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A major US freeway in California was shut Saturday due to the US Marine Corps firing live artillery over the roadway as part of ceremonies marking its 250th anniversary, an event attended by Vice President JD Vance.The closure of a 17-mile (27-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 5, which links Los Angeles and San Diego, snarled traffic for hours and set off another spat between California’s liberal governor and Republican Donald Trump’s White House.”The President is putting his ego over responsibility with this disregard for public safety,” said Governor Gavin Newsom, a frequent Trump critic who is expected to make a White House run in 2028.”Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous.”Signs near the interstate warned on Saturday: “Live weapons over freeway.”The order to shut the freeway came after California Highway Patrol officials warned that live munitions flying overhead would distract drivers on the oceanfront stretch of Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton.In a statement, the Marine Corps insisted there was no risk to the public.”Artillery pieces have historically been fired during routine training from land-based artillery firing points west of the I-5 into impact areas east of the interstate within existing safety protocols and without the need to close the route,” it said in a statement. “This is an established and safe practice.”The massive Marine exercise featured fighter jet flyovers, amphibious ships, explosions in a simulated village and Navy SEALS dropping into the Pacific Ocean from helicopters.In his address, Vance said the Trump administration was focused on supporting Marines and removing “woke” priorities that he argued have weakened the US armed forces.”When officials try to shift focus to mandating diversity quotas, or they try to inject partisan politics into the American armed forces, they impede the Marine Corps’s ability to do its best work. “And that’s why the secretary of war and the president of the United States have stood so firmly against that crap,” Vance, a Marine veteran, told the assembled troops.The Marine display came the same day that millions took to the streets from coast to coast in the United States to protest the hardline policies of the Trump administration, which have included the dismantling of diversity and equity programs. In June, Trump ordered National Guard troops to Los Angeles to support federal officials in carrying out sweeping immigration raids and to tamp down local protests. The deployment, which also included hundreds of Marines, was criticized by Newsom and local officials, who argued that the relatively small demonstrations could have been easily handled by city and state law enforcement.

Nadja Rutkowski said protest is her way of life: she immigrated to the US from Germany at 14 and demonstrates for fear fascist history could repeat itself.She was among the thousands of New Yorkers who marched down Broadway from Times Square Saturday during mass anti-Trump protests, where demonstrators rejected what many referred to as the “tyranny” of today’s White House. As pro-democracy chants rang out, Rutkowski voiced outrage over what she called the Republican president’s attack on human rights that includes an aggressive crackdown on undocumented migrants.”I come from a country where what is happening now has happened already before in 1938,” she told AFP, her dog Bella — who is also a seasoned protester — in tow. “People are being snatched up from the streets,” she said. “We know, we see it, it’s happening in real time. So we’ve got to stand up.”The sentiment was an unequivocal theme of Saturday’s demonstration in New York, the city where Donald Trump was born and made his name — but where the majority of residents vehemently spurn him.”I like my Manhattan straight up no ICE,” read one of many similar placards, referring to the whisky cocktail bearing the name of New York’s most prominent borough.ICE is the federal enforcement agency that has been detaining undocumented migrants and even American citizens in escalating raids across the United States — and the target of fury from protestors.”We are in a crisis,” said Colleen Hoffman, 69, citing “the cruelty of this regime” and its aura of “authoritarianism.””If we don’t stick together, if we don’t raise our voices, then we’ve surrendered to it. I refuse to surrender.”- ‘This is our flag too’ -Saturday’s peaceful protest in New York was among some 2,700 nationwide; there were multiple demonstrations just within the city’s five boroughs.Demonstrators were fervent in message but jovial in spirit: colorful costumes included one person dressed as the Mr. Met baseball mascot, wielding a sign that said “No Kings But Queens” in a reference to the borough the beloved baseball team comes from.Gavin Michaels is a 26-year-old actor  currently in an off-Broadway play about the rise of Nazi Germany — in which he portrays a young soldier “easily seduced” by the promises of a job and health care.He called the role in “Crooked Cross,” a dramatization of a prophetic 1930s-era novel, “terrifyingly relevant” to today’s America.”You see the administration pulling health care away from people but offering sign-up bonuses if you join ICE,” he told AFP.But Michaels said he was heartened by joining his fellow New Yorkers on the streets: “It’s exciting,” he said, to see “other people who care.””We spend so much of our lives inside or on the internet and it’s nice to actually see people in person willing to do something or say something or stand up for something.Along with signs bearing anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-Trump messaging, many protestors wielded American flags.Some even wore them: Mike Misner donned the Stars and Stripes as a cape.”I want to say this is our flag too,” he told AFP, bemoaning the fact that conservative factions in the US have “made the flag theirs, as if they’re the only ones who could be patriotic.””Our country is under attack. Our democracy is under attack,” he said. “And this flag to me represents democracy.”

Huge crowds are expected to hit the streets Saturday from New York to San Francisco to vent their anger over President Donald Trump’s hardline policies at nationwide “No Kings” protests slammed by Republicans as “Hate America” rallies.More than 2,700 demonstrations are planned coast to coast, from big cities to small towns, and even near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he is spending the weekend. Organizers say they are expecting millions to attend.Those numbers would match the massive turnout at similar events on June 14, Trump’s birthday and the day of a giant military parade in the US capital, in outrage over the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented migrants and its deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles.Since then, Trump — who returned to the White House in January — has ordered National Guard troops into Washington and Memphis. Planned deployments to Chicago and Portland, Oregon have so far been blocked in the courts.Demonstrators are also up in arms over Trump’s attacks on the media, prosecutions of his political opponents and a host of other actions they see as authoritarian.”The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty,” the “No Kings” movement — which brings together some 300 organizations — says on its website.A government shutdown is now in its third week, with the Trump administration firing thousands of federal workers and lawmakers showing little sign they are ready to break the impasse.”This president is a disgrace and I hope there will be millions in the street today,” Stephanie, a 36-year-old hospital worker who did not give her last name, told AFP in the Queens borough of New York, where hundreds had already gathered in the morning.Demonstrators carried colorful signs that read “Queens Say No Kings,” and “We protest because we love America and want it back!”Some chanted, “We love our country, we can’t stand Trump!”In Los Angeles, organizers plan to float a giant balloon of Trump in a diaper. They said they expect 100,000 people to attend.So far, the Republican billionaire president’s response to Saturday’s events has been muted.”They’re saying they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” he told Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”But his top surrogates were in more fighting form, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling the day of protest the “Hate America rally.””You’re going to bring together the Marxists, the Socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat Party,” he told reporters.Republican lawmaker Tom Emmer also used the “Hate America” phrase and referred to participants as the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party.- ‘Country of equals’ -Beyond New York and San Francisco, protests are scheduled in major cities such as Washington, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and New Orleans, but also in small towns across all 50 states.The “No Kings” movement is even organizing events in Canada.Small protests took place in Malaga, Spain and Malmo, Sweden. On Thursday, Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said protesters wanted to convey that “we are a country of equals.””We are a country of laws that apply to everyone, of due process and of democracy. We will not be silenced,” she told reporters.Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the Indivisible Project, slammed the Trump administration’s efforts to send the National Guard into US cities, crack down on undocumented migrants and prosecute political opponents.”It is the classic authoritarian playbook: threaten, smear and lie, scare people into submission,” Greenberg said. Top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer encouraged demonstrators to let their voices be heard.”I say to my fellow Americans this No Kings Day: Do not let Donald Trump and Republicans intimidate you into silence. That’s what they want to do. They’re afraid of the truth,” he wrote on X.”Speak out, use your voice, and exercise your right to free speech.”

The removal of Prince Andrew’s royal title following further revelations about his ties to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “vindicates” his alleged sexual assault victim, her family has said.Andrew, 65, on Friday renounced his Duke of York title under pressure from his brother King Charles III, who wants to draw a line under the scandal that has embarrassed Britain’s royal family.Speaking to the BBC, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, whom Andrew denies assaulting when she was 17, said his late sister “would be very proud” of the development.”We have shed a lot of happy and sad tears today,” he told the broadcaster late on Friday.”I think happy because in a lot of ways this vindicates Virginia. All the years of work that she put in is now coming to some sort of justice,” he added.Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019 amid the Epstein scandal, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late queen Elizabeth II.He has become a source of deep embarrassment for his brother Charles, following a 2019 television interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein.In the interview, Andrew vowed he had cut ties in 2010 with Epstein, who was disgraced after Giuffre accused him of using her as a sex slave.But in a reported exchange that emerged in UK media this week, Andrew told the convicted sex offender in 2011 that they were “in this together” when a photo of the prince with his arm around Giuffre was published.He added the two would “play together soon”.Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex.Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, took her own life at her farm in Western Australia on April 25.New allegations emerged this week in her posthumous memoir in which she wrote that Andrew had behaved as if having sex with her was his “birthright”.In “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice”, to be published next week, Giuffre wrote she had sex with Andrew on three separate occasions, including when she was under 18.Andrew has repeatedly denied Giuffre’s accusations and avoided a trial in a civil lawsuit by paying a multimillion-dollar settlement.The once-popular royal, who was hailed a hero when he flew as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War, was stripped of his military titles in 2022.

Rallies from New York to San Francisco under the “No Kings” banner on Saturday will gauge popular anger at President Donald Trump’s barnstorming second term, months after a previous day of action brought millions to the streets.”The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty,” the “No Kings” movement — which unites some 300 organizations — says on its website.More than 2,700 demonstrations are planned coast to coast, from big cities to small towns, and even near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he will spend the weekend. Organizers say they are expecting millions to attend.Millions attended rallies on June 14 after Trump ordered the deployment of troops to Los Angeles, a move that led critics to accuse him of acting like a dictator.It was the biggest day of demonstrations since the Republican billionaire returned to the White House in January.Trump in June had promised to use “very big force” if protesters attempted to disrupt the army parade in the US capital.In the months since, he has expanded the deployments of troops to US cities, outraging critics.An ongoing government shutdown is in its third week, with the Trump administration firing thousands of federal workers and lawmakers showing little sign they are ready to break the impasse.Trump’s response to the latest big rally day has been more muted.”They’re saying they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” he told Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”But his top surrogates in the Republican Party were in more fighting form, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling the day of protest the “Hate America rally.””You’re going to bring together the Marxists, the Socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat Party,” he told reporters.Republican lawmaker Tom Emmer also used the “Hate America” phrase and referred to participants as the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party.Democratic congressman Glenn Ivey rejected the term “hate,” telling AFP on Friday: “I understand why they’re nervous about it and trying to paint it in a bad light.””It’s really the strong counter-push to what they’ve been doing — that’s undermining the country, destroying the rule of law and undermining our democracy,” said Ivey, adding that he would attend protests in his Maryland congressional district.- ‘Country of equals’ -Beyond New York and San Francisco, protests are scheduled in major cities such as Washington, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and New Orleans, but also in small towns across all 50 states.The “No Kings” movement is even organizing events in Canada.On Thursday, Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said protesters wanted to convey that “we are a country of equals.””We are a country of laws that apply to everyone, of due process and of democracy. We will not be silenced,” she told reporters.Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the Indivisible Project, slammed the Trump administration’s efforts to send the National Guard into US cities, crack down on undocumented migrants and prosecute political opponents.”It is the classic authoritarian playbook: threaten, smear and lie, scare people into submission,” Greenberg said. “But we will not be intimidated. We will not be cowed.”Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro, a known Trump critic, called on Americans to rally.”We’ve had two and a half centuries of democracy… often challenging, sometimes messy, always essential,” De Niro said in a short video.”Now we have a would-be king who wants to take it away: King Donald the First,” he said.”We’re rising up again this time, nonviolently raising our voices to declare: No kings.”

Disgraced former Republican lawmaker George Santos, who was convicted of committing wire fraud and identity theft, left prison on Friday just hours after his sentence was commuted by US President Donald Trump, his attorney told AFP.Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his Truth Social site Friday that “George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated.””And at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN,” he added.”Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY.”Santos left the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in New Jersey and was “on his way home,” his attorney Joseph Murray told AFP by phone late Friday.”God bless President Donald J Trump the greatest President in U.S. history!” Murray wrote in a statement that was posted on Santos’s X account.A presidential commutation is different to a pardon in that the original conviction stands — but the sentence passed is reduced.The 37-year-old ex-representative from New York state reported to prison in July, after being sentenced to seven years and three months in April for stealing campaign donors’ identities and using their credit cards, among other charges.A congressional ethics committee investigation revealed his use of stolen funds for Botox treatments and the OnlyFans porn website, as well as luxury Italian goods and vacations to the Hamptons and Las Vegas.Santos’s bizarre biographical fabrications included claiming to have worked for Goldman Sachs, being Jewish and having been a college volleyball star.He was expelled from the House in 2023, one year after he was elected to office, becoming only the third person to be ejected as a US lawmaker since the Civil War, a rebuke previously reserved for traitors and convicted criminals.

Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday to make a deal with Russia, pouring cold water on Kyiv’s hopes for Tomahawk missiles as the US leader renews a push to settle the war.Trump said as recently as last month that he believed Ukraine could take back all its territory — but a day after agreeing to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for a new summit, the American had changed his tune, though Zelensky did not rule out Trump changing his mind again in the future.”It’s good that President Trump didn’t say ‘no,’ but for today, (he) didn’t say ‘yes'” to providing Kyiv with Tomahawks, Zelensky told US broadcaster NBC on Friday.After meeting with Zelensky at the White House, Trump said on social media that their talks were “very interesting, and cordial, but I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL!””They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!” he posted online, while flying to his Florida estate.Upon landing, he told reporters that Ukraine and Russia should “stop right now at the battle line.””Go by the battle line wherever it is or else it gets too complicated,” he added.Zelensky meanwhile said after the meeting that Russia was “afraid” of the US-made long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, and that he was “realistic” about receiving the weapons from Washington.He told reporters that while he and Trump discussed long-range weapons they “decided that we don’t speak about it because… the United States doesn’t want escalation.”- ‘Get the war over’ -Zelensky came to Washington after weeks of calls for Tomahawks, hoping to capitalize on Trump’s growing frustration with Putin after a summit in Alaska failed to produce a breakthrough.But the Ukrainian left empty-handed as Trump eyes a fresh diplomatic breakthrough on the back of last week’s Gaza peace deal.Trump has appeared far more upbeat about the prospects of a deal since his lengthy call Thursday with Putin, in which they agreed to meet soon in Budapest.”Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over with, without thinking about Tomahawks,” Trump told journalists as he hosted Zelensky.Trump added that he believed Putin “wants to end the war.”Zelensky, who came to push for the long-range US-made weapons, said however that he would be ready to swap “thousands” of Ukrainian drones in exchange for Tomahawks.Zelensky congratulated Trump on his recent Middle East peace deal in Gaza and said he hoped he would do the same for Ukraine. “I hope that President Trump can manage it,” he said.- ‘Many questions’ -Diplomatic talks on ending Russia’s invasion have stalled since the Alaska summit.The Kremlin said Friday that “many questions” needed resolving before Putin and Trump could meet, including who would be on each negotiating team.But it brushed off suggestions Putin would have difficulty flying over European airspace.Hungary said it would ensure Putin could enter and “hold successful talks” with the United States despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes.Since the start of his second term, Trump’s position on the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically back and forth.Initially Trump and Putin reached out to each other as the US leader derided Zelensky as a “dictator without elections.”Tensions came to a head in February, when Trump accused his Ukrainian counterpart of “not having the cards” in a rancorous Oval Office meeting.Relations between the two have since warmed as Trump has expressed growing frustration with Putin.But Trump has kept a dialogue channel open with Putin, saying they “get along.”The US leader has repeatedly changed his position on sanctions and other steps against Moscow following calls with the Russian president.Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” to demilitarize the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.Russia now occupies around a fifth of Ukrainian territory — much of it ravaged by fighting. On Friday the Russian defense ministry announced it had captured three villages in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro had offered major concessions to ease tensions with Washington and confirmed a new strike on a drug-smuggling vessel, which reportedly left survivors.Washington accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel and has deployed significant military assets — including stealth warplanes and seven US Navy ships — as part of what it says are counter-narcotics efforts in the region.Maduro, an authoritarian socialist who is widely accused of stealing elections last year, claims Washington is plotting regime change.Asked at the White House about reports that Caracas had floated de-escalation plans, Trump was scathing.”He has offered everything, you’re right. You know why? Because he doesn’t want to fuck around with the United States,” he said.Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, on Thursday denied a Miami Herald report that she had negotiated with Washington on a plan to oust Maduro.Venezuela is the alleged origin of some of the vessels, at least six of which have been targeted and mostly involving speedboats, in an unprecedented campaign of US strikes in the Caribbean since September.The latest attack left survivors on board, media outlets including CBS and NBC reported, citing unidentified US officials.US media later reported Friday the two survivors were in the custody of the US Navy, with no further details available on their conditions or circumstances.Trump said the target was a “drug-carrying submarine built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs.”Semi-submersibles built in clandestine jungle shipyards have for years been used to ferry cocaine from South America, particularly Colombia, to Central America or Mexico, usually via the Pacific Ocean.Washington says its Caribbean campaign is dealing a decisive blow to drug trafficking, but it has provided no evidence that the people killed — at least 27 so far — were drug smugglers.Experts say such summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers.The US campaign has drawn in some of Venezuela’s neighbors.Police in Trinidad and Tobago, located off the coast of Venezuela, is investigating whether two of its citizens were killed in a strike on Wednesday.And Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he believes Colombians have also died in the attacks.A defiant Trump this week announced plans to ramp up operations against Venezuela, fuelling speculation that his administration aims to topple Maduro.Trump indicated he had authorized covert CIA operations against Venezuela and was considering strikes on land targets.Earlier this week, in a show of force, US-based B-52 bombers circled over the Caribbean off Venezuela’s coast for several hours, data from tracking website Flightradar24 showed.Venezuela has deployed 17,000 troops to Tachira state, which borders Colombia, in response to the US threats.Venezuelan forces are also stationed in southern Amazonas state, which borders both Colombia and Brazil, and multiple coastal areas. While Trump weighs whether to expand US military action from the sea onto land, the admiral overseeing the naval strikes in the Caribbean announced he will step down.The head of US Southern Command gave no reason for retiring just a year into his tenure, which follows multiple top US military officers being dismissed in recent months.burs-cb/jgc/mlm

A US judge on Friday granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users but slashed a $168 million damages award at trial to just $4 million.District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that NSO Group’s behavior fell short of a “particularly egregious” standard needed to support the jury’s calculations on a financial penalty.But in the ruling, seen by AFP, she said the court “concluded that defendants’ conduct causes irreparable harm, and there being no dispute that the conduct is ongoing” the judge granted WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction to stop NSO Group’s snooping tactics at the messaging service.”Today’s ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again,” WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart said in a statement.”We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society.”Evidence at trial showed that NSO Group reverse-engineered WhatsApp code to stealthily install spyware targeting users, according to the ruling.The spyware was repeatedly redesigned to escape detection and bypass security fixes at WhatsApp, the court concluded.The lawsuit, filed in late 2019, accused NSO Group of cyberespionage targeting journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others using the encrypted messaging service.Hamilton ruled however that the $168 million damages verdict awarded to Meta earlier this year was excessive.”There have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era for the court to be able to conclude that defendants’ conduct was ‘particularly egregious’,” Hamilton wrote in the ruling which was seen by AFP.”As time goes on, more of a shared societal consensus may emerge about the acceptability of defendants’ conduct.”- ‘Malicious code’ -Founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, NSO Group is based in the seaside high-tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.Media website TechCrunch reported Friday that a US investment group has acquired controlling interest in NSO Group.The Israeli firm produces Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target’s cell phone camera and microphone and access data on it, effectively turning the phone into a pocket spy.The suit filed in a California federal court contended that NSO tried to infect approximately 1,400 “target devices” with malicious software to steal valuable information.Infecting smartphones or other gadgets being used for WhatsApp messages meant the content of messages encrypted during transmission could be accessed after they were unscrambled.The complaint said the attackers “developed a program to enable them to emulate legitimate WhatsApp network traffic in order to transmit malicious code” to take over the devices.The software has been pinpointed by independent experts as being used by nation states, some of them with poor human rights records.NSO Group has maintained it only licenses its software to governments for fighting crime and terrorism.

New Yorkers run on coffee. From high-end experimental boutique cafes to the humble sidewalk cart, millions of cups of java are sold every day.But coffee-lovers are facing increasing pain as they pay for their simple espresso shots and elaborate pumpkin spiced lattes as the cost of beans has jumped 21 percent between August 2024 and August 2025 in the United States — the world’s largest market for coffee.Climate shocks drove the cost of arabica soaring, with the beans hitting an all-time high in February 2025. That has been compounded by elevated transport costs and the 50 percent tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump since August 6 on many products from Brazil.Brazil, the largest coffee producer, has been sanctioned by the Trump administration for its prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro for a coup attempt. It supplies 30 percent of the United States’s unroasted beans.”It’s having a major impact on us, on small business owners, on farmers, across the board,” Jeremy Lyman, co-founder of the New York-based chain Birch Coffee, told AFP.Founded in 2009, the brand has 14 outlets citywide, roasting its own specialty coffee in Queens since 2015.”The price of coffee on the market has just been on a steady incline over the last probably year. I think it’s gone up about 55 percent from this time last year…it’s impacting the prices that we charge,” Lyman said.He said that Brazil’s production had become “unaffordable” forcing Birch to look elsewhere for beans with its importer “pushing pause” on its orders unless specially requested.Cecafe, the Council of Coffee Exporters of Brazil, reports that exports to the United States have dropped almost 53 percent as of September compared to the year before with importers looking instead to Mexico, Peru and Ethiopia.- United by coffee -Lyman acknowledges market forces have meant price hikes for his customers, with Birch adding 50 cents to cups sold in-store, and $2 to $3 per bag of roasted coffee sold online. “Typically, it’ll be small, incremental (increases) because it also helps us get a little bit more time to navigate how we’re going to be sourcing,” he said, adding that he tried to give customers two weeks of warning.Other cafes have adopted a novel approach: adding an adjustable premium to the base price of each cup according to what level Trump has set tariffs that day, Lyman said.But customers will only swallow so much, the Birch founder warned, warning of a real risk of losing customers.Jason Nickel, 45, said that while he still seeks out a daily caffeine hit, he is “a little more careful about where I go.” He cannot imagine paying more than $6 a cup, including tip, for cortado — an espresso shot with a dash of milk foam.Anna Simonovsky, 32, said that her upper limit had gone from $7 for a latte — a milkier, frothier drink than a cortado — to as much as $10. She enjoys coffee as a treat for special occasions, like a visit with a friend.Trump recently threw a lifeline to the two-thirds of Americans who drink coffee daily when he placed coffee on a list of products not cultivated by US farmers in sufficient quantity — potentially exempting it from tariffs, alongside tea and cocoa.And in a rare glimmer of bipartisanship, coffee-loving Republicans and Democrats are jointly sponsoring a bill intended to protect coffee products.