President Donald Trump ordered massive tariffs on Brazil Wednesday and sanctions against the judge overseeing a trial of his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of attempting a coup in Latin America’s biggest economy.The announcement of 50 percent tariffs saw Trump make good on his threat to wield US economic might to punish Brazil — and its Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in particular — for what he has termed a “witch hunt” against former president Bolsonaro.Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hit back at the move, saying he would defend “the sovereignty of the Brazilian people in the face of measures announced by the president of the United States.”Unlike other tariffs Trump is slapping on economies around the world, the measures against Brazil have been framed in openly political terms, sweeping aside centuries-old trade ties and a surplus that Brasilia put at $284 million last year. The moves dramatically increased the pressure on Moraes, who has emerged as a powerful and polarizing thorn in the far-right’s side, after clashing repeatedly with Bolsonaro and others over disinformation.Trump’s executive order added a 40 percent tariff on Brazilian products, bringing total trade duties to 50 percent, the White House announced.The order said the new duties would not come into effect for seven days, and listed exemptions on some of Brazil’s major exports — including planes, orange juice and pulp, Brazil nuts, and some iron, steel and aluminum products. The Brazilian government’s “politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of (Bolsonaro) and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil,” the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the tariffs.It also cited Brazil’s “unusual and extraordinary policies and actions harming US companies, the free speech rights of US persons, US foreign policy, and the US economy,” and singled out Moraes by name.The new duties were announced shortly after the US Treasury slapped sanctions on Moraes, which followed a similar move by the State Department earlier this month. Brazil’s Attorney General Jorge Messias slammed the sanctions as “arbitrary” and “unjustifiable.”Bolsonaro is facing up to 40 years in prison for allegedly plotting a coup to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to leftist Lula.Prosecutors say the plot included a plan to arrest and even assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and Moraes.Brazil has refused to drop the charges, and Trump’s intervention in the case has so far boosted Lula’s popularity.On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch’s Americas director, Juanita Goebertus, declared the US tariffs and sanctions “a clear violation of judicial independence.”- ‘Witch hunt’ -Both US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued statements Wednesday announcing the new sanctions against Moraes.”Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against US and Brazilian citizens and companies,” Bessent said.Rubio, who accused Moraes in his statement of “serious human rights abuses,” also met his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Viera, on Wednesday. Viera said that Brazil’s judiciary would “not bow to external pressure.”Moraes, 56, has played a controversial role in fighting disinformation.He was an omnipresent figure during the polarizing 2022 election campaign, aggressively using his rulings to fight election disinformation on social media.Last year, he ordered the shutdown of tech titan Elon Musk’s X network in Brazil for 40 days for failing to tackle disinformation shared mainly by Bolsonaro backers.Bolsonaro has called Moraes a dictator, while his son Eduardo had lobbied for US sanctions against the “totalitarian” judge.On Wednesday, Eduardo Bolsonaro said the US action was “not about revenge, it’s about justice.””Abuses of authority now have global consequences,” he wrote on X.The US Treasury cited the Magnitsky Act for the sanctions. It freezes US-based assets and bars travel to the country for foreign officials accused of human rights abuses or corruption.

Meta reported robust second-quarter financial results Wednesday, with revenue jumping 22 percent year-over-year to $47.5 billion as the social media giant continues investing heavily in artificial intelligence.The Facebook and Instagram owner’s share price soared as much as 12 percent in after-hours trading, with investors buoyed by the company’s growing advertising business and a rise in users across its family of platforms.”We’ve had a strong quarter both in terms of our business and community,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “I’m excited to build personal superintelligence for everyone in the world.”Meta posted a net profit of $18.3 billion, compared with $13.5 billion in the same period last year. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations as advertising revenue climbed a stellar 21 percent to $46.6 billion.Meta’s Family of Apps segment, which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, saw daily active users reach 3.48 billion in June, up 6 percent from a year earlier.The company significantly increased its capital expenditures to $17 billion in the quarter, primarily for AI infrastructure investments. Meta projects total 2025 capital spending between $66 billion and $72 billion.Zuckerberg has embarked on a major AI spending spree, poaching top researchers with expensive pay packages from rivals like OpenAI and Apple as he builds a team to pursue what he calls AI superintelligence.”To win the superintelligence race requires the best of the best talent and Meta’s been on a roll when it comes to recruiting top AI talent. Money talks and Meta has plenty of it,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. The big question is whether Wall Street will continue backing the expensive strategy. Meta is locked in a bitter rivalry with other tech behemoths as they invest heavily in AI, aiming to ensure the technology benefits society and generates profits in the not-so-distant future.Most analysts believe Meta will make the investment pay off by improving its advertising efficiency and creating new opportunities, such as with its smart glasses through a partnership with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica.”Capital expenditures are still shockingly high, but with these strong results, Meta has bought itself more time with investors,” said Debra Aho Williamson, chief analyst at Sonata Insights.However, others signal that Meta’s AI spending spree needs a clearer sense of direction.A strong quarter “won’t shield Meta from questions concerning the company’s future as it breathlessly tries to keep up in the AI race,” said Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley.Another reason that Zuckerberg’s spending bonanza may raise eyebrows is because it echoes his previous leap into spending vast amounts on virtual reality and entering the metaverse, with the CEO even changing the company’s name from Facebook to Meta to reflect the strategy change.The bleeding continued in that segment, with the Reality Labs division, Meta’s virtual and augmented reality unit, posting significant losses. The unit lost $4.5 billion in the quarter on revenue of just $370 million, highlighting ongoing challenges in the metaverse business.- ‘Undeniable’ -Zuckerberg’s AI team is headed by Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI, a startup in which Meta invested $14.3 billion at the beginning of the company’s spending blitz in June.Hours before the earnings report, Zuckerberg insisted that the attainment of superintelligence is now “in sight.”In a  post outlining Meta’s AI strategy, Zuckerberg signaled that the remainder of the decade would be a transformative period for artificial intelligence development and that the company’s priority was to bring AI to its users.”There’s no other company that is as good as us at taking something getting it in front of billions of people,” he told analysts.

The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on a shipping empire controlled by the son of a top political advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The Treasury Department said the sanctions were being imposed on companies and vessels operated by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, who has been subject to US sanctions since 2020.It said Hossein operates a fleet of more than 50 tankers and container ships that transport Iranian and Russian oil and petroleum products, generating tens of billions of dollars in profit.”The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behavior,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.The Treasury Department said more than 115 individuals, corporate entities and vessels were being sanctioned, including companies based in Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.”The over 115 sanctions issued today are the largest to-date since the Trump Administration implemented our campaign of maximum pressure on Iran,” Bessent said.The Treasury Department said Hossein’s network “comprises a vast fleet of vessels, ship management firms, and front companies… that launder billions in profits from global sales of Iranian and Russian crude oil and other petroleum products, most often to buyers in China.”The State Department said separately that it was imposing sanctions on 20 entities, including companies in India, Indonesia, Turkey and the UAE, for their involvement in the trade of Iranian petroleum, and 10 vessels.The sanctions are being imposed more than a month after the United States attacked Iran’s nuclear program, hitting a uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the sanctions are intended to “disrupt the Iranian regime’s ability to fund its destabilizing activities, including its nuclear program, support for terrorist groups, and oppression of its own people.””As President (Donald) Trump has said, any country or person who chooses to purchase Iranian oil or petrochemicals exposes themselves to the risk of US sanctions and will not be allowed to conduct business with the United States,” Bruce said.She said the United States will continue to put “maximum pressure” on Tehran until it “accepts a deal that advances regional peace and stability and in which Iran forgoes all aspirations of a nuclear weapon.” 

The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged Wednesday, defying strong political pressure from President Donald Trump to slash borrowing costs — although divisions emerged among policymakers.The central bank’s call to hold interest rates at a range between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent for a fifth consecutive meeting came with two dissents, marking the first time since 1993 that two Fed governors voted against a rate decision.It also came amid a flurry of data releases this week, including an estimate showing the world’s biggest economy returned to growth in the second quarter.But the uptick was heavily influenced by a pullback in imports after businesses rushed to stockpile inventory in the first quarter ahead of Trump’s expected tariffs.In announcing its decision Wednesday, the Fed cited a moderation in economic activity in the first half of the year and “solid” labor market conditions.It warned however that “uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated,” while inflation too is somewhat heightened.Asked about US tariff deals and whether they brought more certainty to policymakers assessing the effects of duties, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said: “It’s been a very dynamic time for these trade negotiations.””We’re still a ways away from seeing where things settle down,” he told a press conference.Trump has also vowed to impose an incoming raft of new tariff rates come Friday.Despite the dissents by Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, Powell maintained that it had been a “good meeting” with thoughtful arguments around the table.- High-wire act -The dissents by Waller and Bowman, who had preferred a 25 basis points cut, were largely expected by financial markets. Both officials had earlier indicated openness to a July reduction.But KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk said: “We should expect the Fed to become less unified as we get closer to a potential cut in rates.”The hardest challenge for the central bank would be a worsening in employment alongside a pick-up in inflation, she added in a note.”The extent of those shifts is the point of contention and subject to uncertainty. That leaves the Fed in the uncomfortable position of traversing a high wire without a safety net,” Swonk added.It can take anywhere from six to 18 months for the full effects of tariffs to materialize, she said.But Swonk also flagged the “hyper-politicized environment” in which divisions are happening.Trump has lashed out repeatedly at the independent Fed chair for not lowering rates sooner — calling him a “numbskull” and “moron.”The president, citing Wednesday’s GDP figures, earlier said Powell “must now lower the rate.”The repeated attacks have fueled speculation that Trump may attempt to fire Powell or otherwise pressure him to resign early.Powell’s term as Fed chair ends in May 2026, and he defended Wednesday the independence of the central bank as having “served the public well.”- ‘Wait-and-see’ -Powell appears to be opening the door slightly to a September rate cut, although this is not guaranteed, said Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long.”He repeatedly described a solid and resilient economy, but he acknowledged there are ‘downside risks’ to the labor market,'” she added in a note.”The July and August job reports will be key for the Fed,” Long said.Official employment numbers for July are due to be released Friday.For now, EY chief economist Gregory Daco warned that “tariff-induced price pressures” are starting to filter through the economy.Companies are citing weaker earnings and higher input costs, while job market conditions are weakening and elevated consumer prices are beginning to weigh on retail sales, he said.Swonk noted that firms which absorbed much of the initial inflation due to tariffs have been cautioning of price hikes too.And Trump has signed more orders Wednesday for fresh tariffs, including on copper products, adding to uncertainty, she said.”We think the uncertainty and balance of risks will push most of the (Fed) to remain in wait-and-see mode at least a few months longer,” said economist Michael Pearce of Oxford Economics.