President Donald Trump’s dream of a new world trade order faced a crucial test Thursday, with dozens of economies –- including key commercial partners like Canada — yet to secure US tariff deals ahead of a midnight deadline.The last-gasp scramble to strike bilateral accords came as an appeals court in Washington considered the legality behind Trump’s strategy of invoking emergency economic powers to declare sweeping duties on imports.The 79-year-old Republican doubled down on his wide-ranging levies, posting on Truth Social: “Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again.”He insisted in a separate post that the world’s biggest economy would have “no chance of survival or success” without protectionist measures.But question marks linger over the effectiveness of Trump’s plans — and whether he will really follow through on his most dramatic threats.Hours before his declared deadline, Trump announced that he was delaying a tariff hike on Mexican products, originally due Friday, for 90 days after talks with counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump will sign an executive order Thursday to implement his various threatened tariffs.Other road bumps remain.While Trump has touted a surge in customs revenues this year, economists warn the duties could fuel inflation.And the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was hearing arguments Thursday in cases brought against Trump’s blanket tariffs targeting various economies.A government lawyer told the court that Trump’s tariff orders were covered by “broad discretion” he enjoys when handling national emergencies — including pressing economic issues.A lower court’s ruling had blocked most of the duties from taking effect, prompting the Trump administration’s challenge. The duties have been allowed to remain for now.- Deal or no deal -So far, Washington has announced pacts with Britain, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and the European Union. New rates negotiated were expected to take effect Friday.South Korea squeezed in an agreement on a 15 percent tariff, down from 25 percent that Trump initially threatened.But Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian products — although delaying their imposition and allowing key exemptions — as an effort to pressure the country to drop its prosecution of right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro on coup charges.He also unveiled a 25 percent levy on Indian imports, and warned Canada of trade repercussions for planning to recognize a Palestinian state.And the details of agreements that have been made remain vague.The EU, while having reached a pact, continues seeking a carve-out for its wine industry.Looming over the global economy is also the unresolved trade tussle between the United States and rival China, with the superpowers in talks to maintain a truce after initially imposing triple-digit tariffs on each other.- Canada threat -Washington has yet to strike a deal with neighboring Canada, while Trump said he would maintain 25 percent duties on Mexican imports for now.”We haven’t spoken to Canada today,” Trump said Thursday, adding that Washington has “made a few deals today,” without providing specifics.US-Canada ties came under renewed threat after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.”That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them,” Trump warned on social media.Carney said Wednesday that both countries “may not conclude talks by August 1st.”Goods covered by a North American trade pact have been excluded from Trump’s recent tariffs.Although Mexico and Canada were not originally targeted under Trump’s “reciprocal tariff” plan, he had separately threatened them with the same Friday deadline.The tariff hikes due Friday were announced in April when Trump slapped a 10 percent levy on goods from almost all partners — citing unfair trade practices.This rate was set to rise to varying levels for dozens of economies, but Washington twice postponed their implementation.

A US federal court ruled Thursday that Google must open its Android operating system to rival app stores, after the internet giant lost an appeal in an antitrust case filed by Fortnite maker Epic Games.The ruling clears the way for the Epic Games shop to operate within the Google Play Store despite the latter’s requirement that apps use Google’s payment system, which collects commissions on transactions.US Ninth Circuit Court Judge Margaret McKeown said in an opinion that a panel of justices decided to uphold the original verdict because the initial ruling’s parameters were “supported by the record and the nature of the market.”Epic chief executive Tim Sweeney fired off a post on X declaring: “Total victory in the Epic v Google appeal!”Google will continue its appeal of the December 2023 verdict, with the next venue being the US Supreme Court, according to the company’s global head of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland.”This decision will significantly harm user safety, limit choice, and undermine the innovation that has always been central to the Android ecosystem,” Mulholland said in response to an AFP inquiry.”Our top priority remains protecting our users, developers and partners, and maintaining a secure platform as we continue our appeal.”- ‘Feudal security’ -Internet rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued in a brief filed in the case that “competition rather than monopoly will make users more safe.””Google and other tech giants offer ‘feudal security’ in which users must depend on the whims of a monopolist to guarantee their safety,” the EFF said in an online post.The EFF argued that the initial judge’s order promises to level the playing field in the Android operating system for rival app stores, including some with better vetting and curation policies.The judge’s order resulted from Google’s defeat in an antitrust case brought by Epic, where a California jury decided that Google wields illegal monopoly power through its Android Play Store.A similar legal battle has played out between Epic and Apple regarding its App Store.Shortly after Fortnite’s launch on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, Epic embedded secret code into the game’s software so that players could bypass the tech giants’ payment-processing systems, thereby avoiding commissions of up to 30 percent, the court noted.Epic dubbed the circumvention scheme “Project Liberty” as part of a protest against tight control of the main shops for smartphone digital content.Fortnite returned to Apple’s App Store in the United States in May after being sidelined for years due to a legal battle with the iPhone maker.North Carolina-based Epic has faced off against Apple in US courts since 2021, when Fortnite was banned from the App Store over what Apple said was an attempt to get around the iPhone maker’s payment system.Apple is appealing aspects of the outcome of that case despite a judge ruling the App Store is not a monopoly.

Celebrated US director Robert Wilson, who revolutionized stage and opera, died Thursday at the age of 83, his management said.”Robert Wilson died peacefully today in Water Mill, New York, at the age of 83, after a brief but acute illness,” said a statement issued on his website. It said he worked right up until the end.Wilson’s productions of original works as well as traditional repertoire pieces were hugely popular wherever they were shown. But it was in France where he was best known. It was the French who gave him a “home,” Wilson told AFP in 2021. It was in 1976 that Wilson was propelled onto the international stage with “Einstein on The Beach,” a nearly five-hour opera staged several times since its creation, with music by Philip Glass. “Einstein on the Beach” broke all the conventions of classical opera — there is no linear narrative but rather it draws on themes related to Einstein’s life. It does not aim to explain the theory of relativity but to convey the upheaval introduced by the notion of space-time, notably through dance.Wilson’s trademarks included minimalist aesthetics, body language influenced by Asian theatrical forms, and lighting effects evoking dreamlike worlds.- Avant-garde admiration -His love affair with France began with “Deafman Glance” (“Le Regard du Sourd”) — his first success — a “silent” seven-hour show presented at the Nancy Festival in 1971, and later in Paris.The show was born out of a real-world incident when in 1967, Wilson saw a 13-year-old Black teenager, Raymond Andrews, being beaten in the street by a police officer. He realized the child was deaf and mute and eventually adopted him.Wilson, also a visual artist, had a string of collaborations including with choreographer Andy de Groat, Tom Waits, Isabelle Huppert for “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf, Lady Gaga for video portraits of her at the Louvre, and ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov.”While facing his diagnosis with clear eyes and determination, he still felt compelled to keep working and creating right up until the very end,” the website piece announcing his death said. “His works for the stage, on paper, sculptures and video portraits, as well as The Watermill Center, will endure as Robert Wilson’s artistic legacy.”Memorials will be held for Wilson at time and locations yet to be announced.Born to a lawyer in October 4, 1941, in Waco, Texas, Wilson was performing his own plays in the family garage by the age of 12, but recalls being bottom of the class at school. He was cured of a severe stutter thanks to a psychotherapist who worked with dance. In his twenties, he landed in New York but hated what he saw in theaters and instinctively gravitated toward the American avant-garde: Andy Warhol, John Cage, choreographers George Balanchine, and especially Martha Graham.He relished nurturing emerging talent, and in 1992, created the Watermill Center near New York.