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World powers on Thursday blasted US President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on imported vehicles and parts, vowing retaliation as a widening trade war intensifies.Major car exporter Germany urged a firm response from the European Union, while Japan said it “will consider all options.”The 25 percent US duties take effect starting 12.01am eastern time (0401 GMT) April 3 and impact foreign-made cars, light trucks and vehicle parts.Global stock markets plummeted with automakers like Toyota, Hyundai and Mercedes leading the plunge. In New York, shares in General Motors tumbled with Ford and Stellantis also declining.France Finance Minister Eric Lombard said the only solution for the EU is to “raise tariffs on American products in response.”Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he convened a meeting to discuss trade options, while Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard seeks “preferential treatment” for his country.Trump ramped up his threats, saying on social media that Canada and the EU could face “far larger” tariffs if they worked together “to do economic harm to the USA.”Trump confidant and Tesla boss Elon Musk said his company would not be spared, writing on X that the price for parts “is not trivial.” However, because Tesla builds its cars for the US market domestically it will in fact emerge relatively unscathed compared to rivals.The American Automotive Policy Council warned that the tariffs must be implemented in a way that “avoids raising prices for consumers” and preserves the industry’s competitiveness.While Trump invoked emergency economic powers for some earlier tariffs, his auto levies build on a government investigation completed in 2019.- ‘Cheaters’ -The Center for Automotive Research previously estimated that US tariffs could raise the price of a car by thousands of dollars and weigh on the jobs market.About one in two cars sold in the United States are manufactured in the country. Among imports, about half come from Mexico and Canada, with Japan, South Korea and Germany also major suppliers.Of the US-made cars, their average domestic content likely around 40 percent, the White House said.Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association president Brian Kingston said levies would bring higher costs for producers and consumers, alongside “a less competitive industry.”In a briefing Wednesday, Trump’s senior counselor Peter Navarro blasted “foreign trade cheaters” who he said turned the US manufacturing sector into a “lower wage assembly operation for foreign parts.”He took aim at Germany and Japan for reserving construction of higher-value parts to their countries.Since returning to the presidency, Trump has imposed tariffs on imports from major trading partners Canada, Mexico and China — alongside a 25 percent duty on steel and aluminum.The latest levies add to those already in place for autos.But the White House said that vehicles entering under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can qualify for a lower rate depending on their American content.Similarly, USMCA-compliant auto parts will remain tariff-free as officials establish a process to target their non-US content.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said tariffs were contrary to the North American trade deal, but her country would wait until early April before giving a “comprehensive response.”- ‘Devastating impact’ -Uncertainty over Trump’s trade plans and worries they could trigger a downturn have roiled financial markets, with consumer confidence also slipping.Trump has defended levies as a way to raise government revenue and revitalize US industry.Targeting imported cars could strain ties with Washington’s allies, however.”Imposing 25 percent tariffs on imported cars will have a devastating impact on many of our close trading partners,” said Wendy Cutler, vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former US trade negotiator.Washington has free-trade agreements with some affected parties, “calling into question the value of US commitments” under a trade deal, she added.Besides automobiles, Trump is eyeing other sector-specific tariffs, including on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber.Trump has promised a “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he is set to unveil reciprocal levies, tailored to different trading partners, to address practices that his government deems unfair.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said these would focus on countries that have been “ripping off the United States,” although Trump noted some numbers would be more conservative than many expected.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio landed in Guyana Thursday, with an offer to put the newly oil-rich nation under Washington’s security umbrella as border disputes with neighboring Venezuela have intensified.A decade after the discovery of vast reserves, the small South American nation is poised this year to become the world’s largest producer of oil on a per capita basis, outpacing Qatar and Kuwait.With tensions on the rise between Guyana and Venezuela, whose government Washington strongly opposes, Rubio will sign a memorandum of understanding that outlines security cooperation, according to the State Department.Rubio, who is flying to Guyana after talks with Caribbean nations in Jamaica, will also stop later Thursday in Guyana’s neighbor Suriname, whose own oil production is on the rise.US President Donald Trump’s administration said it envisioned a relationship with Guyana akin to those with oil-rich Gulf Arab nations, which welcome US troops for their security, with a particular view towards larger neighbor Iran.”The security of Guyana is a key priority for us in the same way that we have been working with countries in the Gulf states to ensure the security cooperation from the regional threats there,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America.”We’ve seen the threats from Venezuela,” he told reporters ahead of the trip.”Obviously, that’s unacceptable and we want to work together,” he said, to “find an agreement towards binding security cooperation.”Guyana, an English-speaking former British and Dutch colony where the majority of the 800,000 people still live in poverty, has for years had a long-shot movement that has sought to join the United States.Such formal accession is not expected to be discussed, but Trump has made no secret of his passion for expansionism in the hemisphere, even at the expense of traditional alliances. The Republican billionaire has vowed to take control of Greenland from Denmark, with Vice President JD Vance paying a visit Friday that has been criticized by NATO ally Denmark. Trump has also insisted that Washington will “take back” the Panama Canal, and has separately called for ally Canada to be absorbed into the United States.- Rising oil, rising tensions -Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, who faces reelection this year, has embraced closer defense cooperation with the United States, including through joint maritime patrols.Venezuela, whose leftist leader Nicolas Maduro has been heavily criticized by the Cuban-American Rubio, has laid claim to Guyana’s Essequibo, which covers most of the country and is the center of oil production.Guyana earlier in March denounced what it called a Venezuelan military vessel’s incursion into its waters.Venezuela denied any violation and requested a meeting with Ali, who dismissed the offer.The parliament in Caracas last year approved a bill to declare Essequibo as Venezuela’s 24th state, a move rejected internationally.Guyana insists the border was finalized by an 1899 arbitration panel, but Venezuela claims the Essequibo River to the region’s east as a natural border recognized as far back as 1777.The Trump administration has put a high priority on ramping up oil production, seeing both economic and security incentives, and has brushed aside the push by previous president Joe Biden to diversify to renewables to address the planet’s fast-rising temperatures and climate disasters.Texas-based ExxonMobil has taken the lead in oil production in Guyana, which has rapidly scaled up over the past five years.ExxonMobil anticipates gross production from Guyana of 1.3 million barrels a day by the end of the decade, dwarfing current output from Venezuela, whose industry has slumped since the 1990s after mismanagement and US sanctions.The Trump administration, under pressure from anti-communist Latino lawmakers, has canceled US oil major Chevron’s exemption from US sanctions to operate in Venezuela.

The Iran-backed Huthis said Thursday they targeted an Israeli airport and army site as well as a US warship, soon after Israel reported intercepting missiles launched from Yemen.The Huthis “targeted Ben Gurion airport… with a ballistic missile… and a military target” south of Tel Aviv, their military spokesman Yahya Saree said.Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military said it intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen “prior to crossing into Israeli territory” after it activated air raid sirens across multiple areas, including Jerusalem.Saree said the rebels also “targeted hostile warships in the Red Sea, including the American aircraft carrier (USS Harry S) Truman,” which he said was “in retaliation to the ongoing US aggression against our country”.The United States launched what its Central Command called a “large scale operation” involving air strikes against the Huthis on March 15.Washington vowed to use overwhelming force until they stopped firing on vessels in the key shipping routes of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the rebels threatened to resume attacks over the Gaza war.The Huthis have since reported near-daily US air strikes on areas under their control.- Rebels say 2 killed -Earlier Thursday, the rebels said two people had been killed in overnight air strikes near the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa that they blamed on the United States.The Huthis’ Al-Masirah TV channel reported nearly 20 strikes on Sanaa governorate, both north and south of the capital.”The American aggression killed two and injured two,” the Huthi-run health ministry’s spokesman Anis al-Asbahi said on social media platform X.Al-Masirah also reported strikes early Thursday in Saada, the Iran-backed rebels’ northern stronghold which Huthi media had said was hit 17 times the day before.While the United States does not always report these raids, a United States defence official told AFP on Sunday that American forces were “conducting strikes across multiple locations of Iran-backed Huthi locations every day and night in Yemen”.The latest strikes claimed by the Huthis come with Washington embroiled in scandal linked to the March 15 strikes. The Atlantic Magazine published the transcript of messages accidentally shared with its editor in a chat group of senior US officials on Signal, a commercially available messaging app.The magazine on Thursday published details of the March 15 attack plans, which it initially withheld, after the White House insisted no classified details were involved.In response to the US strikes, the Huthis have claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on the Truman carrier group off Yemen’s coast, as well as projectiles fired at Israel.The Huthis began targeting shipping vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with the Palestinian people, but paused their campaign when a ceasefire in Gaza took effect in January.Earlier this month, they threatened to renew the attacks in the vital maritime trade route over Israel’s aid blockade on the Palestinian territory, triggering the first US strikes on Yemen since President Donald Trump took office in January.

President Donald Trump called on Congress on Thursday to “immediately” defund two public broadcasters as he and his supporters ratchet up their long-running battle with the US media.Trump’s attacks on traditional media have intensified since his return to the White House, with the Republican president repeatedly attacking journalists critical of his administration, restricting access and bringing lawsuits.His latest comments came after Congressional Republicans took aim at federal funding for US public media on Wednesday, accusing it during a hearing of “brainwashing the American people”.Trump claimed that radio network NPR and broadcast channel PBS were “arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party.””NPR and PBS, two horrible and completely biased platforms… should be DEFUNDED by Congress, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Thursday.Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hard-right Trump ally, told the hearing: “We will be calling for the complete and total defunding and dismantling of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).”The CPB is a nonprofit that oversees US public media funding.”The content that is being put out through these state-sponsored outlets is so radical it is brainwashing the American people, and more significantly American children,” Greene told the heads of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service.She criticized the outlets for pushing a political agenda that included “the LGBTQ indoctrination of children” and “the systemic racism narrative,” as well as being “anti-family, pro-crime fake news.”- ‘Enemy of the people’ -The attacks by Greene echo media criticism by Trump, who frequently refers to legacy news media as the “enemy of the people.”Greene also sits on the House Committee on Government Efficiency, formed in support of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Trump’s billionaire advisor Elon Musk and charged with slashing federal spending.However, the CPB — established nearly 60 years ago — has already had its budget approved by Congress until 2027, with more than $500 million in funding.Some 40 million Americans tune in to NPR at least once a week and about 36 million watch their local PBS station each month, according to estimates from the outlets.The Republican congresswoman from Georgia went on to say NPR and PBS have grown to become “radical left-wing echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives.”The critiques drew fierce blowback from Democrats, including Representative Jasmine Crockett from Texas, who said Greene wants “to shut down everybody that is not Fox News,” a broadcaster preferred by many conservatives.NPR chief executive Katherine Maher estimated the radio station received $120 million from the CPB in 2025, “less than five percent” of its budget.Brian Jack, another Republican representative from Georgia, asked Maher if NPR could survive without the funding.”It would be incredibly damaging to the national radios system,” Maher said. “If federal funding for our network goes away, it means that people in rural parts of America would be harmed.”Democrat Stephen Lynch was also critical of the way Republicans led the hearing, saying it should be “talking about the security breach that occurred recently,” in reference to the leaked Signal group chat among US government security officials.”Today the controlling House majority is afraid to do its job, it is afraid to hold Trump and Trump’s administration accountable,” Lynch said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads Thursday to Guyana to offer to put the newly oil-rich nation under the US security umbrella as neighboring Venezuela asserts claims.A decade after the discovery of vast reserves, the small South American nation is poised this year to become the world’s largest producer of oil on a per capita basis, outpacing Qatar and Kuwait.With tensions on the rise between Guyana and US nemesis Venezuela, Rubio will sign a memorandum of understanding that outlines security cooperation, according to the State Department.Rubio, who is flying to Guyana after talks with Caribbean nations in Jamaica, will also stop later Thursday in Guyana’s neighbor Suriname, whose own oil production is on the rise.President Donald Trump’s administration said it envisioned a relationship with Guyana akin to those with oil-rich Gulf Arab nations, which welcome US troops for their security, particularly against larger neighbor Iran.”The security of Guyana is a key priority for us in the same way that we have been working with countries in the Gulf states to ensure the security cooperation from the regional threats there,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America.”We’ve seen the threats from Venezuela,” he told reporters ahead of the trip.”Obviously, that’s unacceptable and we want to work together,” he said, to “find an agreement towards binding security cooperation.”Guyana, an English-speaking former British and Dutch colony where the majority of the 800,000 people still live in poverty, has for years had a long-shot movement that has sought to join the United States.Such formal accession is not expected to be discussed, but Trump has made no secrets of his passion for expansionism in the hemisphere, even at the expense of traditional alliances. Trump has vowed to take control of Greenland from Denmark, with Vice President JD Vance paying a visit Friday criticized by NATO ally Denmark, and has insisted that the United States will “take back” the Panama Canal.- Rising oil, rising tensions -Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, who faces reelection this year, has embraced closer defense cooperation with the United States, including through joint maritime patrols.Venezuela, whose leftist leader Nicolas Maduro is despised by the Cuban-American Rubio, has laid claim to Guyana’s Essequibo, which covers most of the country and is the center of oil production.Guyana earlier in March denounced what it called a Venezuelan military vessel’s incursion into its waters.Venezuela denied any violation and requested a meeting with Ali, who dismissed the offer.The parliament in Caracas last year approved a bill to declare Essequibo as Venezuela’s 24th state, a move rejected internationally.Guyana insists the border was finalized by an 1899 arbitration panel, but Venezuela claims the Essequibo River to the region’s east as a natural border recognized as far back as 1777.The Trump administration has put a high priority on ramping up oil production, seeing both economic and security incentives, and has brushed aside the push by previous president Joe Biden to diversify to renewables to address the planet’s fast-rising temperatures and climate disasters.Texas-based ExxonMobil has taken the lead in oil production in Guyana which has rapidly scaled up over the past five years.ExxonMobil anticipates gross production from Guyana of 1.3 million barrels a day by the end of the decade, dwarfing current output from Venezuela, whose industry has slumped since the 1990s after mismanagement and US sanctions.The Trump administration, under pressure from anti-communist Latino lawmakers, has canceled US oil major Chevron’s exemption from US sanctions to operate in Venezuela.

World powers on Thursday blasted US President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on imports of vehicles and car parts, vowing retaliation as a widening trade war intensifies.Major car exporter Germany called for a firm response from the EU, while Japan said it “will consider all options.”Stock markets across Asia and Europe skidded into the red as auto manufacturers from Toyota to Hyundai and Mercedes led the plunge.The US duties will take effect at 12:01 am (0401 GMT) on April 3 and impact foreign-made cars and light trucks. Key automobile parts will also be hit within the month.”What we’re going to be doing is a 25 percent tariff on all cars that are not made in the United States. If they’re made in the United States, it is absolutely no tariff,” Trump said at the White House.France Finance Minister Eric Lombard condemned the “hostility,” saying that the “only solution for the European Union will be to raise tariffs on American products in response.”Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had convened a meeting Thursday to “discuss our trade options.”As Washington’s major trading partners warned of retaliatory action, Trump ramped up his threats. “If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!” Trump posted on his TruthSocial network.But Trump’s levies rattled domestic manufacturers too, with his top ally and Tesla boss Elon Musk admitting his company would not be spared the pain.”To be clear, this will affect the price of parts in Tesla cars that come from other countries. The cost impact is not trivial,” Musk wrote on X.The association of American Automakers warned in a statement that the tariffs must be implemented in a way that “avoids raising prices for consumers” and preserves the industry’s competitiveness. – ‘Cheaters’ -The Center for Automotive Research has previously estimated that US tariffs –- including those on imported autos and metals –- could increase the price of a car by thousands of dollars and weigh on the jobs market.But Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, in a briefing after Trump’s announcement, blasted “foreign trade cheaters” who he said turned America’s manufacturing sector into a “lower wage assembly operation for foreign parts.”He took aim at Germany and Japan for reserving the construction of higher-value parts to their countries.Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has imposed fresh tariffs on imports from major US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China — alongside a 25 percent duty on steel and aluminum.The latest levies will be in addition to those already in place.But the White House added that vehicles entering under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can qualify for a lower rate depending on their American content.Similarly, USMCA-compliant auto parts will remain tariff-free as officials establish a process to target their non-US content.- ‘Devastating impact’ -Uncertainty over Trump’s trade plans and worries they could trigger a downturn have roiled financial markets, with consumer confidence also falling in recent months.Trump has defended the levies as a way to raise government revenue and revitalize American industry.But targeting imported cars could strain ties with close partners such as Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and Germany.”Imposing 25 percent tariffs on imported cars will have a devastating impact on many of our close trading partners,” said Wendy Cutler, vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former US trade negotiator.She added that Washington has free-trade agreements with some affected parties, “calling into question the value of US commitments” under a trade deal.About one in two cars sold in the United States are manufactured within the country. Among imports, about half come from Mexico and Canada, with Japan, South Korea and Germany also being major suppliers.And of the US-made cars, more than half were assembled from foreign parts, said a White House official.- ‘Liberation Day’ -Besides the automobile industry, Trump is also eyeing sector-specific tariffs, such as on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber.Wednesday’s announcement comes ahead of Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” for the world’s biggest economy on April 2.He has promised reciprocal levies, tailored to different trading partners to remedy practices Washington deemed unfair. On Wednesday he said these duties will impact all countries.While Trump has invoked emergency economic powers for some recent tariffs, his auto levies build on a government investigation completed in 2019.The probe found that excessive imports were weakening the internal economy and might impair national security.

It was a moment that instantly went viral — a White House reporter asking Volodymyr Zelensky why he wasn’t wearing a suit in the Oval Office just before his huge row with Donald Trump.But it was also the moment that defined a new media landscape under the Republican president that has given increased prominence to right-wing outlets.From the White House to Air Force One, the traditional “pool” of reporters who follow the US president has had its biggest shake-up in decades with the addition of members of an often raucous, partisan new media.Trump’s administration is giving unprecedented access to podcasters and influencers, many of them openly supportive of his MAGA movement. At the same time, it is bitterly attacking — and in one case barring — the legacy media.It comes after former reality TV show host Trump embraced podcasters on his way to an extraordinary White House comeback in the 2024 election.”I’m not hiding. I voted for Trump. I think he’s doing a good job,” said Clay Travis, founder of sports culture website Outkick, who was part of the pool on Trump’s trip to watch a wrestling match in Philadelphia last weekend.Travis, who is also the host of a conservative radio show and podcast The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, got a rare one-on-one interview with Trump on the presidential plane.He told AFP: “People can say, OK, I don’t want to trust that guy because I know that he likes Trump and thinks he’s doing a good job. Or they can say, I do trust that guy more because he’s being honest and telling us what his perspective is.”Travis is emblematic of the change signaled by Karoline Leavitt, who at 27 was the youngest press secretary in history at her very first briefing back in January.Pledging to follow her boss’s “revolutionary media approach,” Leavitt unveiled a “new media seat” in the famed briefing room and threw open the press accreditation system to all comers.The White House told AFP it had received a staggering 92,000 applications so far.The seat has been occupied by a wide variety of people, including a journalist from pro-Trump “My Pillow” businessman Mike Lindell’s TV channel.Less than a month later Leavitt dropped the bombshell that the White House — and not an independent association of journalists — would choose which reporters are part of the pool and add some new organizations to the rotation.- ‘Enemy of the people’ -Many of those have been right-wing or fringe news outlets, meaning that more mainstream organizations — including Reuters, Bloomberg and AFP — have seen their access to the president decrease.And while Trump’s White House is packing the press corps with friendly media, it is engaging in open hostility with those that it dislikes.Trump banned the US newswire the Associated Press from almost all presidential events after it refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by the new name he has decreed, the “Gulf of America.” The president has also stepped up his targeting of individual journalists.He branded The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief a “sleazebag” this week after the journalist revealed he was accidentally included in a chat group of US officials about air strikes on Yemen.He called the New York Times the “enemy of the people” and said outlets including CNN, MSNBC and unidentified newspapers writing critically about him were “illegal.”On social media, he has lashed out by name at a string of well-known reporters — often women. He has even targeted one from Fox News, which is popular with conservative viewers.Meanwhile, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the changes was the man behind the Zelensky suit question — Brian Glenn, chief White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a right-wing cable news channel.Glenn, who also happens to be the boyfriend of the firebrand, ultra-Trumpist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, is not officially in the pool but gets access to many of Trump’s appearances.”I said you were right!” Glenn exclaimed as Trump threw him a red baseball cap marked “Trump was right about everything” during one Oval Office event.He was the only journalist to take one.

The United States has removed multimillion-dollar bounties on leaders of Afghanistan’s feared Haqqani militant network, including the current Taliban interior minister, the State Department and the Taliban government said.The Haqqani network was responsible for some of the deadliest attacks during the decades-long war in Afghanistan.The men remain on Washington’s list of “specially designated global terrorists” but the bounty price has been scrapped.Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP that Washington had “cancelled rewards” for Sirajuddin Haqqani — who also heads the Haqqani network — as well as other key leaders, Abdul Aziz Haqqani and Yahya Haqqani.Sirajuddin Haqqani had long been one of Washington’s most important targets, with a $10 million bounty on his head.The US State Department said that “the three persons named remain designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), and the Haqqani Network remains designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a SDGT”.But while the wanted page remains active, the bounty on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) website has been removed.”It is the policy of the United States to consistently review and refine Rewards for Justice reward offers,” a State Department spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday.- ‘Largely symbolic’ -The bounty cancellation came days after the first visit by US officials to Afghanistan since President Donald Trump returned to office, and the announcement afterwards of the release of a US citizen by Taliban authorities.US-based Afghan political analyst Abdul Wahed Faqiri told AFP that the bounty removal is likely “largely symbolic” but a way for the United States to “give credit to Sirajuddin Haqqani”, seen as an emerging more moderate “alternative”. Media reports talk of increasing tensions between the “pragmatic” Haqqani figures and a more hardline circle around Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who vie for influence within the government.Despite the US bounty and international travel bans, Sirajuddin Haqqani has travelled outside Afghanistan multiple times since the Taliban government swept back to power in 2021.The government in Kabul is not recognised by any country and has expressed hopes for “a new chapter” with Trump’s administration.Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban during his first term in office, that paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and their return to power. 

US President Donald Trump has announced steep tariffs on auto imports and parts, provoking threats of retaliation from trading partners ahead of further promised trade levies next week.Wall Street slumped ahead of Trump’s Wednesday afternoon announcement, while the world’s top-selling automaker Toyota plunged more than three percent.Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tokyo was “considering all kinds of countermeasures”, while Canada’s Mark Carney branded Trump’s tariffs a “direct attack” on his country’s workers.Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also said his country “cannot stand still” in response to the levies.”What we’re going to be doing is a 25 percent tariff on all cars that are not made in the United States,” Trump said, as he signed the order in the Oval Office.The duties take effect at 12:01 am (0401 GMT) on April 3 and impact foreign-made cars and light trucks. Key automobile parts will also be hit within the month.Trump responded by threatening Canada and the European Union with “large scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned” if they work together to cause “economic harm” to the United States.Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, in a briefing after Trump’s announcement blasted “foreign trade cheaters” who he said turned America’s manufacturing sector into a “lower wage assembly operation for foreign parts.”He took aim at Germany and Japan for reserving the construction of higher-value parts to their countries.But Washington’s levies appeared to raise eyebrows close to home, including from Trump ally and Tesla boss Elon Musk, who said the cost impact on his firm’s cars was “not trivial”.”To be clear, this will affect the price of parts in Tesla cars that come from other countries. The cost impact is not trivial,” he posted on X.The association of American Automakers said in a statement on Wednesday that Trump’s tariffs must be implemented in a way that “avoids raising prices for consumers” and preserves the industry’s competitiveness. Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has imposed fresh tariffs on imports from major US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China — alongside a 25 percent duty on steel and aluminum.The latest levies will be in addition to those already in place for products.But the White House added that vehicles entering under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can qualify for a lower rate depending on their American content.Similarly, USMCA-compliant auto parts will remain tariff-free as officials establish a process to target their non-US content.- ‘Devastating impact’ -Uncertainty over Trump’s trade plans and worries they could trigger a downturn have roiled financial markets, with consumer confidence also falling in recent months.Shares in General Motors and Stellantis were each down more than three percent ahead of Trump’s announcement.In Japan, carmakers Nissan lost 2.5 percent, Honda shed 3.1 percent and Mitsubishi Motors gave up 4.5 percent, while Mazda and Subaru both gave up around six percent.South Korea’s Hyundai retreated 2.7 percent in Seoul.Trump has defended the levies as a way to raise government revenue and revitalize American industry.But targeting imported cars could strain ties with close partners such as Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and Germany.”Imposing 25 percent tariffs on imported cars will have a devastating impact on many of our close trading partners,” said Wendy Cutler, vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former US trade negotiator.She added that Washington has free-trade agreements with some affected parties, “calling into question the value of US commitments” under a trade deal.About 50 percent of cars sold in the United States are manufactured within the country. Among imports, about half come from Mexico and Canada, with Japan, South Korea and Germany also being major suppliers.And of the US-made cars, more than half were assembled from foreign parts, said a White House official.The American Automotive Policy Council representing Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — issued a carefully worded statement on the tariffs, saying it hoped the policy would boost US auto production.But it stressed: “It is critical that tariffs are implemented in a way that avoids raising prices for consumers.”The Center for Automotive Research has previously estimated that US tariffs –- including those on metals and imported autos –- could increase the price of a car by thousands of dollars and weigh on the jobs market.- ‘Liberation Day’ -Besides the automobile industry, Trump is also eyeing sector-specific tariffs, such as on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber.Wednesday’s announcement comes ahead of Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” for the world’s biggest economy on April 2.He has promised reciprocal levies, tailored to different trading partners to remedy practices Washington deemed unfair. On Wednesday he said these duties will impact all countries.While Trump has invoked emergency economic powers for some recent tariffs, his auto levies build on a government investigation completed in 2019.The probe found that excessive imports were weakening the internal economy and might impair national security.

Booing crowds, a man jabbing his finger and swearing — it is not easy these days for some Republican members of Congress as they face their constituents in town halls dominated by rage over President Donald Trump’s radical cost-cutting policies.And while Republican politicians risk running into loud and angry voters, Democratic lawmakers have found themselves getting berated in public for not doing enough to oppose Trump.The ill-tempered landscape reflects the level of polarization in the United States just two months into Trump’s second presidency.At one such town hall gathering this month in Asheville, North Carolina, congressman Chuck Edwards was jeered by people demanding he explain his support for Trump, who has fired off multiple executive orders to shrink the federal government and axed legions of civil servants.At one point, a man in the crowd stood up, pointed his finger at Edwards and screamed, berating him over some of the many spending cuts Republicans plan to carry out in the coming months.”You’re lying. I’m a veteran and you don’t give a fuck about me. You don’t get to take away our rights,” the man yelled. Edwards signaled for security to escort him out of the meeting.In Wyoming, a conservative pro-Trump state in the West, Republican lawmaker Harriet Hageman also had a rough time as she met with constituents in her district.As people whistled at her and held up hostile signs, Hageman said she got the message. According to the local outlet Wyofile, one man at the meeting then said to her, “Fuck you! That’s what we’re saying.”- ‘Paid agitators’ -In recent weeks, these town hall meetings — meant for lawmakers in congressional recess to confer with the people who put them in office — have become echo chambers of angst.They have emerged as a key way for Americans to express opposition to Trump as he also enacts his anti-immigrant, anti-trans, nationalist and right-wing agenda. At the start of his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump faced huge demonstrations against him. But this time around, since he returned to office America’s streets have been relatively quiet.Trump has made clear he wants to move quickly and aggressively with all his executive orders, aimed among other things at gutting or even eliminating some departments altogether as part of a small-government, laissez-faire conservative theory of governance.So many town hall meetings are turning into anti-Trump shouting matches that Republican Party officials are telling their lawmakers to just stop holding them, US media have reported.On Sunday, Trump embraced a theory first advanced by his press team that people who speak out against him at these meetings are “agitators” paid by the Democrats.”The room was ‘littered’ with Radical Left Lunatics, mostly Democrats, and all they did was scream, shout and use filthy language. They were largely paid agitators, with fake signs and slogans, and were only there to make TROUBLE!” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social, refering to the Edwards meeting.- ‘Fighting oligarchy’  -After Republicans put out the word to stop holding such meetings, Democrats swooped in to hold town halls of their own in Republican districts.”While Republicans continue to run and hide from their constituents, Democrats are stepping up and meeting them face to face to ensure they know it’s Trump, Elon Musk and their MAGA minions in Congress making their lives harder,” the Democratic National Committee said Monday, referring to Trump’s ever-present billionaire advisor and the slogan “Make America Great Again.”But Democrats are also facing angry constituents who complain their party has been too quiet and passive as Trump and Musk carry out what critics call a lawless rampage through the federal bureaucracy.”They should try actually fighting for once. They should try to actually be the opposition party,” one man told CNN as he attended a town hall Friday called by Democratic congressman Sean Casten in Illinois.With so many people livid with the Democratic Party and its leaders, some on the American left are trying to step up and lead the opposition to Trump.Senator Bernie Sanders, 83, has embarked on a nationwide “fighting oligarchy tour.” He has been joined by another prominent progressive, the much younger congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.They have drawn tens of thousands of people eager to fight Trump and the Republican agenda.It remains to be seen if this opposition energy will eat away at Trump and help the Democrats in isolated special elections on April 1.