Japanese Manufacturing Sentiment Rises Slightly Despite U.S. Tariff Pressures

• Hackers say they might try to sell emails from Trump aides

• Group leaked documents from Republican president's campaign last year

• US has said group known as Robert works for Iran's Revolutionary Guards

Iran-linked hackers have threatened to disclose more emails stolen fromU.S. President Donald Trump's circle, after distributing a prior batch to the media ahead of the 2024 U.S. election.

In online chats with Reuters on Sunday and Monday, the hackers, who go by the pseudonym Robert, said they had roughly 100 gigabytes of emails from the accounts of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan, Trump adviser Roger Stone and porn star-turned-Trump antagonist Stormy Daniels.

Robert raised the possibility of selling the material but otherwise did not provide details of their plans. The hackers did not describe the content of the emails.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi described the intrusion as "an unconscionable cyber-attack."

The White House and the FBI responded with a statement from FBI Director Kash Patel, who said: "Anyone associated with any kind of breach of national security will be fully investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Halligan, Stone, a representative for Daniels and the U.S. cyberdefense agency CISA did not respond to requests for comment. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not return a message seeking comment. Tehran has in the past denied committing cyberespionage.

Robert materialized in the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign, when they claimed to have breached the email accounts of several Trump allies, including Wiles.

The hackers then distributed emails to journalists.

Reuters previously authenticated some of the leaked material, including an email that appeared to document a financial arrangement between Trump and lawyers representing former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - now Trump's health secretary.

Other material included Trump campaign communication about Republican office-seekers and discussion of settlement negotiations with Daniels.

Although the leaked documents did garner some coverage last year, they did not fundamentally alter the presidential race, which Trump won.

The U.S. Justice Department in a September 2024 indictment alleged that Iran's Revolutionary Guards ran the Robert hacking operation. In conversations with Reuters, the hackers declined to address the allegation.

After Trump's election, Robert told Reuters that no more leaks were planned. As recently as May, the hackers told Reuters, "I am retired, man." But the group resumed communication after this month's 12-day air war between Israel and Iran, which was capped by U.S. bombing of Iran's nuclear sites.

In messages this week, Robert said they were organizing a sale of stolen emails and wanted Reuters to "broadcast this matter."

American Enterprise Institute scholar Frederick Kagan, who has written about Iranian cyberespionage, said Tehran suffered serious damage in the conflict and its spies were likely trying to retaliate in ways that did not draw more U.S. or Israeli action.

"A default explanation is that everyone's been ordered to use all the asymmetric stuff that they can that's not likely to trigger a resumption of major Israeli/U.S. military activity," he said. "Leaking a bunch more emails is not likely to do that."

Despite worries that Tehran could unleash digital havoc, Iran's hackers took a low profile during the conflict. U.S. cyber officials warned on Monday that American companies and critical infrastructure operators might still be in Tehran's crosshairs.

Source: TradingView

Oil prices edged down on Tuesday, weighed by expectations of an OPEC+ output hike in August and concerns of an economic slowdown driven by prospects of higher U.S. tariffs.

Brent crude futures for September delivery fell 16 cents, or 0.24%, to $66.58 a barrel by 0000 GMT. U.S.

West Texas Intermediate crude declined 20 cents, or 0.31%, to $64.91 a barrel.

"The market is now concerned that the OPEC+ alliance will continue with its accelerated rate of output increases," ANZ senior commodity strategist Daniel Hynes said in a note.

Four OPEC+ sources told Reuters last week that the group plans to raise output by 411,000 barrels per day in August, following similar hikes in May, June, and July.

If approved, this would bring OPEC+'s total supply increase for the year to 1.78 million bpd, equivalent to more than 1.5% of global oil demand. OPEC and its allies including Russia, together known as OPEC+, will meet on July 6.

Uncertainty about U.S. tariffs and their impact on global growth also kept a lid on oil prices.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that countries could be notified of sharply higher tariffs despite good-faith negotiations as a July 9 deadline approaches, when tariff rates are scheduled to revert from a temporary 10% level to President Donald Trump's suspended rates of 11% to 50% announced on April 2.

Morgan Stanley expects Brent futures to retrace to around $60 by early next year, with the market being well supplied and geopolitical risk abating following the Israel-Iran de-escalation. It expects an oversupply of 1.3 million bpd in 2026.

A 12-day war that started with Israel targeting Iran's nuclear facilities on June 13 pushed up Brent prices. They surged above $80 a barrel after the U.S. bombed Iran's nuclear facilities and then slumped to $67 after Trump announced an Iran-Israel ceasefire.

Source: Yahoo Finance

U.S. Senate Endorses GENIUS Act for Stablecoin Regulation

Regulatory Clarity Expected to Double Stablecoin Market Size

Global Influence: Learning from MiCA and HK's Ordinance

Source: CryptoSlate

Digital services taxes targeting the revenue of big technology companies have returned as a flash point in President Donald Trump’s efforts to rewrite the rules of global trade.

Trump has long argued that these levies are discriminatory against US tech giants like Amazon.com Inc., Google owner Alphabet Inc. and Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. During his first term as president, Trump threatened to use tariffs to punish countries imposing digital taxes.

Now that he is back in office, tensions have flared again over who gets to tax the world’s largest firms, and how. Canada was the first to back down in the face of Trump’s ire. It decided to scrap its digital levy in late June — hours before it was due to go into effect — after Trump suspended trade talks with the country over what he called an “egregious” tax. The two countries have resumed talks.

Broadly speaking, digital services taxes are levies on the revenue that tech companies generate from users in a particular country, from activities such as targeted online advertising, streaming and the sale of data.

These taxes come in a variety of forms, with different thresholds and parameters. France was among the first nations to implement a digital services tax. In 2019, it introduced a 3% charge on revenue from targeted advertising and other digital services of companies with an annual revenue of at least €750 million ($879 million) globally and €25 million in France.

Other European countries followed, including Italy, Austria, Spain and the UK.

Canada was behind the curve. Its tax was passed into law in 2024 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in office. From June 30 of this year, firms were meant to be on the hook for 3% of the digital services revenue generated from Canadian users above C$20 million ($14.6 million) in a calendar year.

The global economy is becoming more and more digitalized, running on flows of data. But the companies providing services often don’t have brick-and-mortar operations in every country they operate in.

Taxing companies based on their physical presence has thus become an increasingly ineffective method for governments to ensure the tax bills of tech companies match the value they derive from local customers.

Pressure to address perceived injustice in tax systems grew in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, when public outcry over bank bailouts spurred a push to tackle tax evasion.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — a club of 38 mostly rich countries — has been working for years on a solution to rewrite the rules of how taxing rights are shared among jurisdictions. It has been hosting negotiations with more than 140 countries to adapt the international tax system.

Progress has been slow and regularly set back by the reigniting of trade tensions. Frustrated by the lack of momentum, European countries began to introduce digital services taxes as a stopgap measure — even as they recognized the controversial nature of levies based on revenue rather than profit.

The US asserts that digital services taxes are less about fairness and more about hobbling American tech firms.

In 2020, the first Trump administration announced plans to impose tariffs of 25% on goods imported from France, including makeup, soap and handbags.

These duties were suspended pending negotiations and the US ultimately reached a standstill agreement with multiple European governments, including that of France. Under this truce, the US shelved its punitive tariffs and these countries effectively agreed to refund any taxes in excess of what corporations will pay once the OECD’s global tax regime is in place.

Shortly after Trump was sworn into office this year, he ordered a reopening of the so-called Section 301 investigations launched during his first term into countries with digital services taxes, and to probe nations that have since developed such levies. These investigations lay the groundwork for the US to retaliate against trade practices it deems unfair to American interests, for example with tariffs.

Trump also instructed the US Treasury to notify the OECD that any commitments the US previously made to its tax negotiations have no force.

While Canada yielded to Trump, the UK and countries in the European Union have thus far held firm.

When the US struck a trade agreement with the UK in May, it said in a statement that it was “disappointed” that the British government was unwilling to withdraw its digital services tax.

US Treasury Scott Bessent previously said that these taxes were a sticking point in trade discussions with the EU. The EU’s ability to make concessions on this front is complicated by the fact that taxation is a national prerogative for the bloc’s member states, while trade is managed by the European Commission in Brussels.

In February, the French government ruled out undoing its digital services tax to appease Trump. The levy is a growing source of revenue at a time when France’s finance ministry is struggling to rein in the country’s budget deficit. The government expects the tax to bring in almost €775 million this year.

The renewed tensions around digital services taxes will refocus attention on the OECD’s efforts. Many countries have pledged to abolish their digital taxes if there is an international agreement on how to allocate the profits of multinationals for the purposes of taxation.

The hurdles to reaching a deal are high. Numerous treaties would have to be rewritten, and the US would likely lose some taxation rights to countries where its big digital firms operate.

Still, global tech companies have previously expressed support for the OECD’s initiative as a way of avoiding a mushrooming of different tax regimes around the world.

Moreover, as part of work toward a separate agreement on a global minimum corporate tax, the US signed off on a Group of Seven statement in June that spoke in favor of “constructive dialogue on the taxation of the digital economy.”

Source: Bloomberg Europe

The European Union is open to a trade agreement with the United States that would apply a universal 10% tariff on many of its exports, but the EU is seeking U.S. commitments to reduce tariffs in key sectors such as pharmaceuticals, alcohol, semiconductors, and commercial aircraft, Bloomberg news reported on Monday.

EU is also pushing the U.S. to implement quotas and exemptions to effectively ease Washington's 25% tariff on automobiles and auto parts, as well as its 50% tariff on steel and aluminum, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Trump Demands Immediacy of Rate Cuts

Source: TheNewsCrypto