Tuesday.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said its mission in Afghanistan was preparing to help those in areas devastated by the quake. Pope Leo also sent condolences for the dead.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake that killed 1,000 people in the eastern region in 2022 was the first major natural disaster faced by the Taliban government.
Humanitarian officials and locals say almost two years after a powerful tremor hit the western city of Herat, many villages are still recovering and living in temporary structures.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
Quakes in Afghanistan tend to be so deadly because of building construction that is often vulnerable to shaking, and the number of people living in the Hindu Kush, said Richard Walker, professor of tectonics at the University of Oxford.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul, Saeed Shah and Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad, Mrinmay Dey and Hritam Mukherjee; writing by Ariba Shahid, Sudipto Ganguly and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; editing by Clarence Fernandez and Mark Heinrich)

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Afghanistan Earthquake Kills 800, Injures Thousands As Taliban Seeks Global Aid

U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee and a strong advocate for Taiwan, said on Saturday he thought there would be future joint U.S.-Taiwanese weapons production, something Taipei has pushed for.
The United States is Taiwan&#8217;s most important international backer and weapons supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, though since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year no new arms sales have been announced.
Asked at a news conference in Taipei about the prospect for joint production of weapons including drones, Wicker, a Republican, was upbeat.
&#8220;I think there&#8217;s going to be joint production and joint efforts and that will depend on the skills present both on this side of the Pacific Ocean and ours, and actually we&#8217;re open to suggestion and innovation in that regard,&#8221; he said, at the end of a two-day visit where he met Taiwan President Lai Ching-te.
A Taiwan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that co-production of weapons was &#8220;very important.&#8221;
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Wicker is one of the fiercest supporters in the U.S. Congress for Taiwan. Beijing, which regularly denounces any shows of support for Taipei from Washington, has criticised his visit saying it opposes official interactions between Taiwan and the United States.
He is in Taiwan at a time the island is facing a 20% tariff on exports to the United States, as part of Trump&#8217;s sweeping new trade policy on many other parts of the world.
Wicker noted there were talks on trade going on around the world.
&#8220;That in no way affects the defence alliance and friendship and determination that the United States has to be a friend to the sovereign rights of the Taiwanese people to enjoy their democracy,&#8221; he said.
Administration officials have said that Trump remains fully committed to Asia-Pacific security matters as he pursues his trade agenda and a good personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China claims the democratically governed island as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Beijing has stepped up military and political pressure against the island in recent years.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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Senior Republican Senator Expects Joint Weapons Production With Taiwan

Russia launched a sweeping attack on Ukraine which killed one person, injured at least 24 others, and damaged infrastructure and residential buildings, authorities said on Saturday.
Three children were among the 24 wounded in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, its Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported impacts on 14 regions by the attack, which used over 500 drones and 45 missiles.
Diplomatic efforts to end Russia&#8217;s full-scale invasion have so far yielded little, even after U.S. President Donald Trump met separately with Russian and Ukrainian leaders earlier this month.
On Friday, Zelensky brought up Trump&#8217;s self-imposed deadline for deciding on new measures against Russia if President Vladimir Putin fails to commit to a one-on-one meeting with the Ukrainian leader.
&#8220;Two weeks will be on Monday. And we will remind everybody,&#8221; he said.
Russia has said there is no agenda for a potential summit between Putin and Zelensky.
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&#8220;It is absolutely clear that Moscow used the time meant for preparing a leaders-level meeting to organize new massive attacks,&#8221; Zelensky said on Saturday, calling for sanctions on Russian banking and energy sectors.
The air force recorded five missile and 24 drone hits at 7 locations with debris falling on 21 sites, according to the statement on the Telegram messaging app.
The attack on Zaporizhzhia cut power to 25,000 residents, Fedorov said. The local energy facility said the attack damaged its equipment and that repairs were underway.
As of early Saturday, Ukrainian state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia said it had repaired the damage to its infrastructure in the Kyiv region.
(Reporting by Anastasiia MalenkoEditing by Bernadette Baum)

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Russia Hits Ukrainian City With Massive Drone And Missile Attack

U.S. no-frills pioneer Spirit Airlines filed for fresh chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, as dwindling cash and mounting losses derailed its turnaround efforts since emerging from a previous Chapter 11 reorganization in March.
The carrier, recognizable by its bright yellow jets, has struggled to steady operations since emerging from its first bankruptcy in March.
Flights, ticket sales, reservations and operations will continue, the airline said on Friday.
Spirit had been attempting to rebrand as a more premium airline to keep pace with post-pandemic travel trends that have challenged the viability of the ultra-low-cost model.
But Spirit&#8217;s recovery was further hit by uncertainty from tariffs and budget cuts, which have cooled consumer spending and driven down domestic airfares.
The airline was forced to raise going-concern doubts earlier this month.
&#8220;Since emerging from our previous restructuring, which was targeted exclusively on reducing Spirit&#8217;s funded debt and raising equity capital, it has become clear that there is much more work to be done and many more tools are available to best position Spirit for the future,&#8221; said CEO Dave Davis.
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The Florida-based airline first sought bankruptcy protection last November after years of losses, failed merger bids and mounting debt, becoming the first major U.S. carrier to do so since 2011.
It posted a $1.2 billion net loss last year, with its troubles compounded by the collapse of a $3.8 billion merger with JetBlue Airways and RTX&#8217;s Pratt &amp; Whitney engine issues that forced it to ground many of its Airbus jets.
Spirit began in 1964 as a long-haul trucking company before shifting to aviation in the 1980s, initially flying leisure packages under the name Charter One Airlines.
It rebranded as Spirit in 1992 and built its reputation as a discount carrier for budget-conscious travelers willing to skip extras like checked bags and seat assignments.
But the pandemic upended that model, as demand shifted toward more comfortable, experience-driven travel, leaving ultra-low-cost carriers struggling to adapt.
(Reporting by Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Maju Samuel)

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Spirit Airlines Files For Bankruptcy — Again

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