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For residents of Colombia’s largest migrant camp, an already tough life is getting tougher thanks to Donald Trump’s aid cuts.Eight months pregnant and 20 years old, Astrid lives on an abandoned dust-blown airstrip in Colombia’s Guajira desert.Home is a lean-to shack, cobbled together from tin sheets and lumber.It is not much, but it protects her and her five-year-old son — who is paralyzed with encephalopathy — from the blistering equatorial sun.”What do I lack? Everything,” the Venezuelan single mother tells AFP. “Nothing here is mine.”Like many of La Pista’s 10,000-14,000 residents, Astrid fled nearby Venezuela, where poverty, hardship and organized crime are endemic.Without running water, a bathroom, or even money to attend prenatal checkups, Astrid dreams of working and giving her children “a home.”But in La Pista malnutrition is common and many depend on aid handouts to survive. Since Trump returned as US president in January, cuts to aid arm USAID have been keenly felt in this ad-hoc settlement, where children skip barefoot past dogs and cows rummaging in the garbage for food.Trump and his cost-cutting sidekick Elon Musk have argued that the US federal budget is bloated, that spending is unsustainable and that Americans, not foreigners, should benefit from any tax-payer largesse.USAID was effectively shuttered and its annual budget of close to $43 billion — providing more than 40 percent of the world’s humanitarian aid — was decimated.Local mayor Miguel Aragon said the US cuts felt like “a cold bucket of water.” Of the 28 non-governmental groups that existed in the area last year, only three remain today, he said.”Today we feel alone,” says the 37-year-old politician, who fears disaster is on the way.- ‘Rice with cheese’ – Inside a local medical center, several women with babies wait to be attended. Luz Marina, a 40-year-old Colombian, is there with her five-year-old son who is underweight. She has experienced US politics first-hand. Earlier this year, she was chosen to receive aid, only to be told it was cancelled due to decisions in Washington.”I didn’t get to receive anything,” she says through tears. “It’s so sad, it was something I truly needed.” With the help of nutritional supplements, Luz Marina’s son had managed to gain some weight.But that progress is now at risk due to a lack of food.”It’s not the same to eat rice with chicken as it is to eat rice with cheese,” she told AFP. Humanitarian groups have tried to alleviate some of the hardships, and the Colombian state provides potable water once a week to households. But even rich Western aid groups are also feeling the pain of US spending cuts.At a local school, until recently kids played instruments, sang and took workshops.But the Save the Children-run project closed after the cuts reduced its Colombia budget by 40 percent.Country director Maria Mercedes Lievano fears that the closure of such projects will create a “greater risk of people entering criminal groups.””Having to turn our backs on the people we were supporting is very difficult,” Lievano says, her voice choking. “It hurts a lot.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney held highly anticipated talks with Donald Trump at the White House Tuesday amid tensions over the US president’s tariffs and threats of annexation.Trump slammed Canada on Truth Social for effectively freeloading off the United States just minutes before greeting the recently reelected Carney outside the West Wing.Liberal leader Carney, 60, won the Canadian election on a pledge to stand up to Trump, saying the United States would never “own us” and warning that ties between the North American neighbors could never be the same.Republican Trump, 78, has sparked a major trade war with Canada with his tariffs while repeatedly making extraordinary calls for the key NATO ally and major trading partner to become the 51st US state.Trump said ahead of Carney’s arrival that “I very much want to work with him” but pointed to a possibly tense meeting.”Why is America subsidizing Canada by $200 Billion Dollars a year, in addition to giving them FREE Military Protection, and many other things?” Trump posted on Truth Social.”We don’t need ANYTHING they have, other than their friendship, which hopefully we will always maintain. The Prime Minister will be arriving shortly and that will be, most likely, my only question of consequence.”After his tough talk on the campaign trail, Carney will meanwhile be seeking to cool the temperature and move towards a trade deal.”Canada and the United States are strongest when we work together — and that work starts now,” Carney said on X as he arrived in Washington on Monday night.Trump slapped general tariffs of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico and sector-specific levies on autos, some of which have been suspended pending negotiations. He has also imposed similar duties on steel and aluminum.Carney has vowed to remake NATO member Canada’s ties with the United States in perhaps its biggest political and economic shift since World War II.- ‘Old relationship’ -“Our old relationship based on steadily increasing integration is over. The questions now are how our nations will cooperate in the future,” Carney said in his first post-election press conference on Friday.The Canadian leader said he would also “fight to get the best deal” on the tariffs.But Trump’s ultra-loyal Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said it would be “really complex” to reach a deal.”They have their socialist regime and it’s basically feeding off of America,” he told Fox Business on Monday. “I just don’t see how it works out perfectly.”The US president inserted himself into Canada’s election early on with a social media post saying Canada would face “ZERO TARIFFS” if it “becomes the cherished 51st state.”Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote but Trump’s attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular former premier Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister in March, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.The political newcomer previously served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and in the latter post he played a key role reassuring markets after the 2016 Brexit vote.Carney is known for weighing his words carefully but he will face a challenge dealing with the confrontational Trump on the US president’s home turf.”This is a very important moment for him, since he insisted during the campaign that he could take on Mr Trump,” Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, told AFP.The Canadian premier would also have to avoid the fate of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who walked into a brutal tongue-lashing from Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February, said Tellier.But one point in Carney’s favor is that he is not Trudeau, the slick former prime minister whom Trump famously loathed and belittled as “governor” of Canada, she added.

There are currently no signs that the United States has entered a recession despite the world’s largest economy recording a contraction in the first quarter, the US Treasury Secretary said Tuesday. “I believe in data, and there is nothing in the data that shows that we are in a recession,” Scott Bessent told lawmakers during an appearance in Congress. Bessent’s remarks contrast with those of Trump, who was asked in a recent interview if the United States could enter a recession. “Anything can happen,” he told NBC in the interview, which was broadcast on Sunday. “But I think we’re going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country. I think we’re going have the greatest economic boom in history.”The technical definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, although the National Bureau of Economic Research uses a slightly broader metric when making official judgements about the US economy. “As a matter of fact, the jobs report had a surprise to the upside,” Bessent said, referring to the better-than-expected April jobs report published last week.Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has rolled out steep tariffs against top trading partners, leading to a surge in volatility in the financial markets and causing analysts to predict higher inflation and slower growth this year.Growth in the first quarter of 2025 unexpectedly contracted, according to initial government estimates, as consumers and businesses rushed to import more goods ahead of the rollout of Trump’s sweeping “liberation day” tariffs in early April.Bessent told lawmakers the administration was making good progress with top trading partners ahead of a self-imposed July deadline to reach a deal or face the prospect of higher tariffs — with the exception of China, with which the United States has not yet begun talks. “Perhaps as early as this week we will be announcing trade deals with some of our largest trading partners,” he said, echoing recent remarks from the US president.”And what I will tell you is that in negotiating with some of them, they may not like the tariff wall that President Trump has put up, but they have them,” he added. “So if tariffs are so bad, why do they like them?”Once the negotiations conclude, Bessent said he expects the United States would “see a substantial reduction in the tariffs that we are being charged, as well as non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, and the subsidies of both labor and capital investment.”

The US trade deficit reached a new record in March, according to fresh government data published Tuesday, as imports surged ahead of President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff rollout.The overall trade gap of the world’s largest economy jumped 14.0 percent to $140.5 billion for the month, the Commerce Department said in a statement. This was the widest deficit for a month on record, dating back to 1992, and marked a $17.3 billion increase from a revised gap of $123.2 billion in February.”Businesses pulled forward needed industrial supplies and retailers stocked their shelves with consumer goods in March ahead of tariffs,” economists at Wells Fargo wrote in a note to clients. The data covers the month before Trump introduced steep levies on China, and lower “baseline” levies of 10 percent on goods from most other countries.The White House also introduced higher tariffs on dozens of other trading partners, and then paused them until July to give the United States time to renegotiate existing trade arrangements.The March trade deficit came in above the median estimate of $137.6 billion from surveys of economists conducted by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.The trade gap was the result of a 4.4 percent rise in imports to $419.0 billion, as people rushed to buy goods ahead of the introduction of the widely trailed tariffs. By far the largest increase was seen in the import of consumer goods, which increased by $22.5 billion in March.Exports rose by a modest 0.2 percent to $278.5 billion. “April may bring a last ditch effort of firms front running tariffs, but after that net exports are set to reverse dramatically,” the economists at Wells Fargo said. 

The US Federal Reserve began a two-day discussion over interest rates Tuesday, with policymakers widely expected to pause again and wait for clarity on the economic impact of Donald Trump’s tariff rollout.The US president’s on-again, off-again rollout has unnerved investors, and caused analysts to pare back their forecasts for growth this year and to hike their inflation outlook. This is a challenging situation for the Fed’s rate-setting committee, which began its two-day meeting in Washington at 8:30 am local time (1230 GMT).The US central bank has a dual mandate to tackle both inflation and unemployment, primarily by hiking and lowering its benchmark lending rate, which acts like a throttle or brake for demand.Both the inflation and unemployment rates are close to where the Fed wants them, making another rate cut pause this week overwhelmingly likely. That would leave the bank’s key lending rate at between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent, where it has sat since last December. Financial markets see a roughly 97 percent chance that the Fed will vote to pause this week, according to data from CME Group. 

Four Palestinian photographers from Agence France-Presse (AFP) were finalists for their Gaza coverage in the “Breaking News Photography” category of the Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious awards in US journalism.The jury for the award, presented on Monday by Columbia University in New York, praised the “powerful images” from Gaza by Mahmud Hams, Omar Al-Qattaa, Said Khatib and Bashar Taleb.The AFP photographers’ work encapsulated “the enduring humanity of the people of Gaza amid widespread destruction and loss,” they said.The Pulitzer nomination crowns an exceptional year for Hams, who also won the News award at the Visa pour l’Image festival in Perpignan and the Bayeux Calvados Prize for war correspondents — two of the most prestigious international awards in photojournalism.AFP has provided uninterrupted coverage of the war in Gaza since 2023, when Hamas launched its attack against Israel on October 7, with teams on both sides of the border to guarantee rigorous and impartial information.AFP’s local journalists are working in perilous conditions in Gaza to document the consequences of the war on civilians.Since the start of the war, virtually no journalist has been able to cross into Gaza, which borders Israel and Egypt.”This recognition is a tribute not only to the talent and bravery of these photographers, but also to AFP’s steadfast commitment to documenting events with accuracy and integrity, wherever they unfold,” Phil Chetwynd, AFP’s global news director, said in a statement.”We are deeply grateful to Mahmud, Omar, Said, and Bashar, whose work gives voice to those caught in the heart of the conflict,” he added.

Hollywood reacted with skepticism on Monday to US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 100 percent tariffs on foreign films, with movie insiders calling it a policy made up on the fly by a president who fails to understand how the industry works.”It makes no sense,” entertainment lawyer Jonathan Handel said of Trump’s idea.Handel told AFP that many US productions, from James Bond flicks to the “Mission Impossible” franchise, are filmed abroad for obvious creative reasons.”If the stunt is Tom Cruise climbing up the Eiffel Tower, what are we supposed to do, shoot at the replica Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas?” Handel said. “I mean, it’s just nonsensical.”Writing on his platform Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump said: “I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.””WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” he wrote.His words plunged the movie industry into uncertainty as entertainment companies saw their stock prices fall, unions struggled to understand if the bombshell also applies to TV series and everyone wondered if the policy could even be enforced.Handel said movies involve intellectual property.”You can buy a movie ticket, but you don’t buy a movie the way you buy a piece of clothing or an automobile,” which can be taxed as they cross a border into the United States, he said.Even if a system could be devised to impose tariffs on movies filmed outside the United States, such levies would do more harm than good to the US industry, Handel said.”The result of that would be to reduce production, to increase the cost of movies, to reduce the number of movies available for movie theaters and streamers to show, which would damage the distribution side of the business,” he said.California Governor Gavin Newsom called on Monday for a partnership with the Trump administration to “Make America Film Again”.”We’ve proven what strong state incentives can do. Now it’s time for a real federal partnership to Make America Film Again,” he wrote on social media platform X.- ‘Confusion’ -Unions for actors and other media and entertainment workers said they awaited more details of Trump’s plan but supported the goal of increasing production of movies, TV and streaming in the United States. “We will continue to advocate for policies that strengthen our competitive position, accelerate economic growth and create good middle-class jobs for American workers,” said one such guild, SAG-AFTRA.Many movie studios and other industry organizations had yet to officially react by Monday but Trump’s announcement triggered crisis meetings, Hollywood news outlets reported, publishing skeptical comments from insiders speaking on condition of anonymity.”I can’t see his target here other than confusion and distraction,” the showbiz news outlet Deadline quoted a top distribution executive as saying.”Let’s hope this only encourages desperately needed increases in US state tax incentives being implemented ASAP,” the person said.Such incentives offered by other countries — such as Britain, Canada and Ireland, among others — are a lure for US movie studios to film outside the country.Australia, which for years used generous tax breaks and other cash incentives to lure foreign filmmakers, said it still wants to make “great films” with the United States.With Trump’s tariffs threatening the home of Hollywood hits including “The Matrix”, “Elvis” and “Crocodile Dundee”, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday that “collaboration is a good thing.”While Trump’s idea is divisive, there is widespread agreement that the US movie industry is in dire straits.Hollywood has struggled to get back on its feet since the historic strikes by actors and writers that shut it down in 2023.The number of filming days in Los Angeles hit a record low in 2024, excluding the total shutdown in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.This is in part because many movies are now filmed in a growing number of countries that offer incentives such as tax rebates.Deadline quoted a Hollywood movie financier as saying he agreed with Trump’s goal of having more movies filmed in the United States.”But obviously the need is for rebates, not tariffs. Tariffs will just choke the remaining life out of the business,” they were quoted as saying.As Hollywood fretted over Trump’s announcement, the White House said no decision on foreign film tariffs has been made. “The Administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again,” the White House said in a statement.Trump told reporters Monday: “I’m not looking to hurt the industry. I want to help the industry. But they’re given financing by other countries.”That seemingly conciliatory remark stopped short of walking back the film tariff announcement, as Trump criticized Newsom, who is pushing for his state to double the tax credits it grants to the movie industry.”Our film industry has been decimated by other countries taking them out, and also by incompetence,” Trump said of Newsom.”He’s just allowed it to be taken away from, you know, Hollywood.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meets Donald Trump on Tuesday for the first time since he won reelection on a pledge to stand up to the US president’s tariffs and threats to annex the United States’ northern neighbor.The 60-year-old Liberal Party leader has said that things cannot be the same with the United States under Trump, and warned not to expect any immediate agreements from the meeting at the White House.Trump has sparked a major trade war with Canada, which counts the United States as its main ally and trading partner, while repeatedly making extraordinary calls for Canada to become the 51st US state.Republican Trump called Carney a “very nice gentleman” after they spoke last week but said on Monday that he was “not sure” what Carney wanted to talk about.”He’s coming to see me. I’m not sure what he wants to see me about, but I guess he wants to make a deal. Everybody does,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.Trump is set to welcome Carney at 11:30 am (1530 GMT), followed by lunch and then a meeting in the Oval Office.Trump slapped general tariffs of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico and sector-specific levies on autos, some of which have been suspended pending negotiations. He has also imposed similar duties on steel and aluminum.Carney has vowed to remake Canada’s ties with the United States in perhaps its biggest political and economic shift since World War II.”Our old relationship based on steadily increasing integration is over. The questions now are how our nations will cooperate in the future,” Carney said on Friday.The Canadian leader said he would also “fight to get the best deal” on the tariffs.But Trump’s ultra-loyal Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said it would be “really complex” to reach a deal.”They have their socialist regime and it’s basically feeding off of America,” he told Fox Business on Monday. “I just don’t see how it works out perfectly.”- ‘Important moment’ -The US president inserted himself into Canada’s election early on with a social media post saying Canada would face “ZERO TARIFFS” if it “becomes the cherished 51st state.”Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote but Trump’s attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular former premier Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister in March, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.The political newcomer previously served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and in the latter post he played a key role reassuring markets after the 2016 Brexit vote.Carney is known for weighing his words carefully but he will face a challenge dealing with the confrontational Trump on the US president’s home turf.”This is a very important moment for him, since he insisted during the campaign that he could take on Mr Trump,” Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, told AFP.The Canadian premier would also have to avoid the fate of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who walked into a brutal tongue-lashing from Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February.”Everyone obviously remembers the altercation with Zelensky,” said Tellier.One point in Carney’s favor is that he is not Trudeau, the slick former prime minister whom Trump famously loathed and belittled as “governor” of Canada, she added.The world will also be watching, with Carney’s victory one of two by left-leaning leaders in the past week in elections that Trump’s stance may have swayed.Carney’s victory came just days before Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also won reelection in a vote that was overshadowed by Trump’s tariff threats.On arrival in the US capital, the Canadian PM struck a confident tone.”Canada and the United States are strongest when we work together — and that work starts now,” he said on social media.

Renee Guette, 98, laughed as she looked at her computer screen in Texas. On the other end of the video call was 97-year-old Andree Dupont, living in France.The women, who supported the French resistance against Nazi occupation, had a moving reunion in April — it was the first time they had seen each other since being freed from a German concentration camp 80 years ago.”Dedee, it’s funny to see you after all these years. We’ve become old girls!” Guette said, using Dupont’s nickname.”Seeing you again fills me with emotion,” said Dupont, her voice trembling. “I give you a big kiss, my darling,” she added, blowing a kiss to the screen during the call, which was witnessed by AFP.”Are the memories coming back for you too?” Dupont asked. “Oh yes!” Guette said. “But they are not coming out of my head. There are too many things we can’t explain.”As the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, marking the end of World War II on the continent, approaches, the women shared their emotional story of wartime sacrifice and suffering.Dupont and Guette were both born in 1927 and grew up in French villages around 350 kilometers (220 miles) apart.After World War II broke out and Nazi Germany invaded France, both women — aged just 16 — joined the resistance networks in their villages in 1943.Dupont became a “liaison officer” transmitting messages — and sometimes weapons — across the western Sarthe region using only her bicycle. One day, she recalled, “I had a towel with a dismantled revolved inside, and I smiled as I passed the Germans.”Guette was a postal worker who smuggled ration coupons and messages to resistance fighters. – Deported -In April 1944, disaster struck as Dupont was arrested along with other members of her village’s resistance network — 16 people in all, including her father and aunt. “I was folding the laundry at around 10 at night. I heard knocking on the doors and knew what was happening right away,” she said.Guette was caught four days later by a French agent of the Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany.  “He told me, ‘So, a young girl from a good family who took a turn for the worst,'” Guette remembered. “And I told him that he hadn’t turned out any better. And he slapped me!”The two teenagers met at a prison in Romainville close to Paris. They learned about D-Day — the Allied invasion of France in June 1944 — but the glimmer of hope the news offered was soon crushed. “We thought we were saved! But the Germans needed us to work in the war factories,” explained Guette.On June 25, 1944, Guette — prisoner 43,133 — was transferred to the HASAG Leipzig sub-camp linked to Buchenwald. It held 5,000 women forced to manufacture weapons. Dupont was prisoner 41,129. The pair recalled working at night with newspaper shoved under their clothes to protect against the cold, their hair being infested with lice, and beatings from German guards.They also described the naked bodies of those who did not survive, piled up and waiting to be moved to the crematorium. “They did a lot of nasty things to us,” said Guette.- Freedom -By mid-April 1945, weeks before the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender, the Nazis evacuated the Leipzig camp, and inmates began the so-called “death marches,” designed to keep large number of concentration camp prisoners out of Allied hands.Guette told of walking all day and night with bloody feet, surviving only off rapeseed and potatoes.She recalled washing for the first time in months in the Elbe, one of central Europe’s largest rivers, and also a bullet whizzing past her left ear during fighting between the “Boche” — a derogatory term for Germans — and American soldiers.Victory in Europe was formally declared on May 8, 1945, and the pair found themselves back in France. In Paris, Dupont found her mother, and her father did return from the camps. But her aunt was killed in the gas chambers. Guette headed home on the train. “You know what, Dedee. When I got there, I was not even sure I was home. Did that happen to you?” Guette asked.Dupont replied: “I knew I was home when I saw the village clock tower.”Guette, who has lived in the United States since the 1970s, no longer travels to her home country but said she would like to see Dupont again, even if it means getting there “on all fours.””Lots of love, Dedee, perhaps we’ll find each other again up there,” Guette said before the women ended their call.

Ford reported a 65 percent drop in first-quarter profits Monday, citing a near-term drag on auto sales from new vehicle launches, as it withdrew its forecast amid tariff uncertainty.The carmaker estimated a full-year net hit of about $1.5 billion in adjusted operating earnings following President Donald Trump’s myriad tariff actions since returning to the White House in January.The company has implemented some supply chain changes to mitigate any blowback from Trump’s tariffs, shaving $1 billion from the overall tariff drag, which Ford estimated at $2.5 billion after levies on imported finished vehicles, steel and aluminum and imported parts.”Our teams have done a lot to minimize the impact of tariffs on our business,” Chief Financial Officer Sherry House said on a conference call with reporters.Profits came in at $471 million, beating analyst expectations but just over a third of the level in the 2024 period, with revenues falling five percent to $40.7 billion.In the first quarter, Ford wholesale units fell seven percent from the year-ago level, a drop the automaker had previously telegraphed due to slowed output at plants in Kentucky and Michigan where new vehicles are being launched.In March, Ford began shipping the new Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator to customers.Profits fell in Ford’s “Pro” division, which is geared toward fleet and sales to businesses, and in its “Blue” division, which consists of conventional internal combustion engine cars. But losses declined in Ford’s electric vehicle division.Ford described its underlying business as “strong,” saying it had been on track with the prior projection of between $7 and $8.5 billion in adjusted operating earnings, excluding tariff-related impacts.Ford’s measures to limit tariffs thus far include adjusting vehicle shipments from Mexico to Canada to avoid triggering US tariffs, said House. The company was also avoiding levies on parts that “merely pass through the US.”Last week, Trump announced steps to mitigate tariffs on auto parts, permitting companies to offset a fraction of imported part costs for two years to allow automakers time to relocate supply chains.While the White House has not done anything to lessen the drag of 25 percent tariffs on finished autos, House said Ford expects an offset from US-made parts assembled in foreign plants.- Supply chain uncertainty -Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said Ford intended to stay “very aggressive” in chasing customers. The company last week announced it was extending a promotion that offers employee pricing on many retail models, lifting car sales significantly in April.But Ford executives expect pricing to rise later in 2025 as the tariffs reverberate through, likely denting sales in the second half of the year.House expects “some potential compression” in sales in the second half of 2025 when prices could tick higher amid tariffs, resulting in a net for all of 2025 of flat or up about one percent.Ford is “suspending” its guidance due to myriad uncertainties. Besides tariffs and potential retaliatory tariffs, Ford cited other “material near-term” risks as including potential supply chain disruption and uncertainty over emissions policy changes in Washington.The company is monitoring the impact of China’s restrictions on rare earth elements, which play an important part in manufacturing and could potentially cause disruptions in auto supply chain, said Ford Chief Operating Officer Kumar Galhotra.That could result in lower production of vehicles at Ford or at a competitor, further altering the competitive pricing dynamics, Galhotra said.Ford fell 2.3 percent in after-hours trading.