AFP

Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska next Friday

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Friday he would meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in one week in Alaska, and suggested that an eventual deal between Moscow and Kyiv to end the war in Ukraine could involve swapping territory.

The Kremlin later confirmed the summit, calling the location “quite logical.”

“The presidents themselves will undoubtedly focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in a statement posted on Telegram.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes.

Putin held consultations Friday with the leaders of China and India ahead of the summit with Trump, who has spent his first months in office trying to broker peace in Ukraine without making a breakthrough.

“The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska,” Trump said on his Truth Social site.

He said earlier at the White House that “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” Ukraine and Russia, without providing further details.

Trump invited to Russia

Three rounds of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have failed to bear fruit, and it remains unclear whether a summit would bring peace any closer.

Russian bombardments have forced millions of people to flee their homes and have destroyed swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Putin has resisted multiple calls from the United States, Europe and Kyiv for a ceasefire.

He has also ruled out holding talks with Volodymyr Zelensky at this stage, a meeting the Ukrainian president says is necessary to make headway on a deal.

The Alaska summit would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.

Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump’s first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January.

The Kremlin’s Ushakov said that Trump had been invited to visit Russia.

“Looking ahead, it is natural to hope that the next meeting between the presidents will be held on Russian territory. A corresponding invitation has already been sent to the US president,” Ushakov said.

Witkoff visit

The Kremlin said Friday that Putin had updated Chinese President Xi Jinping on “the main results of his conversation” with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who visited Moscow earlier this week.

Xi expressed support for a “long-term” solution to the conflict, the Kremlin said.

China’s Xinhua state news agency quoted Xi as having told Putin: “China is glad to see Russia and the United States maintain contact, improve their relations, and promote a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”

Moscow and Beijing have deepened political, economic and military ties since the start of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

Putin also spoke by phone to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after both countries condemned new US tariffs over New Delhi’s oil purchases from Russia.

Xi and Modi have both tried to tout their own peace initiatives for Ukraine, though they have gained little traction.

August 9, 2025
Nawaz leads Pakistan to five-wicket ODI win over West Indies

TAROUBA, Trinidad and Tobago: Hasan Nawaz made a triumphant one-day international debut, going 63 not out on Friday to power Pakistan over West Indies by five wickets in their ODI series opener.

Nawaz and Hussain Talat formed a sixth-wicket partnership of 104 not out to rally the visitors in the day-night affair, with game two on Sunday and the concluder on Tuesday.

West Indies went 280 all out with Evin Lewis leading the way on 60 from 62 balls with three sixes and five fours while Shai Hope added 55 and Roston Chase contributed 53.

Needing 281 to win, Pakistan got 53 runs from Mohammad Rizwan before he was bowled lbw by Shamar Joseph in the 38th over with the visitors still 101 runs shy of victory, setting the stage for heroics by Nawaz and Talat.

Nawaz struck for six on the second ball of the 49th over and blasted the winning shot to the boundary off the final delivery by Joseph, giving Pakistan the victory with seven balls to spare.

In all, Nawaz reached 63 on 54 balls with three sixes and five fours while Talat finished on 41 from 37 balls with one six and four fours.

Pakistan won the toss and sent the hosts in to bat first, a choice that paid quick dividends when Brandon King was taken for four on the fifth ball of the opening over, bowled by Shaheen Shah Afridi — his first of four wickets — and caught by Babar Azam off stump.

Lewis exited on the last ball of the 19th over, bowled by Saim Ayub and caught by Afridi.

West Indies captain Hope was bowled by Afridi and caught by Rizwan on the second ball of the 41st over, leaving the hosts on 200 for five.

Romario Shepherd, was sent off on four on the last ball of the 43rd over.

Chase made the third half-century for the West Indies with a boundary but went out on the next ball, caught by Azam and bowled by Naseem Shah, who also bowled out Gudakesh Motie and Jediah Blades on the last two Pakistan deliveries.

August 9, 2025
Trump may use military against drug cartels: reports

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is moving to target Latin American drug cartels with the military, US media said Friday, after Washington designated several narcotics trafficking groups as “terrorist” organizations earlier this year.

The New York Times reported that Trump has directed the Pentagon to use military force against cartels deemed terrorist organizations.

The Wall Street Journal said the president ordered options to be prepared, with the use of special forces and the provision of intelligence support under discussion, and that any action would be coordinated with foreign partners.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, while not confirming the reports, said in a statement that Trump’s “top priority is protecting the homeland, which is why he took the bold step to designate several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.”

The United States designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and six other drug trafficking groups with Latin American roots as terror groups in February.

The US embassy in Mexico released a statement later Friday, saying both countries would use “every tool at our disposal to protect our peoples” from drug trafficking groups.

But the Mexican foreign ministry stressed that Mexico “would not accept the participation of US military forces on our territory.”

‘No invasion’

Trump’s administration has since added another Venezuelan gang, the Cartel of the Suns, which has allegedly shipped hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States over two decades.

The United States accuses Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro of leading that cartel — an allegation Caracas has rejected as a “ridiculous smokescreen.”

Trump signed an executive order on January 20, his first day back in the White House, creating a process for the designation of the cartels, which he said “constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Thursday interview with EWTN that the designations allow “us to now target what they’re operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever — to target these groups.”

“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations,” Rubio said. “It’s no longer a law enforcement issue. It becomes a national security issue.”

Trump vowed in March to “wage war” on Mexico’s drug cartels, which he accused of rape and murder.

His Mexican counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum, following the reports of potential US military action against cartels, insisted on Friday that there would be “no invasion” of her country.

Sheinbaum has made strenuous efforts to show Trump she is acting against Mexico’s cartels, whom he accuses of flooding the United States with drugs, particularly fentanyl.

“We are cooperating, we are collaborating, but there will be no invasion. That is absolutely ruled out,” she said.

Sheinbaum has been dubbed the “Trump whisperer” for repeatedly securing reprieves from his threats of stiff tariffs over the smuggling of drugs and migrants across their shared border.

August 9, 2025
UNSC meeting Saturday as Guterres calls Israel Gaza City plan ‘dangerous escalation’

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that Israel’s Gaza control plan was a “dangerous escalation” that risked worsening conditions for ordinary Palestinians, his spokesperson said.

“The Secretary-General is gravely alarmed by the decision of the Israeli Government to ‘take control of Gaza City’. This decision marks a dangerous escalation and risks deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians,” Guterres’s spokesperson said in a statement.

The United Nations Security Council will meet in a rare weekend session on Saturday to discuss Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, three diplomatic sources told AFP.

The meeting at 1900 GMT had been requested by several members of the Security Council, a member of the Council told AFP, as global concern mounts over Israel’s plan.

Belgium summons Israeli ambassador over Gaza control plan

Belgium said Friday that it was summoning the Israeli ambassador over Israel’s plans to “take military control” of the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

“The aim is clearly to express our total disapproval of this decision, but also of the continued colonisation,” Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot posted on X.

Read More: Israel approves plan to take control of Gaza

Israel’s military will “take control” of Gaza City under a new plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, touching off a wave of criticism Friday from both inside and outside the country.

Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to secure a truce to pull the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.

Hamas denounced the plan to expand the fighting as a “new war crime”.

Staunch Israeli ally Germany meanwhile took the extraordinary step of halting military exports out of concern they could be used in Gaza, a move Netanyahu slammed as a reward for Hamas.

August 8, 2025
Germany suspends arms exports to Israel for use in Gaza

Berlin: Germany is to halt the export of military equipment to Israel that could be used in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Friday, reacting to Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City.

The arms export freeze marks a drastic change of course for Germany, which has long been one of Israel’s staunchest international allies.

Merz said it was “increasingly unclear” how the latest Israeli military plan would help achieve the aims of disarming Hamas and freeing the remaining Israeli hostages.

“Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice,” he said in a statement.

Berlin “remains deeply concerned about the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza”, he added.

Israel has until recently enjoyed broad support across the political spectrum in Germany, a country still seeking to atone for the World War II murder of more than six million Jews.

Between the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 and May this year, Germany approved defence exports worth 485 million euros ($565 million) to Israel.

The deliveries included firearms, ammunition, weapons parts, electronic equipment and armoured vehicles, the government said in June.

Merz reiterated that “Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas and that “the release of the hostages and negotiations on a ceasefire are our top priorities”. “The disarmament of Hamas is imperative. Hamas must not play a role in Gaza in future,” he said.

But he added that “the new military push agreed by the Israeli security cabinet makes it increasingly unclear how these goals are to be achieved”.

Read More: Israel approves plan to take control of Gaza

Germany’s Central Council of Jews called Merz’s decision “disappointing” and said the government should “correct course” and increase pressure on Hamas instead.

– Gaza suffering ‘unbearable’ –

Merz’s decision is a dramatic step for Germany, where the chancellor’s tone towards Israel has been sharpening in recent months as the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorated further.

Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil of the Social Democrats welcomed the “just decision”, saying “the humanitarian suffering in Gaza is unbearable”.

A poll published this week by public broadcaster ARD found that 66 percent of Germans expected the government to exert greater influence over Israel to change its actions in Gaza.

However, while often voicing concern, Germany had do far avoided major concrete steps.

It refrained from following France, Britain and Canada, which have announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September, saying recognition must come at the end of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Berlin has also opposed the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which had been under review by the bloc.

Global alarm has been growing over the suffering in Gaza, where a UN-backed assessment has warned that famine is unfolding.

German air force planes have joined others with humanitarian aid airdrops over the war-battered coastal territory.

Merz said that “with the planned offensive, the Israeli government bears even greater responsibility” for providing aid to Gaza and again urged “comprehensive access” for UN agencies and aid groups.

He also said his government urged Israel “to refrain from taking any further steps toward an annexation of the West Bank”.

Last month, 71 members of Israel’s 120-seat parliament, including members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, passed a motion calling on the government to annex the occupied West Bank.

The German-Israeli Society, which promotes closer ties between the two countries, condemned Merz’s move and pointed to a $3.5-billion deal under which Germany agreed to buy Israel’s Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile shield.

The group said that “if Israel were to retaliate in arms deliveries to Germany, the future of German aerial defence looks bleak”.

August 8, 2025
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT-5 for free to all users, claims ‘smarter’ than before

OpenAI on Thursday released a keenly awaited new generation of its hallmark ChatGPT, touting “significant” advancements in artificial intelligence capabilities, as a global race over the technology accelerates.

ChatGPT-5 is rolling out free to all users of the AI tool, which is used by nearly 700 million people weekly, OpenAI said in a briefing with journalists.

Co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman touted this latest iteration as “clearly a model that is generally intelligent”.

“It is a significant step toward models that are really capable,” he said.

ltman cautioned that there is still work to be done to achieve the kind of artificial general intelligence (AGI) that thinks the way people do.

“This is not a model that continuously learns as it is deployed from new things it finds, which is something that, to me, feels like it should be part of an AGI,” Altman said.

“But the level of capability here is a huge improvement.”

GPT-5 is particularly adept when it comes to AI acting as an “agent” independently tending to computer tasks, according to Michelle Pokrass of the development team.

“GPT-3 felt to me like talking to a high school student — ask a question, maybe you get a right answer, maybe you’ll get something crazy,” Altman said.

“GPT-4 felt like you’re talking to a college student; GPT five is the first time that it really feels like talking to a PhD-level expert in any topic.”

Vibe coding

Altman said he expects the ability to create software programs on demand — so-called “vibe-coding” — to be a “defining part of the new ChatGPT-5 era.”

As an example, OpenAI executives demonstrated the bot being asked to create an app for learning the French language.

With fierce competition around the world over the technology, Altman said ChatGPT-5 led the pack in coding, writing, health care and much more.

Rivals including Google and Microsoft have been pumping billions of dollars into developing AI systems.

Altman said there were “orders of magnitude more gains” to come on the path toward AGI.

“Obviously…you have to invest in compute (power) at an eye watering rate to get that, but we intend to keep doing it.”

ChatGPT-5 was also trained to be trustworthy and stick to providing answers as helpful as possible without aiding a seemingly harmful mission, according to OpenAI safety research lead Alex Beutel.

“We built evaluations to measure the prevalence of deception and trained the model to be honest,” Beutel said.

Read More: DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: Which One is Better?

ChatGPT-5 is trained to generate “safe completions,” sticking to high-level information that can’t be used to cause harm, according to Beutel.

The debut comes a day after OpenAI said it was allowing the US government to use a version of ChatGPT designed for businesses for a year for just $1.

Federal workers in the executive branch will have access to ChatGPT Enterprise essentially free in a partnership with the US General Services Administration, according to the artificial intelligence sector star.

The company this week also released two new AI models that can be downloaded for free and altered by users, to challenge similar offerings by US and Chinese competition.

The release of gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b “open-weight language models” comes as the ChatGPT-maker is under pressure to share inner workings of its software in the spirit of its origin as a nonprofit.

August 8, 2025
Shipping giant Maersk raises outlook on strong demand outside US

COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Danish shipping giant Maersk raised its 2025 earnings outlook on Thursday, owing to robust demand outside the United States amid President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught.

Maersk said it was now projecting a core profit of between $8 billion and $9.5 billion for the year, compared with the previously announced range of $6 billion to $9 billion.

“Even with market volatility and historical uncertainty in global trade, demand remained resilient, and we’ve continued to respond with speed and flexibility,” Maersk chief executive Vincent Clerc said in an earnings statement.

At the same time, the shipping giant cautioned that “the outlook for global container demand over the remainder of the year remains uncertain, shaped by a rapidly evolving tariff landscape and high policy uncertainty in the US.”

“Unless new major shocks occur, global demand growth is expected to range between two percent and four percent for the full year,” Maersk said.

Maersk reported a 26.5 percent drop in its second-quarter net profit to $586 million.

The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to $2.3 billion, up from $2.1 billion a year earlier.

Revenue rose by three percent to $13.1 billion.

“Our new East-West network is raising the bar on reliability and setting new industry standards. It has been a key driver of increased volumes and solid delivery of our Ocean business,” Clerc said.

August 7, 2025
China exports top forecasts as EU, ASEAN shipments offset US drop

BEIJING: China’s exports rose more than expected last month, with official data on Thursday showing a jump in shipments to the European Union and other markets offset a drop in those to the United States.

The figures come as Beijing and Washington navigate a shaky trade war truce and will provide a boost to the country’s leaders as they look to kickstart an economy beset by weak domestic consumption.

The reading showed that exports jumped 7.2 percent in July, an improvement on the previous month and much better than the 5.6 percent forecast in a survey of economists by Bloomberg.

The report revealed that US-bound goods sank 21.7 percent year-on-year as Donald Trump’s levies — while down from the eye-watering levels initially announced — kicked in.

However, exports to the European Union jumped 9.2 percent and those to the Association of Southeast Asian nations rose 16.6 percent.

Southeast Asia and China have deeply interwoven supply chains and Washington has long accused Chinese manufacturers of “transshipping” — having products pass through a country to avoid harsher trade barriers elsewhere.

In another welcome signal for China’s leaders, imports — a key gauge of struggling domestic demand — jumped 4.1 percent on-year in July, compared with a Bloomberg forecast of a one-percent fall.

Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said the data showed “exports supported the economy strongly so far this year”.

“Export growth may slow in coming months, as the front loading of exports due to US tariffs fades away,” he said.

“The big question is how much China’s exports will slow and how it would spill over to the rest of the economy,” he said.

Beijing has set an official goal of around five percent growth this year.

But it has struggled to maintain a strong economic recovery from the pandemic, as it fights a debt crisis in its massive property sector, chronically low consumption and elevated youth unemployment.

Further US talks

Factory output shrank more than expected in July, data showed last week, logging its fourth straight month of contraction in a further sign that trade tensions were hitting the export-dependent economy.

But the economic superpowers are working to reach a deal to lower trade tensions.

The two hammered out a 90-day truce in May, and last month in Stockholm agreed to hold further talks on extending the ceasefire past an August 12 deadline.

That pact has temporarily set fresh US duties on Chinese goods at 30 percent, while Beijing’s levies on US products stand at 10 percent.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said following the Stockholm talks that Trump would have the “final say” on any extension of a tariffs truce.

Higher tariffs on dozens of trading partners — including a blistering 35 percent on Canada — also came into force Thursday as Trump seeks to reshape global trade to benefit the US economy.

China’s dominance in the critical field of rare earths has also been a key point of contention with Washington, and Beijing’s recent restrictions on their export have sounded alarm bells at factories in the United States and elsewhere.

Official data showed Thursday that Chinese exports of the elements receded last month from a June spike, though they remained high compared to recent years.

Analysts say China’s trade will face significant hurdles in the latter half of the year as uncertainties linger.

August 7, 2025
UK pensioner, student arrested for backing Palestine Action

LONDON: Pensioner Marji Mansfield never imagined she would end up suspected of terrorism for protesting against the banning of a pro-Palestinian group.

But the British grandmother was arrested on July 5 for joining a demonstration in support of Palestine Action just days after it was added to the UK government’s list of proscribed organisations.

“It’s a terrible shock to be accused of potentially being a terrorist,” said Mansfield, 68, who described herself as a “proud grandmother” of seven.

She “was never politically interested,” the former banking consultant from the southern town of Chichester told AFP. “I just worked hard, raised my family, lived an ordinary life.”

In early July, the UK government banned Palestine Action under the UK’s Terrorism Act, after activists broke into an air force base in England and damaged two aircraft.

Since then, the campaign group Defend Our Juries has organised protests around the country to challenge the ban, described as “disproportionate” by the United Nations rights chief.

More than 200 people have been arrested, according to Tim Crosland, a member of Defend Our Juries. They risk prison sentences of up to 14 years.

A new demonstration in support of the group, which was founded in 2020, is planned on Saturday in London. Organisers expect at least 500 people to turn up, and police have warned all demonstrators could face arrest.

People “don’t know what the nature of this group is,” interior minister Yvette Cooper has said, claiming that “this is not a non-violent group”.

But Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori has launched a court bid to overturn the ban and a hearing is set for November.

‘Not terrorists’

Mansfield has long supported the Palestinian people, but the start of the current war, sparked by Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, galvanised her into action.

“When it started happening again … it was the most horrible feeling, that children’s homes were being blown up, that their schools were being destroyed,” she said.

For Mansfield, the Palestine Action ban was the final straw, fuelling her feelings that the government was silencing her political views.

The night before attending the July demonstration, Mansfield said she was “terrified”. But she did not change her mind.

Images on British media showed her being moved by several police officers after she refused to get up from the pavement. An 83-year-old woman was by her side.

Mansfield spent 12 hours in custody, and is now banned from parts of London, meaning she cannot visit some museums with her grandchildren as she would like to do.

“It was just ordinary people,” said Mansfield. “We came from all backgrounds … we’re not terrorists.”

‘Civil liberties’

Alice Clark, a 49-year-old doctor, also does not regret attending the protest where she was arrested in London on July 19.

“Nobody wants to be arrested. I just feel that there’s a responsibility,” said Clark, who also accused the government of undermining “our civil liberties”.

Cooper said the ban on Palestine Action was “based on detailed security assessments and security advice”.

The ban says the group’s “methods have become more aggressive” by encouraging members to carry out attacks which have already caused millions of pounds in damage.

But Clark, a former volunteer for medical charity Doctors Without Borders, said she felt “growing disgust and horror” at the images of starving children in Gaza.

The 12 hours in custody after her arrest were a shock. If convicted, she risks losing her licence to practice medicine.

“There were points where I was close to tears. But I think just remembering why I was doing it kind of helped me keep calm,” said Clark.

History student Zahra Ali, 18, was also arrested on July 19, before being released under supervision. None of the three women has been charged.

She is also appalled by the scenes from Gaza.

“The starvation in Gaza, it’s disgusting. And our government isn’t doing anything about that,” she told AFP.

Imagining herself in prison at 18 is “a big thing,” but “if people who are in their 80s can do it, then I can do it,” Ali said.

She also does not describe herself as an activist, but as “a normal person … who decided that what our government is doing is wrong”.

August 7, 2025
Higher US tariffs take effect on dozens of economies

WASHINGTON: Higher US tariffs came into effect for dozens of economies Thursday, drastically raising the stakes in President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging efforts to reshape global trade.

As an executive order signed last week by Trump took effect, US duties rose from 10 percent to levels between 15 percent and 41 percent for a list of trading partners.

Many products from economies including the European Union, Japan and South Korea now face a 15-percent tariff, even with deals struck with Washington to avert steeper threatened levies.

But others like India face a 25-percent duty — to be doubled in three weeks — while Syria, Myanmar and Laos face staggering levels at either 40 percent or 41 percent.

Taking to his Truth Social platform just after midnight, Trump posted: “IT’S MIDNIGHT!!! BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TARIFFS ARE NOW FLOWING INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!”

The latest tariff wave of “reciprocal” duties, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deems unfair, broadens the measures Trump has imposed since returning to the presidency.

But these higher tariffs do not apply to sector-specific imports that are separately targeted, such as steel, autos, pharmaceuticals and chips.

Trump said Wednesday he planned a 100-percent tariff on semiconductors — though Taipei said chipmaking giant TSMC would be exempt as it has US factories.

Even so, companies and industry groups warn that the new levies will severely hurt smaller American businesses. Economists caution that they could fuel inflation and weigh on growth in the longer haul.

While some experts argue that the effects on prices will be one-off, others believe the jury is still out.

With the dust settling on countries’ tariff levels, at least for now, Georgetown University professor Marc Busch expects US businesses to pass along more of the bill to consumers.

An earlier 90-day pause in these higher “reciprocal” tariffs gave importers time to stock up, he said.

But although the wait-and-see strategy led businesses to absorb more of the tariff burden initially, inventories are depleting and it is unlikely they will do this indefinitely, he told AFP.

“With back-to-school shopping just weeks away, this will matter politically,” said Busch, an international trade policy expert.

Devil in the details

The tariff order taking effect Thursday also leaves lingering questions for partners that have negotiated deals with Trump recently.

Tokyo and Washington, for example, appear at odds over key details of their tariffs pact, such as when lower levies on Japanese cars will take place.

Washington has yet to provide a date for reduced auto tariffs to take effect for Japan, the EU and South Korea. Generally, US auto imports now face a 25-percent duty under a sector-specific order.

A White House official told AFP that Japan’s 15-percent tariff stacks atop of existing duties, despite Tokyo’s expectations of some concessions.

Meanwhile, the EU continues to seek a carveout from tariffs for its key wine industry.

In a recent industry letter addressed to Trump, the US Wine Trade Alliance and others urged the sector’s exclusion from tariffs, saying: “Wine sales account for up to 60 percent of gross margins of full-service restaurants.”

New fronts

Trump is also not letting up in his trade wars.

He opened a new front Wednesday by doubling planned duties on Indian goods to 50 percent, citing New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil. But the additional 25-percent duty would take effect in three weeks.

Trump’s order for added India duties also threatened penalties on other countries that “directly or indirectly” import Russian oil, a key revenue source for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Existing exemptions still apply, with pharmaceuticals and smartphones excluded for now.

And Trump has separately targeted Brazil over the trial of his right-wing ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of planning a coup.

US tariffs on various Brazilian goods surged from 10 percent to 50 percent Wednesday, but broad exemptions including for orange juice and civil aircraft are seen as softening the blow.

Still, key products like Brazilian coffee, beef and sugar are hit.

Many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs face legal challenges over his use of emergency economic powers, with the cases likely to ultimately reach the US Supreme Court.

August 7, 2025