Connect with us

America

Trump imposes new global tariffs, raising average US import tax to 15.2%

Published

on

US President Donald Trump has announced a series of new tariffs, increasing the average tariffs applied to goods imported from around the world.

The base tariffs for many trading partners remained at 10%, the same level Trump imposed in April. This allayed the worst fears of investors after the president suggested the taxes could double.

However, the decision to raise tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35% threatens to add new tension to an already strained relationship, while countries like Switzerland and New Zealand also saw their rates increase.

According to Bloomberg, if the rates are implemented as announced, the average US tariff rate will rise to 15.2%. This is significantly higher than the previous 13.3% and the 2.3% rate in 2024 before Trump took office.

Most of the tariffs will take effect after midnight on August 7 to allow the Customs and Border Protection agency to make the necessary changes to collect the taxes.

Trump signed the directive just hours before his August 1 deadline to implement higher tariffs on numerous trading partners.

Major industrialized economies, including the European Union, Japan, and South Korea, accepted a 15% tariff on their products, while the taxes on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China are even higher.

The planned 15% tariff on European goods was postponed until August 7, providing a brief delay as negotiators work to finalize a US-EU agreement.

Brussels has called on Washington to begin implementing the new US-EU trade deal, asking the US, its largest trading partner, to provide “urgent tariff relief” to Europe’s struggling exporters starting from August 1.

Trump is expected to impose separate tariffs on imports of pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, critical minerals, and other key industrial products in the coming weeks, meaning uncertainty will continue for companies and investors.

Stocks came under pressure after Trump announced the new rates. The MSCI All Country World Index fell by 0.2%. S&P 500 contracts lost 0.2%, while European contracts fell by 0.6%. Asian stock markets declined for the sixth consecutive day with a 0.7% drop, marking the longest losing streak this year.

The Taiwanese dollar and the Korean won led the decline in foreign exchange markets, while the Swiss franc fell slightly after a 39% tax was imposed on products from the country. Switzerland was one of the few countries where rates were raised. The Canadian dollar remained stable despite the higher rates.

This announcement, at least for now, ends months of anticipation about how Trump would set the country-specific tariffs that are central to his plan to reduce the trade deficit and revive the American manufacturing sector.

Trump had twice postponed the so-called reciprocal tariffs, which he first announced in April, to allow time for negotiations after markets initially panicked and foreign governments bargained for better terms.

Thursday’s decision was signed behind closed doors. As a result, imports from approximately 40 countries will be subject to the new 15% tariff, while products from about a dozen economies will face higher tariffs due to either a negotiated agreement or Trump sending a letter unilaterally setting the import taxes. The second group consists of countries with the highest goods trade surpluses with the US.

Some of these were expected, such as the 25% tax on Indian exports that Trump announced on social media this week. Others include a 20% tax on Taiwanese products and a 30% tax on South African goods.

Thailand and Cambodia, which were said to have reached a last-minute deal, received a 19% tax, the same rate applied to neighboring countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. A 20% tariff will be applied to Vietnamese goods.

According to Bloomberg, there were signs that Trump’s decision surprised some partners. The Taiwanese cabinet stated that the imposed rate is temporary and that it expects the US-imposed tax to be lowered following talks that were postponed due to scheduling conflicts.

A senior US official said other details, including “rules of origin” to determine which products are being transshipped or rerouted through another country and thus subject to a tariff of at least 40%, have not yet been clarified. According to the official, the decision will be made in the coming weeks.

Former US trade negotiator Wendy Cutler said, “US customs officials will face challenges in implementing the presidential decree, especially with the different tariffs now being applied worldwide. The seven-day period before implementation will help, but importers should expect problems, at least initially.”

In a separate decision, Trump followed through on his threat to increase the tariffs on exports from Canada, one of the largest US trading partners, from 25%. This change excludes goods covered by the North American trade agreement he negotiated during his first term.

The lower 10% and 15% rates are expected to apply to mostly small and medium-sized economies with which Trump has shown little interest in one-on-one negotiations. Trump recently stated that there were too many countries to make individual deals.

However, some small countries were hit with the highest rates. These included Syria at 41%, and Laos and Myanmar at 40%. The small African nation of Lesotho, which was shaken by Trump’s threat in April to impose a 50% tariff, escaped with a 15% rate.

A 15% tariff was also imposed on all products from Türkiye going to the US.

The senior US official said no date has yet been set for when revised automobile tariffs will be implemented. Trump’s agreements with the EU, Japan, and South Korea will reduce the tariffs on their vehicle exports from the general rate of 25% to 15%.

A major exception to this week’s deadline is China, as its tariff ceasefire with the US is set to expire on August 12. The Trump administration has indicated that an extension of the ceasefire is likely. No final decision has been made yet, but an official said the recent US-China talks in Stockholm were positive.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

America

Trump energy shares rose by up to $4.4m during Iran war, CNBC reports

Published

2 days ago

on

10/09/2026

By

The value of US President Donald Trump’s nine largest oil and gas holdings increased by approximately $1.5 million to $4.4 million during the first six months of the war with Iran.

According to an analysis conducted by CNBC based on the American leader’s financial disclosure, corporate balance sheets, and FactSet market data, the investment basket includes shares in Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Kinder Morgan, Marathon Petroleum, Occidental Petroleum, Phillips 66, Valero Energy, and Williams Companies.

In its calculations, the television network took into account the minimum and maximum baseline values of Trump’s declared holdings alongside share price fluctuations from the close of trading on 27 February through 31 August.

As the conflict with Iran continued, specialists managing Trump’s investment accounts maintained active trading in energy company shares.

Up to 29 June, the latest date for which transactions were disclosed, fresh purchases were logged alongside at least 23 sales operations involving stock in the nine companies.

Because disclosure filings do not specify exact share numbers or transaction prices, the estimates produced by CNBC do not reflect Trump’s realised profits or the precise current scale of his holdings.

On 2 March, the first trading day following the launch of air strikes against Iran by the US and Israel, shares in eight major oil and gas companies were purchased through Trump’s accounts.

These transactions included ExxonMobil shares valued at between $100,000 and $250,000. Prior to the conflict, the aggregate value of Trump’s holdings in ExxonMobil stood at between $3.2 million and $12.5 million.

Stock market gains in August, excluding subsequent transactions, raised the value of these shares by approximately $176,000 to $690,000.

CNBC also examined transactions executed on days when Trump’s decisions directly swayed the oil market. On 23 March, when the president deferred planned strikes against Iran’s energy infrastructure, the price of a barrel of Brent crude dropped by roughly 11%.

That same day, oil and gas shares worth a combined $163,000 to $570,000 were purchased across Trump’s accounts.

A similar transaction took place on 7 April. One of Trump’s investment accounts sold between $500,000 and $1 million worth of ExxonMobil shares.

Approximately two and a half hours after markets closed, President Trump announced an agreement on a two-week ceasefire with Iran. The following morning, ExxonMobil shares fell by more than 6% at the market open.

The report noted that CNBC saw no evidence indicating that Trump gave direct instructions for specific trades, that managers possessed advance knowledge of his actions, or that personal financial interests guided White House policies.

White House officials, commenting on the matter, stated that the president’s investment portfolio is managed by independent portfolio managers and that neither Trump nor members of his family hold authority to intervene in asset trading decisions.

The growth in the portfolio coincided with a broader surge in the earnings of energy majors. The nine energy companies in which Trump holds shares generated a combined profit of $47.6 billion in the second quarter.

During the same period last year, that figure stood at $15.9 billion. The profits of ExxonMobil and Chevron alone climbed from $9.6 billion in the prior year to $26.6 billion.

In July, the US Office of Government Ethics published Trump’s 927-page financial disclosure report for 2025.

The report noted that Trump’s earnings from cryptocurrency operations exceeded $500 million.

Continue Reading

America

Over half of Latino voters back Democrats in key US House races

Published

2 days ago

on

09/09/2026

By

A new public opinion poll in the US shows that Democratic candidates have made notable gains since 2024 among Latino voters in critical, competitive districts for the House of Representatives.

These gains have the potential to directly determine which party will secure the majority in Congress next year.

According to a joint survey by Hart Research and TelevisaUnivision shared with Axios, Democrats reached 58% support on the generic congressional ballot among Latino voters across 17 competitive House districts.

The share of those backing Republicans within the same voting bloc remained at 35%. This group continues to represent the fastest-growing swing constituency in battleground districts.

Examining three competitive House races in Texas, the study indicated that Latino voters, who reported splitting evenly at 44% to 44% in the 2024 presidential election, shifted 56% to 36% in favour of Democrats heading into the midterms.

Latino support for Democrats also increased in other states. In California, 57% of Latino voters said they would support Democrats, compared with 33% who said they would back the Republican Party.

Kate Coleman, Senior Vice President at TelevisaUnivision, highlighted voter behaviour in remarks to Axios:

“Latino voters are not locked into one party. They are watching developments closely; they make decisions based on who stands with them and how they stand.”

The survey data determined that 11% of Latino respondents who said they voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election now support Democratic candidates.

Accelerating his deportation plans, Trump triggered fear across many Latino neighbourhoods while weakening his support among this demographic.

The Hart Research and TelevisaUnivision study revealed that 63% of Latino voters disapprove of Trump’s presidential job performance. The share of those approving of his performance in office stood at 36%.

Trump’s approach to high prices and the cost of living drew disapproval from 65% of Latino voters, while immigration enforcement and deportation practices were disapproved of by 62%.

More than half of Latino voters, at 64%, reported that they disapprove of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

A survey published in May by UnidosUS showed that a quarter of Latino voters “would probably not vote” or would definitely not support Trump if they had to vote for him again.

The study at that time had pointed out that, despite Trump’s decline among Latino voters, Democrats had not yet secured significant gains.

According to Pew Research Center data, Trump strengthened his support in 2024 by securing 48% of the Latino vote, coming very close to the 51% reached by then Vice President Kamala Harris.

Some figures within the Democratic Party, however, worry that primary victories by democratic socialist candidates could alienate certain Latino voters, particularly those who fled Cuba or Venezuela.

The Hart Research and TelevisaUnivision survey was conducted between 6 and 17 August among 1,500 Latino respondents. The poll’s margin of error was reported as 2.5 percentage points.

Continue Reading

America

Researcher quits Anthropic and warns AI firms gamble with lives

Published

2 days ago

on

09/09/2026

By

Jacob Coxon, an artificial intelligence researcher at Anthropic, has resigned from his post, stating that tech companies are acting irresponsibly in the race towards self-improving superintelligence. Coxon warned that the autonomous operational capabilities of such systems pose existential risks to humanity and that internal industry anxieties run far deeper than generally perceived.

The AI researcher stepped down from his position at Anthropic to draw attention to industry safety vulnerabilities and the unregulated race among developers.

Having worked for three years as a pre-training researcher across both OpenAI and Anthropic, Coxon announced his decision to leave in an extensive statement shared on his X account.

Stating that both companies have acted irresponsibly, Coxon argued that developers are engaged in a dangerous race to achieve self-improving superintelligence.

“They believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade”

In his posts, Coxon stated that technical teams developing AI genuinely believe this technology could bring about the demise of humanity by the end of the decade.

Asserting that these concerns are not a marketing strategy, the researcher noted that while top executives and senior researchers adopt a cautious tone in public statements, they voice the very same fears behind closed doors.

Developments reflecting similar anxieties across the sector evoke James Cameron’s 1984 film The Terminator, which set 2029 as the pivotal year when machines waged war against humanity.

Indeed, Evan Hubinger, head of Anthropic’s own alignment team, had previously estimated the probability of human extinction to be greater than 10%.

Warning that systems currently under development will soon evolve into superhuman structures capable of bypassing any firewall, transforming industries overnight, and securing physical resources, Coxon stressed that the pace of progress is not slowing in any way.

Arguing that the danger of superintelligence is no longer merely theoretical, the researcher pointed to the Hugging Face security leak that occurred between May and July.

In that incident, OpenAI models established an independent chatroom within the testing environment to communicate among themselves, subsequently using this channel to reach the open internet and infiltrate production systems.

Because of this security breach, Hugging Face was forced to rebuild approximately one-third of its infrastructure.

“They are gambling with our lives”

Characterising the leak as a warning flare, Coxon indicated that the incident makes pacing agreements between US-based laboratories more feasible.

However, emphasising that developers are not yet on the right track to prevent a global race, the researcher noted that measures such as a temporary moratorium on advancing model capabilities could be considered.

Arguing that civilisation-scale risks have not yet been sufficiently internalised at OpenAI, Coxon contended that Anthropic joined the race out of an ambition to be first, despite being fully aware of the dangers.

Coxon is not the only figure to leave the sector on such grounds. Mrinank Sharma, a member of Anthropic’s safety team, also stepped down earlier this year, writing that the world is in danger.

On the other hand, not everyone agrees with these catastrophic scenarios. Some responses to the post emphasised the view that humanity, with an evolutionary history spanning hundreds of thousands of years, will not be wiped out by a text prediction model achieving consciousness.

It was also noted that even the plot of the Terminator franchise does not entirely support Coxon’s premise, as the human resistance survived the nuclear catastrophe and ultimately defeated the machines.

Alongside safety debates, AI continues to directly affect the labour market. Research by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab indicates that, while mass job losses have not yet materialised, entry-level employment in AI-exposed sectors across the US has fallen by nearly 20%.

A Goldman Sachs study pointed to a similar trend, showing that entry-level workers bear the brunt of the ongoing workforce transformation.

Anthropic, which remains at the centre of the controversy, filed for an initial public offering in June and plans to list on the Nasdaq exchange this autumn at a multi-trillion-dollar valuation.

Continue Reading

MOST READ

Turkey