Headline

Trump To Impose 25% Tariffs On US Steel, Aluminium Imports

Published

9 months ago

February 10, 2025

The United States will move to impose 25-per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports this week, President Donald Trump said Sunday, the latest in a slew of trade levies he has announced.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the tariffs which he will announce on Monday, will apply to “any steel coming into the United States,” adding this will also affect aluminium.

Trump imposed similar tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency to protect US industries, which he believed faced unfair competition from Asian and European countries.

Canada — which Trump has already threatened with tariffs — is the largest source of steel and aluminium imports to the United States, according to US trade data.

Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea are also major steel providers in the country.

On Sunday, the Republican billionaire also said he would announce “reciprocal tariffs” to match his government’s levies to the rates charged by other countries on US products.

“Every country will be reciprocal,” Trump said, adding that he would make a detailed announcement on the tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday.

In response, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Monday the European Union will counter in kind and “replicate” any tariffs imposed on it.

“There is no hesitation when it comes to defending our interests,” he added during an interview with broadcaster TF1.

Trump has already shown his fondness for weaponizing the United States’ financial power, ordering tariffs on key trade partners China, Mexico and Canada soon after he took office.

He paused 25-percent levies against Canada and Mexico for a month after both countries vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and the crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States.

The tariffs against China went ahead, however, with products entering the United States facing additional levies of 10 per cent since Tuesday.

Beijing responded with targeted tariffs on certain US products such as coal and liquefied natural gas, which will come into play on Monday.

The new Chinese tariffs cover $14 billion worth of US goods, while the tariffs announced by Trump cover $525 billion worth of Chinese goods, according to Goldman Sachs.

– ‘Golden age’ –

Trump has also pledged tariffs on the European Union and said that he would soon announce unspecified “reciprocal tariffs.”

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed in an interview aired Sunday to go head-to-head with Trump over his financial threats to Europe, though he said that the United States should focus its efforts on China rather than the European Union.

Macron also warned on CNN that Americans would feel the effects of any tariffs on Europe, saying they “will increase the costs and create inflation in the US.”

And in an otherwise friendly meeting Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Trump warned Tokyo could still face tariffs on exported goods if it fails to cut the US trade deficit with Japan to zero.

The trade deficit of the United States — the world’s largest economy — widened last year to nearly $920 billion.

Trump, who has promised a “new golden age” for the United States, has insisted that foreign exporters would bear the impact of any tariffs without being passed on to US consumers, despite most experts saying the contrary.

But he did acknowledge after announcing tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China earlier this month that Americans might feel economic “pain.”

Trump has wielded tariffs as a threat to achieve his wider policy goals, most recently when he said he would slap them on Colombia when it turned back US military planes carrying deported migrants.

After a day-long showdown with Trump, the Colombian government backed down.

AFP

Headline

Sweden To Charge 18-year-old Over IS Terror Plot

Published

6 hours ago

November 4, 2025

Editor

The Swedish Prosecution Authority said Tuesday it intended to charge an 18-year-old man for planning a terrorist act in Stockholm on behalf of the Islamic State group.

According to prosecutors, the planning took place between August 2024 and February 2025.

“We believe the purpose of the preparations was to induce serious fear in the population, in the name of the Islamic State. The criminal act could have seriously harmed Sweden,” Deputy Chief Prosecutor Henrik Olin said in a statement.

Prosecutors did not provide details of the plan but said the man was also suspected of “preparation for serious crimes under the act on flammable and explosive goods and training for terrorism”.

Prosecutors said they planned to file the charges on Thursday and that a press conference would be held the same day.

The young man will also be charged alongside a 17-year-old boy with attempted murder in Germany in August 2024.

Both of them are also suspected of “participation in a terrorist organisation,” according to the statement.

The man was arrested in Stockholm on February 11 and has been in custody since then.

AFP

Headline

US Shutdown Hits 35 Days, Tying Longest In History

Published

6 hours ago

November 4, 2025

Editor

The US government shutdown entered its 35th day on Tuesday, matching a record set during President Donald Trump’s first term, as lawmakers voiced hope over progress behind the scenes to end the dispute.

The federal closure appears almost certain to become the longest in history, with no breakthroughs expected before it goes into its sixth week at midnight — although there were fragile signs in Congress that an off-ramp is closer than ever.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune set the buoyant mood music on Monday when he told reporters he felt “optimistic” that newly energised talks between warring Republicans and Democrats could end in a deal before next week.

The government has been grinding to a halt since Congress failed to pass a bill to keep federal departments and agencies funded past the end of the last financial year on September 30.

“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think any of us expected that it would drag on this long. We didn’t believe, we couldn’t have imagined,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told a news conference arranged to mark the six-week milestone.

“It’s now tied for the longest shutdown in US history. And we didn’t think we’d have to come in here every single day — day after day after day — and repeat the obvious facts to the American people and to put on display every day what is happening here.”

Some 1.4 million federal workers — from air traffic controllers to park wardens — have been placed on enforced leave without pay or made to work for nothing, while vital welfare programs and even paychecks for active-duty troops are under threat.

Both sides remain dug in over the main sticking point — health care spending.

Democrats say they will only provide votes to end the funding lapse after a deal has been struck to extend expiring insurance subsidies that make health care affordable for millions of Americans.

But Republicans insist they will only address health care once Democrats have voted to switch the lights back on in Washington.

While both sides’ leadership have shown little appetite for compromise, there have been signs of life on the back benches, with a handful of moderate Democrats working to find an escape hatch.

A separate bipartisan group of four centrist House members unveiled a compromise framework Monday for lowering health insurance costs.

Democrats believe that millions of Americans seeing skyrocketing premiums as they enroll onto health insurance programs for next year will pressure Republicans into seeking compromise.

But Trump has held firm on refusing to negotiate, telling CBS News in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would “not be extorted.”

The president has sought to apply his own pressure to force Democrats to cave, by threatening mass layoffs of federal workers and using the shutdown to target progressive priorities.

Last week his administration threatened to cut off a vital aid programme that helps 42 million Americans pay for groceries for the first time in its more than 60-year history, before the move was blocked in court.

And the president has returned to a familiar playbook of demanding the elimination of the Senate filibuster — the 60-vote threshold for passing most legislation — so Republicans can pass government funding themselves.

“Terminate the filibuster now, end the ridiculous shutdown immediately, and then, most importantly, pass every wonderful Republican policy that we have dreamt of for years, but never gotten,” Trump fulminated in an all-caps social media post.

Preserving the filibuster — which senators say protects the voice of the minority — is one of the few issues on which Republicans are willing to defy Trump and radical reform seems highly unlikely.

“The votes aren’t there,” Thune told reporters on Monday.

AFP

Headline

China Backs Nigeria, Warns Against Foreign Interference

Published

7 hours ago

November 4, 2025

Editor

China has urged the international community to respect Nigeria’s sovereignty following a US threat of military action.

The Chinese government reiterated its support for President Bola Tinubu’s administration, commending the government for guiding the country along a development path tailored to its national conditions.

According to a report sourced from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People’s Republic of China’s website, the Spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, stated this at a press briefing on Tuesday in Beijing.

She said, “As Nigeria’s strategic partner, China opposes any attempt by foreign powers to use religion or human rights as a pretext to meddle in another country’s internal affairs or impose sanctions and military threats.”

Recently, the US threatened Nigeria with possible military action due to the alleged persecution of Christians in the country.

The United States President, Donald Trump, had threatened to deploy military forces in Nigeria if the alleged genocide against Christians is not stopped in the country.