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The halt to US foreign aid is a “ticking time bomb” that could reverse decades of hard-fought gains in the fight against AIDS, the United Nations warned Thursday.Around 31.6 million people were on antiretroviral drugs in 2024 and deaths from AIDS-related illnesses had more than halved since 2010 to 630,000 that year, the UNAIDS agency said in a new report.But now infections were likely to shoot up as funding cuts have shuttered prevention and treatment programmes, it said.The United States has been the world’s biggest donor of humanitarian assistance but President Donald Trump’s abrupt slashing of international aid in February sent the global humanitarian community scrambling to keep life-saving operations afloat.”We are proud of the achievements, but worried about this sudden disruption reversing the gains we have made,” UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told AFP ahead of the report’s launch in Johannesburg.The agency in April warned that a permanent discontinuation of PEPFAR, the massive US effort to fight HIV/AIDS, would lead to more than six million new infections and an additional 4.2 million AIDS-related deaths in the next four years.This would bring the pandemic back to levels not seen since the early 2000s.”This is not just a funding gap – it’s a ticking time bomb” whose effects are already felt worldwide, Byanyima said in a press release.Over 60 percent of all women-led HIV organisations surveyed by UNAIDS had lost funding or had to suspend services, the report said.In a striking example, the number of people receiving pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs to prevent transmission in Nigeria fell by over 85 percent in the first few months of 2025.The “story of how the world has come together” to fight HIV/AIDS is “one of the most important stories of progress in global health,” Byanyima told AFP.”But that great story has been disrupted massively” by Trump’s “unprecedented” and “cruel” move, she said.”Priorities can shift, but you do not take away life-saving support from people just like that,” she said. – Key medical research affected -Crucial medical research on prevention and treatment have also shut down, including many in South Africa which has one of the highest HIV rates in the world and has become a leader in global research.”Developing countries themselves contribute very much towards the research on HIV and AIDS, and that research serves the whole world,” Byaniyma said.In 25 out of 60 low- and middle-income countries surveyed by UNAIDS, governments had found ways to compensate part of the funding shortfall with domestic resources.”We have to move towards nationally-owned and financed responses,” Byaniyma said, calling for debt relief and the reform of international financial institutions to “free up the fiscal space for developing countries to pay for their own response”.Still, the global HIV response built from grassroots activism was “resilient by its very nature”, she told AFP.”We moved from people dying every single day to now a point where it is really like a chronic illness,” she said.”There is no question that the investment has been worth it, and continues to be worth it. It saves lives.”

President Donald Trump announced a 50-percent tariff Wednesday targeting Brazil as he blasted the trial of the country’s ex-leader, and said a US “national security” levy on copper would begin in August.In a letter addressed to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Trump criticized the treatment of his right-wing ally Jair Bolsonaro as an “international disgrace.”Bolsonaro is facing trial over accusations he plotted a coup after his narrow 2022 election loss to Lula.In response to Trump’s tariff letter, Lula warned of possible reciprocation, writing on social media that “any unilateral tariff increases will be addressed in light of the Brazilian Law of Economic Reciprocity.”Brazil said earlier on Wednesday it had summoned the US charge d’affaires over Trump’s previous criticism of the Bolsonaro trial.The 50-percent US tariff on Brazilian goods will take effect August 1, Trump said in his letter, mirroring a deadline that dozens of other economies face.On that same date, a 50-percent tariff on US imports of copper — a key metal used in green energy and other technologies — will take effect, Trump announced Wednesday evening on social media.He said the move followed a “robust NATIONAL SECURITY ASSESSMENT,” likely alluding to a Department of Commerce investigation into copper launched this year.”Copper is the second most used material by the Department of Defense!” Trump said.- Escalation threats -Trump’s message to Lula was the latest in more than 20 such letters the US president has released since Monday, after repeatedly threatening to simply decide a rate for countries as negotiations continue over his elevated “reciprocal” tariffs.Brazil had not been among those threatened previously with duties above a 10-percent baseline, and the United States runs a goods trade surplus with Brazil.China said in response that “arbitrary” tariffs such as the 50-percent levy on copper “serve no party’s interests”.”We have always opposed the overstretching of the concept of national security,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news conference.On Wednesday, Trump also addressed letters to leaders of the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Moldova, spelling out duties ranging from 20 percent to 30 percent that would also take effect on August 1.Similar to a first batch of documents published Monday, the levels were not too far from those originally threatened in April, although some partners received notably lower rates this time.While Trump in April imposed a 10-percent levy on almost all trading partners, he unveiled — and then withheld — higher rates for dozens of economies.The deadline for those steeper levels to take effect was meant to be Wednesday, before Trump postponed it further to August 1.Countries that faced the threats of elevated duties began receiving letters spelling out US tariff rates on their products.In the messages, Trump justified his tariffs as a response to trade ties that he says are “far from Reciprocal.”The letters urged countries to manufacture products in the United States to avoid duties, while threatening further escalation if leaders retaliated.Other countries that have received Trump’s letters include key US allies Japan and South Korea, as well as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand.- EU deal in ‘coming days’? -Analysts have noted that Asian countries have been a key target so far.But all eyes are on the state of negotiations with major partners who have yet to receive such letters, including the European Union.European stock markets rose at the start of trading on Thursday, with London hitting a fresh record high on optimism that governments will strike deals to avoid the worst of US tariffs.The Trump administration is under pressure to unveil more trade pacts. So far, Washington has only reached agreements with Britain and Vietnam, alongside a deal to temporarily lower tit-for-tat levies with China.Trump said on Tuesday his government was “probably two days off” from sending the EU a letter with an updated tariff rate.An EU spokesperson said Wednesday the bloc wants to strike a deal with the United States “in the coming days,” and has shown readiness to reach an agreement in principle.Apart from tariffs targeting goods from different countries, Trump has rolled out sector-specific duties on steel, aluminum and autos since returning to the White House in January.

The US Secretary of Agriculture has announced ports will be closed to the livestock trade at the southern border after Mexican cattle tested positive for the flesh-eating New World screwworm (NWS).”The United States has promised to be vigilant — and after detecting this new NWS case, we are pausing the planned port reopening’s to further quarantine and target this deadly pest in Mexico,” Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement on Wednesday. President Donald Trump’s administration on May 11 announced a halt on imports of live cattle, horses and bison over the southern border because of an outbreak of the screwworm fly, whose flesh-eating larvae can kill cattle.Mexico resumed cattle exports to the United States on Monday after mitigation efforts, following Washington’s announcement that it was gradually lifting the nearly two-month pause.At the time, officials said cattle exports had resumed thanks to efforts by both countries in battling the parasitic pest. Rollins’s statement on Wednesday said further efforts were necessary in specific regions.”We must see additional progress combatting NWS in Veracruz and other nearby Mexican states in order to reopen livestock ports along the Southern border,” the official said.Mexico exported just over one million head of cattle to the United States in 2024, according to official estimates. The trade was halted briefly that year for the same reason.The cattle standoff comes amid heightened tensions between the two neighbors over the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy and trade tariffs.

Brazil and the United States escalated their row Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s support for coup-accused ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro, with the American president slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers.Leftist Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate.Trump has strongly criticized the prosecution of right-wing ally Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula.Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s claims of a “witch hunt” against the 70-year-old Brazilian firebrand.Trump then announced he would slap a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imports starting August 1, citing “Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections” and warning of escalation if the country retaliates.In a letter addressed to Lula, Trump criticized the treatment of Bolsonaro as an “international disgrace” and said the trial “should not be taking place.”He added Washington would launch an investigation into Brazil’s trade practices.While Trump has been issuing letters to trading partners — focusing on those his country runs a deficit with — Brazil had until now not been among those threatened with higher duties come August 1.The South American powerhouse is the second-largest exporter of steel to the United States after Canada, shipping four million tons of the metal in 2024.The new 50 percent tariff was independent of sector-specific levies, with the US recently doubling duties on steel and aluminum imports to 50 percent.Lula wrote on X that “any unilateral tariff increases will be addressed in light of the Brazilian Law of Economic Reciprocity.”Trade between the two countries reached $41.7 billion between January and June, with $20 billion for exports from Brazil and $21.7 billion for US products, according to Brazilian government data.- ‘LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE’ -On Monday, Trump angered Lula by urging Brazilian authorities to “LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE,” in a post on social media.”They have done nothing but come after him, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year!” the US president wrote.Lula, who narrowly beat Bolsonaro in a divisive election in 2022, hit back at Trump’s “interference,” insisting that “no one is above the law.” Bolsonaro denies he was involved in an attempt to wrest power back from Lula as part of an alleged coup plot that prosecutors say failed only for a lack of military backing.After the plot fizzled, rioting supporters known as “Bolsonaristas” raided government buildings in 2023 as they urged the military to oust Lula. Bolsonaro was abroad at the time.The case against Bolsonaro carries echoes of Trump’s prosecution over the January 6, 2021 attacks by his supporters on the US Capitol to try and reverse his election loss.Trump pleaded not guilty, and the case was abandoned when he was reelected president.The cases have drawn the Trump and Bolsonaro families together, with the Brazilian ex-leader’s sons lobbying for US sanctions against one of the Supreme Court judges sitting on the ex-president’s trial.In his post Monday, Trump suggested Bolsonaro was the favorite in presidential elections next year, despite him being banned from running for spreading disinformation about Brazil’s voting system. Bolsonaro thanked Trump for his defense of “peace, justice and liberty” in a social media post.On Wednesday, the US embassy in Brasilia issued a statement to “reinforce” Trump’s support for the embattled former army captain, who risks a 40-year prison sentence.”Jair Bolsonaro and his family have been strong partners of the United States,” read the note.”The political persecution against him, his family, and his followers is shameful and disrespects Brazil’s democratic traditions.”Members of the BRICS grouping, meeting in Brazil under host Lula this week, criticized Trump’s imposition of import tariffs and his bombing of Iran.This drew the US president’s ire and a threat of 10 percent additional tariffs on each BRICS-aligned country.Lula insisted BRICS members were sovereign and did not want an “emperor.”burs-mlr/ksb/acb/jgc

The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against California on Wednesday for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.Female student athletes in California are being subjected to “unfair competition and reckless endangerment by male participation on female high-school sports teams,” the department said.The lawsuit accuses California of violating Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding.The Justice Department suit is the latest salvo in a showdown between the administration of Republican President Donald Trump and the Democratic-ruled state.Trump sent thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles last month to quell protests against roundups of undocumented migrants by federal agents.California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the troops were not necessary to address the mostly peaceful protests, but his legal efforts to have them removed have failed so far.Trump threatened last month to impose “large scale” fines against California after a transgender high school athlete’s victory at the state track and field championships.The Justice Department suit accuses the California Department of Education and California Interscholastic Federation of engaging in “illegal sex discrimination against female student athletes by allowing males to compete against them.””The Governor of California has previously admitted that it is ‘deeply unfair’ to force women and girls to compete with men and boys in competitive sports,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “But not only is it ‘deeply unfair,’ it is also illegal under federal law.”The Justice Department sued Maine in April for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports, and the Trump administration has moved to cut the northeastern state’s federal funding for public schools.The Supreme Court agreed earlier this month to hear cases next term challenging state laws in Idaho and West Virginia banning transgender athletes from female competitions.More than two dozen US states have passed laws in recent years barring athletes who were assigned male at birth from taking part in girls or women’s sports.

Nvidia became the first company to touch $4 trillion in market value on Wednesday, a new milestone in Wall Street’s bet that artificial intelligence will transform the economy.Shortly after the stock market opened, Nvidia vaulted as high as $164.42, giving it a valuation above $4 trillion. The stock subsequently edged lower, ending just under the record threshold.”The market has an incredible certainty that AI is the future,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers. “Nvidia is certainly the company most positioned to benefit from that gold rush.”Nvidia, led by electrical engineer Jensen Huang, now has a market value greater than the GDP of France, Britain or India, a testament to investor confidence that AI will spur a new era of robotics and automation.The California chip company’s latest surge is helping drive a recovery in the broader stock market, as Nvidia itself outperforms major indices. Part of this is due to relief that President Donald Trump has walked back his most draconian tariffs, which pummeled global markets in early April.Even as Trump announced new tariff actions in recent days, US stocks have stayed at lofty levels, with the tech-centered Nasdaq ending at a fresh record on Wednesday.”You’ve seen the markets walk us back from a worst-case scenario in terms of tariffs,” said Angelo Zino, technology analyst at CFRA Research.While Nvidia still faces US export controls to China as well as broader tariff uncertainty, the company’s deal to build AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia during a Trump state visit in May showed a potential upside in the US president’s trade policy.”We’ve seen the administration using Nvidia chips as a bargaining chip,” Zino said. – New advances -Nvidia’s surge to $4 trillion marks a new benchmark in a fairly consistent rise over the last two years as AI enthusiasm has built. In 2025 so far, the company’s shares have risen more than 21 percent, whereas the Nasdaq has gained 6.7 percent.Taiwan-born Huang has wowed investors with a series of advances, including its core product: graphics processing units (GPUs), key to many of the generative AI programs behind  autonomous driving, robotics and other cutting-edge domains.The company has also unveiled its Blackwell next-generation technology allowing more super processing capacity. One of its advances is “real-time digital twins,” significantly speeding production development time in manufacturing, aerospace and myriad other sectors.However, Nvidia’s winning streak was challenged early in 2025 when China-based DeepSeek shook up the world of generative AI with a low-cost, high-performance model that challenged the hegemony of OpenAI and other big-spending behemoths.Nvidia’s lost some $600 billion in market valuation in a single session during this period.Huang has welcomed DeepSeek’s presence, while arguing against US export constraints.- AI race -In the most recent quarter, Nvidia reported earnings of nearly $19 billion despite a $4.5 billion hit from US export controls limiting sales of cutting-edge technology to China.The first-quarter earnings period also revealed that momentum for AI remained strong. Many of the biggest tech companies — Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta — are jostling to come out on top in the multi-billion-dollar AI race.A recent UBS survey of technology executives showed Nvidia widening its lead over rivals.Zino said Nvidia’s latest surge reflected a fuller understanding of DeepSeek, which has ultimately stimulated investment in complex reasoning models but not threatened Nvidia’s business. Nvidia is at the forefront of “AI agents,” the current focus in generative AI in which machines are able to reason and infer more than in the past, he said.”Overall the demand landscape has improved for 2026 for these more complex reasoning models,” Zino said.But the speedy growth of AI will also be a source of disruption. Executives at Ford, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon are among those who have begun to say the “quiet part out loud,” according to a Wall Street Journal report recounting recent public acknowledgment of white-collar job loss due to AI.Shares of Nvidia closed the day at $162.88, up 1.8 percent, finishing at just under $4 trillion in market value.

More than 90 percent of X’s Community Notes — a crowd-sourced verification system popularized by Elon Musk’s platform — are never published, a study said Wednesday, highlighting major limits in its effectiveness as a debunking tool.The study by the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA), which analyzed the entire public dataset of 1.76 million notes published by X between January 2021 and March 2025, comes as the platform’s CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned after two years at the helm.The community-driven moderation model — now embraced by major tech platforms including Facebook-owner Meta and TikTok — allows volunteers to contribute notes that add context or corrections to posts.Other users then rate the proposed notes as “helpful” or “not helpful.” If the notes get “helpful” ratings from enough users with diverse perspectives, they are published on X, appearing right below the challenged posts.”The vast majority of submitted notes — more than 90 percent — never reach the public,” DDIA’s study said.”For a program marketed as fast, scalable, and transparent, these figures should raise serious concerns.”Among English notes, the publication rate dropped from 9.5 percent in 2023 to just 4.9 percent in early 2025, the study said.Spanish-language notes, however, showed some growth, with the publication rate rising from 3.6 percent to 7.1 percent over the same period, it added.A vast number of notes remain unpublished due to lack of consensus among users during rating.Thousands of notes also go unrated, possibly never seen and never assessed, according to the report.”As the volume of notes submitted grows, the system’s internal visibility bottleneck becomes more apparent –- especially in English,” the study said.”Despite a rising number of contributors submitting notes, many notes remain stuck in limbo, unseen and unevaluated by fellow contributors, a crucial step for notes to be published.”- ‘Viral misinformation’ -In a separate finding, DDIA’s researchers identified not a human but a bot-like account — dedicated to flagging crypto scams –- as the most prolific contributor to the program in English, submitting more than 43,000 notes between 2021 and March 2025. However, only 3.1 percent of those notes went live, suggesting most went unseen or failed to gain consensus, the report said.The study also noted that the time it takes for a note to go live had improved over the years, dropping from an average of more than 100 days in 2022 to 14 days in 2025.”Even this faster timeline is far too slow for the reality of viral misinformation, timely toxic content, or simply errors about real-time events, which spread within hours, not weeks,” DDIA’s report said.The findings are significant as tech platforms increasingly view the community-driven model as an alternative to professional fact-checking, which conservative advocates in countries such as the United States have long accused of a liberal bias.Studies have shown Community Notes can work to dispel some falsehoods such as vaccine misinformation, but researchers have long cautioned that it works best for topics where there is broad consensus.Some researchers have also cautioned that Community Notes users can be motivated by partisan motives and tend to target their political opponents.X introduced Community Notes during the tenure of Yaccarino, who said on Wednesday that she had decided to step down after leading the company through a major transformation.No reason was given for her exit, but the resignation came as Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok triggered an online firestorm over its anti-Semitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler and insulted Islam in separate posts on X.

The Texas flash floods death toll rose to 119 on Wednesday, as worries grew that the figure could more than double with over 160 people still reported missing.Workers in central Texas continued to comb through piles of muddy debris from the July 4 floods as Governor Greg Abbott ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff over the tragedy.Officials in Kerr County, the epicenter of the flooding, on Wednesday confirmed 161 people were known to be missing in the county.Part of a Hill Country region in central Texas known as “Flash Flood Alley,” Kerr County suffered the most damage, with at least 95 fatalities including 36 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters.Among them, counselors and 27 girls at a summer camp who went missing early Friday when the Guadalupe River burst its banks.Five campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic were still missing as of Wednesday, along with another child not associated with the camp, Leitha said.Two dozen other people have been confirmed dead elsewhere in the state, according to an AFP tally of official reports.More than 2,000 rescue personnel, police and experts have descended on the flood zone in what Leitha described as an “all hands on deck” operation.Ben Baker, with the Texas Game Wardens, said search and rescue efforts involving helicopters, drones and dogs were difficult because of the water, mud and debris.”When we’re trying to make these recoveries, these large piles can be very obstructive, and to get in deep into these piles, it’s very hazardous,” Baker said. Meanwhile, questions intensified over whether US President Donald Trump’s government funding cuts had weakened warning systems, and over the handling of the rescue operation.During sometimes tense news conferences Tuesday and Wednesday, officials skirted questions on the speed of the emergency response.”There’s going to be an after-action” review of what happened, Sheriff Leitha said, adding “those questions need to be answered.”But officials stressed that the immediate focus was on locating the missing and reuniting families.- ‘Door to door’ -Kerrville police officer Jonathan Lamb spoke of heroic rescues by authorities and volunteers who evacuated hundreds of people from their homes or vehicles.Officers went “door to door, waking people up” in Kerr County early Friday and in some cases “pulling them out of windows” of flooding homes and trailers, Lamb told reporters.The tragedy, “as horrific as it is, could have been so much worse,” he added.The National Weather Service (NWS) has forecast scattered storms on Wednesday in the Hill Country, including isolated pockets of heavy rain.In the neighboring state of New Mexico, flash flooding left three people dead Tuesday in Ruidoso, the village website said in a statement, adding the Ruidoso River rose to a record-breaking 20 feet (six meters).- Bodies in the mud -In the Texas town of Hunt, an AFP team saw recovery workers combing through piles of debris with helicopters flying overhead.Javier Torres, 24, was digging through mud as he searched for his grandmother, after having located the body of his grandfather. He also discovered the bodies of two children, apparently washed up by the river.Trump is due to visit Texas on Friday with First Lady Melania Trump.”We brought in a lot of helicopters from all over… They were real pros, and they were responsible for pulling out a lot of people,” Trump said of the response.Shel Winkley, a weather expert at the Climate Central research group, blamed the extent of the disaster on geography and exceptional drought, when dry soil absorbs less rainfall.”This part of Texas, at least in the Kerr County flood specifically, was in an extreme to exceptional drought…. We know that since May, temperatures have been above average,” Winkley told reporters.

US President Donald Trump announced a 50 percent tariff Wednesday targeting Brazil as he blasted the trial of the country’s ex-leader, while widening a push to secure more bilateral trade deals with other partners.In a letter addressed to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Trump criticized the treatment of Jair Bolsonaro as an “international disgrace,” adding that the trial “should not be taking place.”He also said Washington would launch an investigation into Brazil’s trade practices.The latest tariff threat came after Brazil said it had summoned the US charge d’affaires in a diplomatic row over Trump’s earlier criticism of the coup trial of Bolsonaro.Bolsonaro denies he was involved in an attempt to wrest power back from Lula in an alleged coup plot prosecutors say failed only for a lack of military backing.The 50 percent US tariff on Brazilian goods will take effect August 1, Trump said in his letter, mirroring a deadline that dozens of other economies face.While Trump has started to issue letters to trading partners this week as he ramps up pressure towards more deals, he has focused on partners with which his country runs significant deficits.Brazil had not been among those threatened with these higher duties previously. The United States runs a goods trade surplus instead with Brazil.- Escalation threats -Trump’s message to Lula was the latest in more than 20 such letters the US president has released since Monday, setting out tariff rates as Washington tries to bring about more trade pacts.On Wednesday, Trump had addressed letters to leaders of the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Moldova, spelling out duties ranging from 20 percent to 30 percent that would also take effect on August 1.Similar to a first batch of documents published Monday, the levels were not too far from those originally threatened in April, although some partners received notably lower rates this time.While Trump in April imposed a 10 percent levy on almost all trading partners, he unveiled — and then withheld — higher rates for dozens of economies.The deadline for those steeper levels to take effect was meant to be Wednesday, before Trump postponed it further to August 1.Countries that faced the threats of elevated duties began receiving letters spelling out US tariff rates on their products.In the messages, Trump justified his tariffs as a response to trade ties that he says are “far from Reciprocal.”The letters urged countries to manufacture products in the United States to avoid duties, while threatening further escalation if leaders retaliated.Other countries that have received Trump’s letters include key US allies Japan and South Korea, as well as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand.- EU deal in ‘coming days’? -Analysts have noted that Asian countries have been a key target so far.But all eyes are on the state of negotiations with major partners who have yet to receive such letters, including the European Union.The Trump administration is under pressure to unveil more trade pacts. So far, Washington has only reached agreements with Britain and Vietnam, alongside a deal to temporarily lower tit-for-tat levies with China.Trump on Tuesday said that his government was “probably two days off” from sending the EU a letter with an updated tariff rate for the bloc.An EU spokesman said Wednesday that the bloc wants to strike a deal with the United States “in the coming days,” and has shown readiness to reach an agreement in principle.Apart from tariffs targeting goods from different countries, Trump has rolled out sector-specific duties on steel, aluminum and autos since returning to the White House in January.On Tuesday, Trump said levies were incoming on copper and pharmaceuticals. The planned rate for copper is 50 percent, he added, while pharmaceutical products face a levy as high as 200 percent — but manufacturers would be given time to relocate operations to the United States.

US President Donald Trump hailed West Africa’s rich natural resources as he hosted five of its leaders Wednesday for a White House summit aimed at fostering trade to counter the growing influence of Russia and China.Trump’s administration is seeking to strengthen economic ties with the mineral-rich region as it simultaneously curbs foreign aid to Africa and hits nations with 10 percent import tariffs.Talks with the presidents of Senegal, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon were expected to focus on commercial opportunities and security.”We’re working tirelessly to forge new economic opportunities involving both the United States and many African nations,” Trump told the assembled leaders and reporters ahead of the meeting.”There’s great economic potential in Africa, like few other places, in many ways.”He gushed about the continent’s “vibrant places, very valuable lands, great minerals, great oil deposits” — and was rewarded with personal praise in return as each leader offered their approval when asked by an African media outlet if Trump should win a Nobel Peace Prize.The talks — held over a lunch in the State Dining Room — came with Washington seeking to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals.All five of the countries invited enjoy rich natural resources, including manganese — a key mineral in the production of stainless steel and batteries — iron ore, gold, diamonds, lithium and cobalt.But overshadowing the talks will be radical steps by Trump and his officials to recalibrate US relations with African nations.Earlier this month, the administration shuttered the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and said it was moving away from a “charity based-model” to focus instead on trade-based partnerships.West Africa is expected to be among the regions hardest hit by the aid cuts, which are likely to lead to more than 14 million additional deaths globally by 2030, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal. – Drug trafficking and immigration -US financial help played a crucial role in rebuilding Liberia after its civil wars, and it was still receiving an annual $160 million — about three percent of its GDP — as recently as last year.”Liberia is a long time friend of the United States, and we believe in your policy of making America great again,” President Joseph Boakai told Trump.”And we also go a long way with you and your in your diplomacy that has to do with economic development and commercial friendship.”US arch-rival China has made substantial investments in several of the nations attending, with Gabon providing 22 percent of the manganese it uses in batteries.Russia has meanwhile supported the nascent Alliance of Sahel States, which shares borders with several of the countries at Wednesday’s lunch.Security is expected to loom large at the meeting, with international drug trafficking and immigration top concerns for Washington.West Africa’s Sahel countries have been dogged by attacks from terrorist groups, while a series of coups have deepened political instability. Entries from the region make up a significant portion of the Black immigrant population in the United States, which rose by almost a quarter between 2012 and 2022, reaching 4.3 million individuals.Guinea-Bissau — a transit zone for cocaine shipments from Latin America to Europe and beyond — has struggled to contain drug trafficking.A potential US travel ban impacting Gabon, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal was reported in June, as part of a larger list of 36 countries facing scrutiny by the Trump administration.But all four were effusive in their praise for Trump, with several noting his role in a peace deal negotiated in Washington between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and in the end of hostilities between Iran and Israel.”As you’ve seen, you can only do business when there is peace and security and you build peace everywhere in the world,” Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said.