AFP USA

Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer landed in Miami on Monday to start his exile in the United States as Washington demanded that Cuba release more than 700 other “political prisoners.”Ferrer, 55, arrived in Florida after being freed from a Cuban prison earlier in the day.Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the top Cuban dissident’s arrival in the US and demanded that Havana free hundreds of other imprisoned dissidents. “Ferrer’s leadership and tireless advocacy for the Cuban people was a threat to the regime, which repeatedly imprisoned and tortured him. We are glad that Ferrer is now free from the regime’s oppression,” Rubio said in a statement.”We call for the immediate release of the more than 700 unjustly detained political prisoners and urge the international community to join us in holding the Cuban regime accountable,” added America’s top diplomat, a Miami native and son of Cuban exiles.Ferrer, who has been imprisoned multiple times as the long-term leader of the island’s pro-democracy movement, announced this month he had opted for exile after enduring “torture” and “humiliation” behind bars.In a letter from prison, the 55-year-old said that since he was reimprisoned in April after being briefly freed under a deal negotiated with former US president Joe Biden, “the cruelty of the dictatorship towards me has known no bounds.”He cited “blows, torture, humiliation, threats and extreme conditions” in prison, including “the theft of food and hygiene products.”Ferrer said he took the difficult decision to leave given threats that his wife would also be imprisoned and his young son sent to an institution for juvenile offenders.  The foreign ministry in Havana said in a statement that Ferrer and members of his family had left the country for the United States following “a formal request from that country’s government and the express acceptance” of the dissident.His sister Ana Belkis Ferrer told AFP by telephone the opposition leader had “finally been exiled, thank God,” adding his family was “very happy despite the tension of the last days.”- ‘Dignity and honor’ -Ferrer said in his letter he would leave Cuba “with my dignity and honor intact, and not for long.”His departure deals a blow to the opposition movement in Cuba. The country faces its worst economic crisis in decades and an exodus of young people, mainly to the United States.Ferrer, founder of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) — one of the most active opposition organizations in the one-party state — had for years resisted pressure to go into exile to avoid prison.He was the most high-profile of a group of prisoners released in January under a landmark deal struck with Biden in exchange for Washington removing Cuba from a list of terrorism sponsors.But he was sent back to prison in April after Biden’s successor, Donald Trump, slapped Cuba back on the list.Ferrer has been in and out of prison since March 2003, when he and 74 other opposition members were arrested in a three-day period of repression known as Cuba’s “Black Spring.”He was released in 2011 but sent back to prison in 2021 following a crackdown on rare anti-government street protests that rattled the communist authorities.In his letter, he said “only the United States… truly stands in solidarity with the peaceful opposition and the Cuban people” — an implicit rebuke of the EU, which has angered dissidents by maintaining a political and cooperation agreement with Cuba.burs-iv/sms

Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer was freed from prison Monday and put on a plane to the United States where he will live in exile with his family, officials and relatives said.  Ferrer, who has been imprisoned multiple times as the long-term leader of the island’s pro-democracy movement, announced this month he had opted for exile after enduring “torture” and “humiliation” behind bars.In a letter from prison, the 55-year-old said that since he was reimprisoned in April after being briefly freed under a deal with former US president Joe Biden, “the cruelty of the dictatorship towards me has known no bounds.”He cited “blows, torture, humiliation, threats and extreme conditions” in prison, including “the theft of food and hygiene products.”Ferrer said he took the difficult decision to leave given threats that his wife would also be imprisoned and his young son sent to an institution for juvenile offenders.  The foreign ministry in Havana said in a statement Ferrer and members of his family left the country for the United States Monday following “a formal request from that country’s government and the express acceptance” of the dissident.His sister Ana Belkis Ferrer told AFP by telephone the opposition leader had “finally been exiled, thank God,” adding his family was “very happy despite the tension of the last days.”- ‘Dignity and honor’ -Ferrer said in his letter he would leave Cuba “with my dignity and honor intact, and not for long.”His departure deals a blow to the opposition movement in Cuba, in the throes of its worst economic crisis in decades and a mass exodus of young people, mainly to the United States.Ferrer, founder of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) — one of the most active opposition organizations in the one-party state — had for years resisted pressure to go into exile to avoid prison.He was the most high-profile of a group of prisoners released in January under a landmark deal struck with Biden in exchange for Washington removing Cuba from a list of terrorism sponsors.But he was sent back to prison in April after Biden’s successor, Donald Trump, slapped Cuba back on the list.Ferrer has been in and out of prison since March 2003, when he and 74 other opposition members were arrested in a three-day period of repression known as Cuba’s “Black Spring.”He was released in 2011 but sent back to prison in 2021 following a crackdown on rare anti-government street protests that rattled the communist authorities.The repression that followed silenced many critical voices and left the opposition in disarray.During his brief spell of freedom this year, Ferrer had defied the authorities by criticizing Cuba’s leadership on social media.He also met the head of the US diplomatic mission in Cuba, Mike Hammer, at his home in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.In his letter, he said “only the United States… truly stands in solidarity with the peaceful opposition and the Cuban people” — an implicit rebuke of the EU, which has angered dissidents by maintaining a political and cooperation agreement with Cuba.Ferrer was transferred directly from the prison of Mar Verde in Cuba’s south to the international airport of Santiago de Cuba, where he was met by his wife Nelva Ortega and their son Daniel Jose, two daughters and his ex-wife — all of whom will travel with him to Miami.

Woody Allen fell in love with Diane Keaton as soon as he set eyes on her, but took a week to pluck up the courage to speak to the woman whose stellar career he would help to turbo charge. He has now paid a heartfelt tribute to his favorite actress and former partner, whose death was announced at the weekend.”I first laid eyes on her lanky beauty at an audition and thought, If Huckleberry Finn was a gorgeous young woman, he’d be Keaton,” 89-year-old Allen wrote in a long tribute in The Free Press to Keaton, whose death was announced Saturday. She was 79.”For the first week of rehearsal we never spoke a word to one another,” he said of his time acting alongside her in the 1972 film “Play It Again, Sam.” “She was shy, I was shy, and with two shy people things can get pretty dull. Finally, by chance we took a break at the same moment and wound up sharing a fast bite… The upshot is that she was so charming, so beautiful, so magical, that I questioned my sanity. I thought: Could I be in love so quickly?”Allen, the acclaimed director-screenwriter-actor who never shook allegations that he molested his adopted daughter in 1992, described later moving in with Keaton and forming a creative bond with the beloved actress.”She sat through ‘Take the Money and Run’ and said the movie was very funny and very original. Her words. Its success proved her correct and I never doubted her judgment again,” she said.”I never read a single review of my work and cared only what Keaton had to say about it. If she liked it, I counted the film as an artistic success,” said Allen, who worked alongside Keaton in several films, including “Annie Hall,” “Manhattan,” and “Manhattan Murder Mystery.”Keaton stood by Allen when much of Hollywood shunned the neurotic funnyman at the height of the MeToo reckoning in January 2018, tweeting “Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him.”At that time, the director was again facing accusations of sexual assault, made in 1992 by his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow. Charges against him were dropped after two separate investigations.- Troubled relationship with food -In his tribute, Allen describes Keaton’s difficult relationship with food.”She’d put away a sirloin, hash browns, marble cheesecake, and coffee. Then we’d get home, and moments later she’d be toasting waffles or packing a huge taco with pork,” he wrote.”This slim actress ate like Paul Bunyan. Only years later when she wrote a memoir did she describe her eating disorder.”    Allen concluded his tribute by saying that “a few days ago the world was a place that included Diane Keaton.” “Now it’s a world that does not. Hence, it’s a drearier world.”

The US government shutdown dragged into a third week on Monday, with Congress gridlocked in a clash over spending and no resolution in sight to a crisis that has already cost thousands of jobs.With hundreds of thousands of federal employees already on enforced leave, President Donald Trump is following through on threats to take a hatchet to the workforce to pressure Democrats to agree to Republican funding demands.Trump has vowed to find a way to pay troops due to go without their paychecks for the first time, although the uncertainty is already leading to long lines of men and women in uniform at food banks.And Trump has warned that continued refusal by Democrats to support a House-passed resolution to fund the government through late November would result in mass layoffs targeting workers deemed aligned with the opposition party. “We’re ending some programs that we don’t want — they happen to be Democrat-sponsored programs,” Trump told reporters.”But we’re ending some programs that we never wanted and we’re probably not going to allow them to come back.”Vice President JD Vance told Fox News at the weekend that Democrats could expect more pain ahead if they did not cave. Court documents filed by the Department of Justice show more than 4,000 employees were fired on Friday, with the US Treasury and health, education and housing departments hardest hit.The reductions in the workforce are part of a campaign of threats on multiple fronts to amp up pressure on Democrats to back Republican moves to reopen the government. But Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leaders in the Senate and House respectively, have dismissed the threat, predicting that layoffs will be reversed in court.- Sticking point -About 1.3 million active-duty military personnel are set to miss their first paycheck on Wednesday.The Stronghold Food Pantry, a charity supporting military families, told Time magazine it had seen an “unprecedented increase in need since the shutdown began.”Trump announced on Saturday that he would direct Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds to get our Troops PAID” by Wednesday.Pentagon officials are reportedly diverting $8 billion in research and development funding, and while it is not clear that the move would be lawful, it has received little pushback from either party.Republican Speaker Mike Johnson — who has kept the House on recess since September 19 — is resisting pressure to bring back members to vote on a standalone bill to release military salaries for the duration of the shutdown.”We have voted so many times to pay the troops. We have already done it. We did it in the House three weeks ago,” Johnson told reporters Friday. “The ball is in the court of Senate Democrats right now. That’s it.”The key sticking point is a Republican refusal to agree to Democratic demands for language in its government funding resolution to extend expiring health insurance subsidies for 24 million Americans.Congress was out Monday for a federal holiday — guaranteeing that the shutdown would enter a 14th day — and while Trump’s vow to ensure military pay was welcomed, it also eased pressure for either side to end the stalemate.The Senate was set to return on Tuesday to take an eighth swing at reopening the government — with little hope of a different outcome from previous votes.  Airports are seeing increasing delays as the shutdown drags on, with Transportation Security Administration workers calling in sick rather than working without pay.The Smithsonian Institution has also closed its National Zoo and museums as of Sunday.

The IMF and World Bank’s semi-annual gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors got underway in Washington on Monday, against the backdrop of new trade threats between the world’s two largest economies.Last week, China unveiled new export restrictions on critical minerals, prompting a fierce response from US President Donald Trump, who said he would impose new 100 percent tariffs on Beijing in response.The news, delivered just after US stock markets closed on Friday, sent shares plunging after hours, as investors digested the prospect of a reinvigorated trade war. But Trump dialed back his rhetoric over the weekend, and by Monday morning traders appeared to have settled somewhat, with all three major Wall Street indices opening higher on the news. Both IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President Ajay Banga are due to speak in Washington on Monday, with more substantial events scheduled for later in the week. – Economy, jobs in spotlight -Ahead of the meetings, Georgieva told an event in Washington that the world economy was doing “better than feared, but worse than we need.”She added that the Fund now expects global growth to slow “only slightly this year and next,” propped up by better-than-expected conditions in the United States, and among some other advanced economies, emerging markets and developing countries. The annual meetings will take place at the IMF and World Bank’s headquarters, a short distance from the White House. For the World Bank, the focus is likely to remain on job creation, with Banga set to take part in several events aimed at boosting labor market participation in countries facing a surge in population growth. The IMF will hold press conferences to discuss its regular trio of reports focused on the health of the global economy, fiscal policy, and global financial stability.There will be another roundtable on Ukraine this week, a country still facing near-daily drone and missile attacks more than three years after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.The event will be an opportunity to discuss “the needs for ongoing support to Ukraine and efforts needed for its reconstruction,” according to the IMF. There will also be meetings of finance ministers from the G7 group of advanced economies, and a gathering of the G20 group of nations, a forum that includes both the United States and China. – Ongoing trade tensions -Even before the most recent trade spat broke out, Trump’s tariff plans had raised US import taxes on goods to the highest level in decades, cooling growth and pushing up prices. So far, however, “all signs point to a world economy that has generally withstood acute strains from multiple shocks,” Georgieva said in Washington last week.”The world has avoided a tit-for-tat slide into trade war — so far,” she added. The White House continues to insist that the long-term effect of tariffs will be positive for the United States, pointing to their relatively muted economic impact thus far.

The US government shutdown dragged into a third week on Monday, with Congress gridlocked in a clash over spending and no resolution in sight to a crisis that has already cost thousands of jobs.With hundreds of thousands of federal employees already on enforced leave, President Donald Trump is following through on threats to take a hatchet to the workforce to pressure Democrats to agree to Republican funding demands.Trump has vowed to find a way to pay troops due to go without their paychecks for the first time, although the uncertainty is already leading to long lines of men and women in uniform at food banks.And Trump has warned that continued refusal by Democrats to support a House-passed resolution to fund the government through late November would result in mass layoffs targeting workers deemed aligned with the opposition party. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News at the weekend that Democrats could expect more pain ahead if they did not cave. “The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be and… to be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful,” he said.Court documents filed by the Department of Justice show more than 4,000 employees were fired on Friday, with the US Treasury and health, education and housing departments hardest hit.The reductions in the workforce are part of a campaign of threats on multiple fronts to amp up pressure on Democrats to back Republican moves to reopen the government. But Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leaders in the Senate and House respectively, have dismissed the threat, predicting that layoffs will be reversed in court.- Sticking point -About 1.3 million active-duty military personnel are set to miss their first paycheck on Wednesday.The Stronghold Food Pantry, a charity supporting military families, told Time magazine it had seen an “unprecedented increase in need since the shutdown began.”Trump announced on Saturday that he would direct Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds to get our Troops PAID” by Wednesday.Pentagon officials are reportedly diverting $8 billion in research and development funding, and while it is not clear that the move would be lawful, it has received little pushback from either party.Republican Speaker Mike Johnson — who has kept the House on recess since September 19 — is resisting pressure to bring back members to vote on a standalone bill to release military salaries for the duration of the shutdown.”We have voted so many times to pay the troops. We have already done it. We did it in the House three weeks ago,” Johnson told reporters Friday. “The ball is in the court of Senate Democrats right now. That’s it.”The key sticking point is a Republican refusal to agree to Democratic demands for language in its government funding resolution to extend expiring health insurance subsidies for 24 million Americans.Congress was out Monday for a federal holiday — guaranteeing that the shutdown would enter a 14th day — and while Trump’s vow to ensure military pay was welcomed, it also eased pressure for either side to end the stalemate.The Senate was set to return on Tuesday to take an eighth swing at reopening the government — with little hope of a different outcome from previous votes.  Airports are seeing increasing delays as the shutdown drags on, with Transportation Security Administration workers calling in sick rather than working without pay.The Smithsonian Institution has also closed its National Zoo and museums as of Sunday.

The IMF and World Bank’s semi-annual gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors gets underway in Washington on Monday, against the backdrop of new trade threats from the world’s two largest economies.Last week, China unveiled new export restrictions on critical minerals, prompting a fierce response from US President Donald Trump, who said he would impose new 100 percent tariffs on Beijing in response.The news, delivered just after US stock markets closed on Friday, sent shares plunging after hours, as investors digested the prospect of a reinvigorated trade war. Trump dialed back his rhetoric over the weekend, and by Monday morning traders appeared to have settled somewhat, with futures for Wall Street’s three major indices trading higher before markets opened. – Economy, jobs in spotlight -International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva told an event in Washington last week that the world economy is doing “better than feared, but worse than we need.”She added that the Fund now expects global growth to slow “only slightly this year and next,” propped up by better-than-expected conditions in the United States, and among some other advanced economies, emerging markets and developing countries. The annual meetings in Washington will take place at the IMF and World Bank’s headquarters, a short distance from the White House. For the World Bank, the focus is likely to remain on job creation, with bank President Ajay Banga set to take part in several events aimed at boosting labor market participation in countries facing a surge in population growth. The IMF will hold press conferences to discuss its regular trio of reports focused on the health of the global economy, fiscal policy, and global financial stability.At the annual meetings there will be another roundtable on Ukraine, a country still facing near-daily drone and missile attacks more than three years after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.The event will be an opportunity to discuss “the needs for ongoing support to Ukraine and efforts needed for its reconstruction,” according to the IMF. There will also be meetings of finance ministers from the G7 group of advanced Western economies, and a gathering of the G20 group of nations, a forum that includes both the United States and China. – Ongoing trade tensions -Even before the most recent trade spat broke out, Trump’s tariff plans had raised US import taxes on goods to the highest level in decades, cooling growth and pushing up prices. So far, however, “all signs point to a world economy that has generally withstood acute strains from multiple shocks,” Georgieva said last week.”The world has avoided a tit-for-tat slide into trade war — so far,” she added. The White House continues to insist that the long-term effect of tariffs will be positive for the United States, pointing to their relatively muted economic impact thus far.

The Nobel prize in economics was awarded on Monday to American-Israeli Joel Mokyr, France’s Philippe Aghion and Canada’s Peter Howitt for work on technology’s impact on sustained economic growth.Mokyr, 79, won one half of the prize “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress”, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.Aghion, 69, and Howitt, 79, shared the other half “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction”, it added.John Hassler, chair of the prize committee, told reporters their work answered questions about how technological innovation drives growth and how sustained growth can be maintained.”During almost all of humankind’s history, living standards did not change noticeably from generation to generation. Economic growth was, on average, zero, and stagnation was the norm,” Hassler said.But over the last two centuries “things have been very different.”- ‘Creative destruction’ -“During the last 200 years, the world has seen more economic growth than ever before in human history,” Kerstin Enflo, a member of the economics prize committee, explained to reporters.However, she cautioned that “200 years is still just a short period compared to the long run history of stagnation that we saw before.””The laureates’ work reminds us that we should not take progress for granted. Instead, society must keep an eye on the factors that generate and sustain economic growth,” Enflo said. Mokyr, who is a professor at Northwestern University in the United States, “used historical sources as one means to uncover the causes of sustained growth becoming the new normal”, the jury said in a statement.Aghion and Howitt then created a mathematical model for “creative destruction”, which refers to the process “when a new and better product enters the market, the companies selling the older products lose out”.- ‘Openness’ -“I can’t find the words to express what I feel,” Aghion told reporters via telephone during the prize announcement.”I’m still speechless. It came really as a huge surprise,” he continued.Speaking about what could risk upsetting growth, he mentioned the threats of steep tariffs introduced since US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.”Openness is a driver of growth. Anything that gets in the way of openness is an obstacle to growth,” Aghion said.The economist also warned Europe not to let the United States and China dominate technological innovation. “I think European countries have to realise that we should no longer let (the) US and China become technological leaders and lose to them,” he said.The economics prize is the only Nobel not among the original five created in the will of Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896.It was instead created through a donation from the Swedish central bank in 1968, leading detractors to dub it “a false Nobel”.But like the Nobels in chemistry and physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences chooses the winner and follows the same selection process.The economics prize wraps up this year’s Nobel season which honoured research into the human immune system, practical applications of quantum mechanics and the development of new forms of molecular architecture.The literature prize went to Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy.Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was given the highly watched Nobel Peace Prize.In a surprise move, Machado dedicated the prize to Trump, who had made no secret that he thought he deserved it.The Nobel economics prize consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1.2 million cheque.The laureates will receive their prizes at formal ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10.That date is the anniversary of the death in 1896 of scientist Alfred Nobel, who created the prizes in his will.

The IMF and World Bank’s semi-annual gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors gets underway in Washington on Monday, against the backdrop of new trade threats from the world’s two largest economies.Last week, China unveiled new export restrictions on critical minerals, prompting a fierce response from US President Donald Trump, who said he would impose new 100 percent tariffs on Beijing in response.The news, delivered just after US stock markets closed on Friday, sent shares plunging after hours, as investors digested the prospect of a reinvigorated trade war. Last week, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva told an event in Washington that the world economy is doing “better than feared, but worse than we need.”She added that the Fund now expects global growth to slow “only slightly this year and next,” propped up by better-than-expected conditions in the United States, and among some other advanced economies, emerging markets and developing countries. The annual meetings in Washington will take place at the IMF and World Bank’s headquarters, situated just a stone’s throw from the White House. – Economy, jobs in spotlight -For the World Bank, the focus is likely to remain on job creation, with president Ajay Banga set to take part in several events aimed at boosting labor market participation in countries facing a surge in population growth. The IMF will hold press conferences to discuss its regular trio of reports focused on the health of the global economy, fiscal policy, and global financial stability.At the annual meetings there will be another roundtable on Ukraine, a country still facing near-daily drone and missile attacks more than three years after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.The event will be an opportunity to discuss “the needs for ongoing support to Ukraine and efforts needed for its reconstruction,” according to the IMF. There will also be meetings of finance ministers from the G7 group of advanced Western economies, and a gathering of the G20 group of nations, a forum that includes both the United States and China. – Ongoing trade tensions -Even before the most recent trade spat broke out, Trump’s tariff plans had raised US import taxes on goods to the highest level in decades, cooling growth and pushing up prices. So far, however, “all signs point to a world economy that has generally withstood acute strains from multiple shocks,” Georgieva said last week.”The world has avoided a tit-for-tat slide into trade war — so far,” she added. The White House continues to insist that the long-term effect of tariffs will be positive for the United States, pointing to their relatively muted economic impact thus far.

An escalating trade war between China and the United States faces another flashpoint Tuesday when Chinese ships will be required to start paying a special fee to dock at US ports.The move announced by the US Trade Representative (USTR) in April triggered reciprocal measures from Beijing, which will impose similar costs on US ships starting the same day.The tit-for-tat levies are just the latest in a series of disputes between the world’s two largest economic powers that have roiled financial markets and heightened fears of major disruption to the global economy.President Donald Trump massively upped the ante last week when he announced an additional 100 percent tariff on China and threatened to cancel a summit with Xi Jinping in retaliation for Chinese export curbs on rare earth minerals.The stated purpose of the US port fees is to address Chinese dominance of the global shipping sector and provide an incentive for building more ships in the United States.The non-partisan Alliance for American Manufacturing has called for the funds raised through the fees to be used in building up a new Maritime Security Fund.”The unfair economic practices of China present a sizeable obstacle to revitalizing shipbuilding in the United States,” the alliance said in a petition supporting proposed legislation aimed at developing the sector.  – A fading industry -According to the USTR, the port fee will be charged for each visit to the United States, a maximum of five times per ship per year.Chinese-made ships will pay $18 per net ton — or $120 per container — with an increase of $5 per year for the following three years.Vessels owned or operated by Chinese citizens, but not manufactured in China, will be charged $50 per net ton, with an annual increase of an additional $30 for the next three years.The United States is trying to boost a domestic industry that now represents only 0.1 percent of global shipbuilding.The Trump administration also sees US shipbuilding as tied to national security, given that China leads the world in ship manufacturing. In 2024, former president Joe Biden had tasked the USTR with an investigation to identify “China’s unfair practices in the shipbuilding, shipping, and logistics sectors.”His successor has kept up that focus. In March, Trump announced the creation of a White House Office of Shipbuilding with the aim of reviving that sector of US manufacturing. – Blow for blow -On Friday, Beijing fired back. As of Tuesday, the Chinese government announced, all ships manufactured in the United States or linked to an American company would have to pay “special” duties to dock at ports in China.They would be required to pay 400 yuan (56 dollars) per net ton, then 640 yuan (90 dollars) in April 2026, before further annual increases.”That’s a problem when you’re beholden to a global supply chain that you have no control over, that’s a national security risk,” Matt Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA), which represents more than 150 US shipbuilding companies, told AFP.”We don’t want to be wholly dependent on communist-controlled state enterprises,” Paxton said, alluding to China.Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has been working to recreate a thriving industrial base in the United States, notably by imposing sometimes prohibitive tariffs.As a result, many foreign and American companies have announced astronomical investments — worth trillions, according to the White House — in their factories and other sites on American soil.Paxton mentioned “a strong interest” in US-built ships, citing contacts from South Korea, China, Japan, Canada, and others.Many US shipyards are not operating at full capacity and have disabled dry docks, he said.In addition to increased foreign demand, the shipbuilding industry is also happy about the Trump administration’s goal of building 250 ships for the commercial fleet and the $50 billion budget for the Coast Guard and the Navy.”It’s very encouraging,” said Paxton. “It’s a historical moment.”