Tuesday newspaper round-up: Russia, Trump, Black Hawk helicopters

(Sharecast News) - Russia is already working to circumvent the latest US sanctions to ensure India can continue to import high levels of cheap Russian crude oil, according to industry analysts. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, India has become the world's second largest purchaser of Russian crude oil, which has been heavily discounted due to the impact of western sanctions. US-India relations have plummeted in recent months as Donald Trump has attempted to coerce India into halting its reliance on cheap Russian oil, accusing it of bankrolling Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. - Guardian Donald Trump has said any country that does business with Iran will face a tariff rate of 25% on trade with the US, as Washington weighs a response to the situation in Iran, which is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years. "Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America," the US president said in a post on Truth Social on Monday. Tariffs are paid by US importers of goods from those countries. Iran has been heavily sanctioned by Washington for years. - Guardian

Donald Trump's crackdown on credit cards risks pushing millions of poor Americans into financial crisis, some of Wall Street's most powerful groups have warned. Mr Trump is pressing ahead with plans to temporarily cap credit card interest rates for 12 months at 10pc from January 20. However, the proposal is facing a backlash over fears it will force banks to cancel cards and pull back lending to consumers with the lowest credit scores. - Telegraph

The Army is preparing to buy US Black Hawk helicopters in a move putting thousands of British defence jobs at risk, Reform UK has suggested. Richard Tice, the party's deputy leader, claimed there had been a "rearguard action in the Army" to purchase the American military helicopter at the expense of UK-made equipment. - Telegraph

The current state of the UK labour market is a far cry from the boom it enjoyed in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis. In the spring and summer of 2022, cumulatively across the economy, businesses were trying to hire 1.3 million people, by far the highest amount since records began and up by 500,000 compared to the end of 2019. - The Times