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Jul 4, 2025 - World

With sweeping tariffs on friend and foe, US President Donald Trump has roiled financial markets and sparked a surge in economic uncertainty -- and tensions are mounting days before a fresh volley of higher duties are due to kick in.Here is a rundown of what Trump has implemented in his second presidency, with levies on dozens of economies set to bounce from 10 percent to a range between 11 percent and 50 percent on Wednesday.- Global tariffs -While Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on most US trading partners in April, the rate is set to rise for dozens of economies including the European Union and Japan come Wednesday.To avoid higher levies, countries have been rushing to strike deals with Washington.So far, the UK and Vietnam have struck pacts with the United States, while China has managed to temporarily lower tit-for-tat duties.There are notable exceptions to the duty.Immediate US neighbors Canada and Mexico, which were separately targeted over illegal immigration and fentanyl, are not affected by the 10 percent global tariff.Also off the hook are copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber -- although these are sectors that Trump is mulling levies on. Gold and silver, as well as energy commodities, are excluded too.- China focus -China has borne the brunt of Trump's levies. The world's two biggest economies engaged in an escalating tariffs war this year before a temporary pullback.Both sides imposed triple-digit tariffs on each other's goods at one point, a level effectively described as a trade embargo.After high level talks, Washington agreed to lower its levies on Chinese goods to 30 percent and Beijing slashed its own to 10 percent.The US level is higher as it includes a 20 percent tariff imposed over China's alleged role in the global fentanyl trade.- Autos, metals -Trump has also targeted individual business sectors in his second term.In March, he imposed a 25 percent levy on steel and aluminum imports and last month doubled them to 50 percent.He has also rolled out a 25 percent tariff on imported autos, although those imported under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can qualify for a lower levy.Trump's auto tariffs impact vehicle parts too, while the president has issued rules to ensure automakers paying vehicle tariffs will not also be charged for certain other duties.- Canada, Mexico -Canadian and Mexican products were initially hard hit by 25 percent US tariffs, with a lower rate for Canadian energy.Trump targeted both neighbors saying they did not do enough on illegal immigration and the flow of illicit drugs across borders.But he eventually announced exemptions for goods entering his country under the USMCA, covering large swaths of products. Potash, used as fertilizer, got a lower rate as well.- Other threats -Beyond expansive tariffs on Chinese products, Trump ordered the closure of a duty-free exemption for low-value parcels from the country. This adds to the cost of importing items like clothing and small electronics.Trump has also opened the door for 25 percent tariffs on goods from countries importing Venezuelan oil. He has threatened similar "secondary tariffs" involving Russian oil.And he has ordered investigations into imports of copper, lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals that could eventually bring new duties.- Legal challenges -Trump's sweeping tariffs on countries have faced legal challenges. The US Court of International Trade ruled in May that Trump had overstepped his authority with across-the-board global levies.It blocked many of the duties from going into effect, prompting the Trump administration's challenge, and a US federal appeals court has since allowed the duties to remain while it considers the case.

Jul 4, 2025 - World

The U.S. Independence Day holiday motivated a new mural in France that shames America. While France was once a key ally in the Revolutionary War against Britain, it is now shaming the U.S. with a massive mural of Lady Liberty covering her eyes with mortification. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France after the U.S. Civil War, recalled the National Parks Service. The mural is titled "The Statue of Liberty's Silent Protest" and was created by Dutch artist Judith de Leeuw. In an interview, Leeuw revealed to Storyful that it is meant to reflect shame for the United States over President Donald Trump's immigration policies, a USA Today video said. A bronze plaque inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reads, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," from the sonnet "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. "With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand. A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame; Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name; Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command. The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame," it continues. Her poem was meant to help raise money to construct the pedestal for the statue. Lazarus was involved in helping bring Jewish refugees fleeing antisemitic pogroms from Eastern Europe to the U.S. at the time and she saw the Statue of Liberty as an inspiration for migrants fleeing to the welcoming arms of the United States. In a post on Instagram, Leeuw explained that the Statue of Liberty was a "celebration of friendship, and given in the name of Independence Day — a day meant to honor the right to freedom for all.""But today, that freedom feels out of reach. Not for everyone. Not for migrants. Not for those pushed to the margins, silenced, or unseen," she continued. "In Roubaix — a city with one of France’s largest migrant populations — I painted her covering her eyes, because the weight of the world has become too heavy to witness. What was once a shining symbol of liberty now carries the sorrow of lost meaning. The project was finished on July 4th — Independence Day. A quiet reminder of what freedom should be."The mural took six days to complete and was unveiled the day before the United States' Independence Day. However, the artist called the unveiling on July 3, a "meaningful coincidence." See the mural in the video from the artist below or at the link here. View this post on Instagram A post shared by judith de leeuw (@jdlstreetart)

Jul 4, 2025 - World

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly the one responsible for halting aid to Ukraine, blindsiding the U.S. State Department. According to NBC News, no one, including members of Congress, officials in Kyiv, and allies in Europe, knew that the allocated aid was going to be paused, officials said. Hegseth claimed that sending Ukraine U.S. stockpiles was putting the military at risk of having fewer weapons in the event of war.Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), however, called the claim disingenuous. “We are not at any lower point, stockpile-wise, than we’ve been in the 3½ years of the Ukraine conflict,” said Smith, who is the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee. He explained that his staff has "seen the numbers" and that there was no evidence of a shortage that would stop the aid shipments. President Donald Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday morning. However, three congressional aids and one former U.S. official said that was a "unilateral" decision from Hegseth. “We can’t give weapons to everybody all around the world,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell on Wednesday. “Part of our job is to give the president a framework that he can use to evaluate how many munitions we have where we’re sending them. And that review process is happening right now and is ongoing.”The weaponry was already in Europe and had been loaded onto trucks aimed for Kyiv when Hegseth stopped it at the last minute, two sources told NBC. Read the full report here.

Jul 4, 2025 - World

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador pushed back on claims made by Kilmar Abrego Garcia through his lawyers that he was tortured while he was housed in the country's infamous CECOT prison. In a court filing on Wednesday, Abrego Garcia claimed that he was physically abused, mentally tortured, and sleep deprived while he stayed at CECOT. His lawyers said they are working with him to file a more detailed account of his stay. The story Abrego Garcia's lawyers are telling didn't sit well with Bukele. The president posted on X a more than three-minute video clip with pictures of Abrego Garcia at CECOT. "If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture? Why would he gain weight? Why are there no bruises, or even dark circles under his eyes?" Bukele wrote in the post. Some of the photos in Bukele's montage appear to show Abrego Garcia in a lower-security facility. When Abrego Garcia met with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) in April, he told the senator that he was not being held in a low-security part of the prison. The filing that his lawyers put together also suggests that Abrego Garcia was kept in the maximum-security wing with known gang members. Bukele took issue with these assertions in his post. "Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary," Bukele wrote. "But the man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos show he gained weight while in detention. There’s plenty of footage from different days, including his meeting with Senator Van Hollen, who himself confirmed the man seemed fine," his post continued.

Jul 3, 2025 - World

President Donald Trump staged a Thursday morning phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin where they discussed issues including a ceasefire with Ukraine, as well as diplomatic solutions with Iran, Reuters reported.Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that Trump "again raised the issue of an early end to military action" in Ukraine, but that Putin refused to back down from accomplishing his original goals for the region."Vladimir Putin, for his part, noted that we continue to seek a political and negotiated solution to the conflict," Ushakov said."Our president also said that Russia will achieve the goals it has set: that is, the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs, to the current acute confrontation, and Russia will not back down from these goals," he added.Reuters reported that the phrase "root causes" Putin used "is shorthand for the Kremlin's argument that it was compelled to go to war in Ukraine to prevent the country from joining NATO and being used by the Western alliance as a launch pad to attack Russia."Ushakov said that Putin and Trump "did not talk about the U.S. decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine."Trump has not yet spoken about the phone call.Read the Reuters story here.