BENGALURU, India — Climate change is battering Asia’s water and power systems and putting millions in harm’s way, forcing countries to pour billions into shoring up basic services, according to two recent reports.

Water-related disasters are rising across the region even as spending to protect communities falls short. Asian nations will need $4 trillion for water and sanitation between 2025 and 2040 — about $250 billion a year, the Asian Development Bank said in a report released Monday.

Governments are under growing pressure to protect power systems people rely on every day. By 2050, extreme weather could leave listed power companies in Asia-Pacific with about $8.4 billion a year in damage and lost revenue, a third higher than now, according to recent research by the Hong Kong-based non-profit Asia Investor Group on Climate Change and the New York-based MSCI Institute, a sustainability think tank.

Those risks have been playing out this year across Asia as it was pummeled by late-arriving storms, relentless rains and severe floods.

In central Vietnam’s Quy Nhon, power lines snapped when Typhoon Kalmaegi blasted the coastal city with heavy rain and strong winds. Floods from the relentless downpours left streets submerged under chest-high water days later, turning entire neighborhoods into islands. The day after the storm made landfall, Hai Duong, 29, rushed to a mall that still had power to charge her phone.

“I can’t go back because my home is underwater. I just want to see if my relatives are safe,” she said.

The ADB report says 2.7 billion people, about 60% of the Asia-Pacific population, have access to water for most of their basic needs but more than 4 billion still remain exposed to unsafe water, degraded ecosystems and escalating climate hazards.

Much of the progress since 2013 comes from major gains in rural water access, it says. About 800 million more people in rural areas now have piped water, helping many countries move out of the lowest level of water security. India played a big part in this shift.

But Asia faces a triple threat: environmental pressures, low investment and climate change, said Vivek Raman, principal urban development specialist at the ADB and a lead author of the report.

“It’s a tale of two realities,” Raman said.

The report says water ecosystems were rapidly deteriorating or stagnating in 30 of the 50 Asian countries that were studied, plagued by unchecked development, pollution and land being converted to other uses. Asia also accounts for 41% of global flooding and its coastal megacities and Pacific islands face mounting threats from storm surges, rising sea levels and salty water pushing inland. From 2013 to 2023, Asia and the Pacific experienced 244 major floods, 104 droughts, and 101 severe storms — events that undermined development gains and caused widespread damage.

Governments currently meet only 40% of the estimated $4 trillion in investment, or roughly $250 billion annually, in funding needed for water and sanitation from 2025-2040. That leaves an annual shortfall of over $150 billion.

Asia’s rapid growth is both an opportunity and a challenge said Amit Prothi, director general of New Delhi-based Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, who was not involved with the report. “The amount of infrastructure we’ll build in Asia in the next three decades will be as much as what was built in the last two centuries. So, this is an opportunity to rethink and build in a new way,” he said.

The coalition found that $800 billion in infrastructure, about a third of it in Asia, is exposed to disasters each year globally.

Extreme heat, floods and water shortages are already costing Asia’s power utilities $6.3 billion annually, a figure projected to exceed $8.4 billion by 2050 if companies fail to strengthen climate adaptation measures, research by the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change and the MSCI Institute shows.

Asia accounts for 60% of the world’s power generation capacity and remains deeply reliant on coal. The report warns that climate changes threatens both energy security and economic growth across a region where over 4 billion people need reliable electricity.

“Overall, if you were looking at the types of impacts and the preparedness of companies, most companies are at very early stages,” said Anjali Viswamohanan, director of policy at the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change.

Its study of 2,422 power plants across China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea found extreme heat to be the costliest hazard, responsible for over half of all losses by 2050. Heatwaves reduce power plant efficiency and strain transmission networks. India’s main power utility NTPC, Indonesia’s PLN, and Malaysia’s Tenaga Nasional all face a high risk of disruptions caused by rising heat.

Another major threat comes from declining river flows in Asia’s major basins, which supply the water needed by coal and gas plants and fuel hydropower dams.

At the same time, heavy rainfall and flooding also pose risks, especially in coastal and riverine regions. Malaysia’s Tenaga Nasional faces some of the highest coastal flood exposure due to power plants built in low-lying areas, the report said.

Despite mounting hazards, most utilities lacked detailed, funded plans for adapting to climate impacts. The report found that while nine companies of the 11 studied assessed how climate change impacts them, only seven examined risks at individual plants. Just five calculated and disclosed how future climate impacts could raise costs or hurt their earnings.

Rapidly shifting climate risks make it hard to predict the costs and insurance needed to protect energy infrastructure, said Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist affiliated with the University of Graz, who wasn’t involved in either report.

Financing gaps in the power sector may be easier to close than those in water and sanitation, since energy projects can attract strong industry interest and investment, he said. But some countries daunted by demands from international investors for environmental safeguards might turn to regional financiers that are less scrupulous about such concerns.

“For energy infrastructure, I see more hope that the financing gap can be closed,” he said. “But that can also come at a cost.”

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Ghosal reported from Hanoi, Vietnam. Follow Sibi Arasu on X at @sibi123 ___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A powerful storm is pummeling California, bringing heavy rains that could help to counter the high winds fueling a fast-growing wildfire in the Sierra Nevada mountains, but they could also unleash dangerous flooding and landslides further south, where previous fires have stripped vegetation.

There were apocalyptic scenes overnight as the Pack Fire, burning near the popular Mammoth Mountain ski resort in Mono County damaged at least 15 homes.

Mandatory evacuation orders were in effect for at least two communities threatened by the Pack Fire in Mono County, which, according to the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, was zero percent contained and burning across 3,400 acres on Friday morning.

Many more areas were under evacuation warnings, meaning people who required more time to escape were advised to do so immediately.

The Pack Fire exploded late Thursday night in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains, destroying more than a dozen homes as it spread quickly thanks to high winds from an atmospheric river. Conditions were so bad that crews grounded all firefighting aircraft overnight.

Heavy rainfall coming in with the storm off the Pacific could help crews gain control over the blaze on Friday, and scientists say the moisture laden storm could even bring an end to California’s fire season, but in the south of the state, many residents were concerned about potential mudslides in burn scar areas.

Some 23 million people were under flood watches across California on Friday morning.

Officials are worried that hillsides charred by the devastating wildfires in Southern California early this year, left with no foliage to hold soil in place, could give way under significant rainfall.

The weather system pushed through some parts of California on Thursday, flooding roads and downing trees.

“It’s basically like a river,” Sierra Madre resident Gary Kelly said of the deluge. “Just pouring down when it’s like an inch in an hour.”

Kelly lives in the Eaton Fire burn scar area near Pasadena. His neighborhood has been put on notice for a heavy risk of flash flooding, so he was busy on Thursday preparing for the worst.

For Kelly and others in the community, the scenes of devastation from flooding and landslides unleashed by storms in February, right after the wildfires, are still fresh on the mind.

“Anytime you have fire that’s spread through the hills, and then you have rain, a lot of that mud will come down, so that’s what I think everyone’s worried about,” he said.

This storm could deliver the Los Angeles area its wettest November in 40 years. Officials in the county have encouraged people to map out evacuation routes in the most vulnerable areas, including Malibu, where there could be intense mud flows and flooding.

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration are increasingly anxious that an ongoing standoff with Democrats over reopening the government may drag into Thanksgiving week, one of the country’s busiest travel periods.

Already, hundreds of flights have been canceled since the Federal Aviation Administration issued an unprecedented directive limiting flight operations at the nation’s biggest airports, including in Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Washington, D.C.

Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, told Fox News on Thursday that the administration is prepared to mitigate safety concerns if the shutdown continues into the holiday week, leaving air traffic controllers without compensation over multiple payroll cycles. But “will you fly on time? Will your flight actually go? That is yet to be seen,” the secretary said.

While under 3% of flights have been grounded, that number could rise to 20% by the holiday week, he added.

“It’s really hard — really hard — to navigate a full month of no pay, missing two pay periods. So I think you’re going to have more significant disruptions in the airspace,” Duffy said. “And as we come into Thanksgiving, if we’re still in a shutdown posture, it’s gonna be rough out there. Really rough.”

Senate Republicans said they are willing to work through the weekend, up through Veterans Day, to come up with an agreement with Democrats that could end the government shutdown, which is already the longest in history.

But congressional Democrats believe their leverage has only grown to extract more concessions from the Trump administration as the shutdown goes on.

A strong showing in races across the country in Tuesday’s elections buoyed optimism among Democrats that the party finally has some momentum, as it focuses its messaging on affordability and a growing cost-of-living crisis for the middle class.

Democrats have withheld the votes needed to reopen the government over Republican refusals to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits. As a result, Americans who get their healthcare through the ACA marketplace have begun seeing dramatic premium hikes since open enrollment began on Nov. 1 — further fueling Democratic confidence that Republicans will face a political backlash for their shutdown stance.

Now, Democratic demands have expanded, insisting Republicans guarantee that federal workers get paid back for their time furloughed or working without pay — and that those who were fired get their jobs back.

A bill introduced by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, called the Shutdown Fairness Act, would ensure that federal workers receive back pay during a government funding lapse. But Democrats have objected to a vote on the measure that’s not tied to their other demands, on ACA tax breaks and the status of fired workers.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has proposed passing a clean continuing resolution already passed by the House followed by separate votes on three bills that would fund the government through the year. But his Democratic counterpart said Friday he wants to attach a vote on extending the ACA tax credits to an extension of government funding.

Democrats, joined by some Republicans, are also demanding protections built in to any government spending bills that would safeguard federal programs against the Trump administration withholding funds appropriated by Congress, a process known as impoundment.

President Trump, for his part, blamed the ongoing shutdown for Tuesday’s election results earlier this week, telling Republican lawmakers that polling shows the continuing crisis is hurting their party. But he also continues to advocate for Thune to do away with the filibuster, a core Senate rule requiring 60 votes for bills that fall outside the budget reconciliation process, and simply reopen the government with a vote down party lines.

“If the filibuster is terminated, we will have the most productive three years in the history of our country,” Trump told reporters on Friday at a White House event. “If the filibuster is not terminated, then we will be in a slog, with the Democrats.”

So far, Thune has rejected that request. But the majority leader said Thursday that “the pain this shutdown has caused is only getting worse,” warning that 40 million Americans risk food insecurity as funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program lapses.

The Trump administration lost a court case this week arguing that it could withhold SNAP benefits, a program that was significantly defunded in the president’s “Big Beautiful Bill” act earlier this year.

“Will the far left not be satisfied until federal workers and military families are getting their Thanksgiving dinner from a food bank? Because that’s where we’re headed,” Thune added.

Millions of Americans are sliding toward a financial cliff as the government shutdown stretches into a second month, with four federal assistance programs for low-income families set to run out of funding on Nov. 1.

Some families could lose access to multiple sources of government support. Ashley Trent, a 37-year-old single mother of six, expressed concern she could soon be without aid provided under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps, and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, which provides food aid for mothers of young children.

“I’m wondering how I’m going to be able to afford everything,” Trent, a Bloomington, Ill., resident who works full-time as a housing navigator, told CBS News. “It’s very stressful — what bills will I have to put off? I have a car note, I have insurance, I have clothes I have to get my kids because it’s getting colder.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds SNAP and WIC, has said it will halt payments for the anti-hunger programs on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown. Head Start programs serving 65,000 low-income children will also lose federal funding on Saturday, potentially disrupting preschool for thousands of families, according to the National Head Start Association.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps struggling households heat their homes, could be next to run short of funding. 

Halting funding for these programs — which help cover food, education, and energy costs — could have lasting consequences for poor families already strained by high grocery and utility prices, said Ailen Arreaza, executive director of the advocacy group ParentsTogether Action. 

Although funding will resume once Congress passes legislation to reopen the government, she warned that the damage to households could persist.

“What we are hearing from parents is desperation — parents going without meals, making impossible decisions about not paying bills or going without medication,” Arreaza told CBS News. “This has so many implications, because these kids need these programs to get ahead.”

Experts note that hunger can hinder children’s ability to learn, while parents who fall behind on bills may face utility shutoffs or other lasting setbacks.

Food stamps

The USDA is set to halt SNAP payments on Nov. 1, leaving about 42 million Americans uncertain how they’ll afford groceries next month. Recipients receive an average of about $187 a month on prepaid cards that can be used to buy food at grocery stores, farmers’ markets and other retailers.

A prolonged cessation in food-stamp funding isn’t guaranteed. Two federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled on Friday that the Trump administration is required by law to use contingency funds to pay at least partial SNAP benefits. The government must respond by Monday on whether it plans to allocate money to continue payments. 

Meanwhile, more than a dozen states are trying to fill the gap by using state funds to support food aid or local food banks. But food bank leaders say charities can’t make up for a cutoff in food stamps. 

“It’s going to hurt us really bad,” said Taylour Grant, 29, a Tampa medical assistant who relies on $970 a month in SNAP benefits to feed her four children, plus WIC support for her youngest, who is 1-year-old. “It’s really scary because I know I’ll go without to make sure my kids are fed.”

Grant said many people misunderstand who relies on SNAP. “We’re not on it because we want to be — no one makes enough to live off these days. That help is really needed,” she said.

WIC

Nearly 7 million low-income pregnant women, new mothers and children under 5 who receive WIC could lose federal aid in November because of the government shutdown. 

Unlike food stamps, WIC provides funds specifically to purchase formula and nutritious foods for pregnant women and young children, though many families rely on both programs, said Georgia Machell, CEO of the National WIC Association.

“None of these programs operate in a vacuum,” she said. “Often, if a family is participating in WIC, they’re also participating in SNAP.”

WIC continued paying benefits in October after the Trump administration tapped $300 million in leftover tariff revenue from the previous fiscal year. But with the stalemate in Congress continuing into November, that funding could run out. 

The USDA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about whether it could tap additional tariff revenue to fund the program. At this point, the program is set to delay payments on Nov. 1, according to the National WIC Association.

WIC has been able to maintain funding during previous shutdowns in its 50-year history, according to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), a nonprofit group focused on stopping hunger. “The disruptions we’re concerned about would be fairly historic,” Machell said.

Some states have pledged to use their own funds to keep WIC running, but many lack the budget, according to FRAC. 

Head Start

About 140 Head Start programs in 41 states and Puerto Rico will lose federal funding with the shutdown set to extend past Nov. 1, affecting roughly 65,000 children, according to the National Head Start Association. Nationwide, about 750,000 children are enrolled in Head Start.

Some programs may not be able to stay open, regional program directors warn.

“Everybody is trying to do everything they can to keep children in classrooms and families at work,” Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association, told CBS News Boston. “But it is incredibly difficult to operate without those federal funds.” 

Minnesota mother Jaycee Chrudimsky said she fears that the closure of her local Head Start program could force her to miss work and affect her 4-year-old daughter.

“It would impact her, and that’s the thing I worry about the most, because she looks forward to coming to school every single day and seeing her friends and being a part of the program,” Chrudimsky told CBS News Minnesota this week. 

LIHEAP

Another program threatened by the shutdown is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA). The program helps about 6 million low-income households pay their energy bills.

“We are now at a point where the government shutdown is going to cause serious delays in the release of LIHEAP funds,” Wolfe told CBS News.

The delay could leave millions of families behind on utility bills and facing power shutoffs just as energy prices are skyrocketing, he added.

NEADA projects the average cost for people to heat a home this winter will rise nearly 8%.

“It’s a perfect storm of misery for low- and middle-income households,” Wolfe said.

Edited by

Alain Sherter

HOUSTON — HOUSTON (AP) — Hurricane season can be stressful for anyone near the potential path of a storm, as powerful winds and heavy rain can cause widespread damage, cut power for days or weeks and otherwise upend people’s lives.

But the stress can be reduced if people have a plan for preparing their homes and for deciding whether to stay and ride out a storm or evacuate, according to emergency management officials. That preparation, which includes putting together a kit of essential supplies, should begin long before a storm is approaching.

“Don’t be complacent, take preparedness seriously, spend the time now to do the little things that will make a big difference for you and your loved ones when something does happen,” said Brian Mason, director of Houston’s Office of Emergency Management.

Anything in the backyard that isn’t tied down, such as furniture and barbecue grills, should be secured or brought inside so it doesn’t become a projectile that can come through a window, said Shawn Schulze, regional CEO for the American Red Cross Texas Gulf Coast Region.

If possible, board up windows and place important documents such as passports and birth certificates in a waterproof case or even a Ziploc bag, Schulze said. That will prevent damage and make documents easier to locate in a quick evacuation.

Mason recommends that homeowners get their roofs inspected before each hurricane season and know how to turn off their utilities in case of damage.

Well before a storm is brewing, people should trim or remove dead or weakened tree limbs and shrubs that hang over their homes to lessen potential damage from high winds, said Mistie Hinote, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Insurance.

Hinote also urged people to review what type of insurance coverage they have and to make a home inventory of their possessions by taking photos of them in case an insurance claim needs to be made after a storm.

“It is a lot of information and a lot of pre-storm steps but a little at a time,” Hinote said.

Every family should have an emergency kit with supplies to meet its basic needs.

For people who stay, a kit should include at least 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of water per day per person, with enough for up to seven days, Mason said. One way to have enough water is to fill a bathtub.

People should also have enough nonperishable food for up to seven days, as well as flashlights, batteries, candles, medications, portable power banks or other power sources, and a radio that runs on batteries.

Pets should be included in preparations, including bringing them inside ahead of a storm, and having enough food, water and necessary medications for up to seven days, Mason said.

Parents should also include something to entertain their kids, such as games or coloring books, because likely power outages after a hurricane mean there won’t be internet and cellular service, and there’s “nothing’s more challenging for a family than kids that are bouncing off the walls because they’re bored,” Mason said.

“If you decide to stay, you need to make sure that you can be self-sufficient for days to weeks, depending on how long it takes for power to be restored,” Mason said.

If people decide to leave ahead of a storm, they should also prepare an emergency kit with enough supplies to get to their destination, officials said.

Before a storm arrives, people should know their evacuation routes are and have backup routes in case roads get congested, Mason said.

Officials recommend fueling vehicles if a storm is approaching. People with electric vehicles should make sure their routes have charging stations along the way, he said.

Schulze said it’s natural for people to be afraid when a hurricane is coming, but having a plan in place and letting loved ones know you’re prepared will go a long way to easing fears.

“Think about what the worst could be and prepare for that and you’ll always be ready for what comes your way,” Schulze said.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

Investors are shuddering on concerns of renewed trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies. 

Stocks fell sharply on Friday, with the S&P 500 shedding 183 points, or 2.7%, to close at 6,553 in what was the index’s worst day since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 879 points, or 1.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.6%. 

The selloff affected a wide range of stocks, from Big Tech companies like Nvidia and Apple to stocks of smaller companies looking to get past uncertainty about tariffs and trade.

“Investors still think the tit-for-tat between the U.S. and China these last few days is mostly posturing (the consensus view is that tariffs won’t go up, and that Trump and Xi will still meet in South Korea), but trade-related risks have certainly risen after being dormant for the last several weeks,” Wall Street analyst Adam Crisafulli, head of Vital Knowledge, said in a report. 

Stocks had been heading for a slight gain in the morning, until Mr. Trump said on his social media platform said he’s considering “a massive increase of tariffs” on Chinese imports. He’s upset at restrictions China has placed on exports of its rare earths, which are materials that are critical for the manufacturing of everything from consumer electronics to jet engines.

“We have been contacted by other Countries who are extremely angry at this great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Our relationship with China over the past six months has been a very good one, thereby making this move on Trade an even more surprising one. I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right!”

Mr. Trump also threatened to call off a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea later this month. 

“Threatening significantly increased tariffs on China is a hallmark of Trump’s negotiating tactics, and all it took was a headline to entice investors to take some chips off the table,” Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management, said in an email.

Primed for a slide?

The market may have been primed for a slide. U.S. stocks were already facing criticism that their prices had shot too high following a nearly relentless 35% run for the S&P 500 from a low in April to record heights.

Critics say the market looks overpriced after prices rose much faster than corporate profits. Worries are particularly high about companies in the artificial-intelligence industry, where pessimists are making comparisons to to the 2000 dot-com bubble that ultimately imploded. For stocks to look less expensive, either their prices need to fall, or profits need to rise.

Other factors also weighed on investor sentiment Friday, including the ongoing U.S. government shutdown and fresh data showing that consumers are anxious about the economy. 

The University of Michigan’s preliminary October sentiment index, released Friday, shows consumer sentiment fell 0.1% on a monthly basis, from 55.1 points in September to 55. While the drop was nominal, it represents the third consecutive month the confidence measure, which is closely watched by investors, has declined. 

“Pocketbook issues like high prices and weakening job prospects remain at the forefront of consumers’ minds,” Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers at the University of Michigan, said in a statement.

The job market has slowed so much that the Federal Reserve cut its main interest rate last month for the first time this year. Fed officials have penciled in more cuts through next year to give the economy more breathing room. But Chair Jerome Powell has also said they may have to change course if inflation stays high. That’s because lower interest rates can push inflation even higher.

At just 23, Jacob Palmer is already running his own electrical company. He launched the business in 2024 after starting in the field as an apprentice electrician, a career path he embarked on when college turned out not to be for him.

Palmer has no regrets about his decision to forego college and instead establish himself as a tradesman. “I am very happy doing what I am doing now because it has given me the opportunity to work for myself and be independent,” he told CBS News.

Experts say the skilled trades — jobs like electricians, plumbers, welders, masons, HVAC technicians and other occupations requiring extensive training and often licensing — are attracting a growing number of young people put off by high tuition costs. 

More than 57% of Gen Zers surveyed by Jobber, a software tool for service businesses, cite student loan debt as a concern about going to college, according to the company’s annual report on attitudes toward blue-collar jobs. 

More recently, signs that artificial intelligence is starting to gobble up the kind of entry-level jobs that once went to young college graduates are also leading young workers to consider the trades. Some 77% of Gen Zers say it’s important that their future job is hard to automate, with many pointing to professions like carpenter, plumber, and electrician as occupations they believe are safe from automation. By contrast, they see less security in fields like software development, data analytics, and accounting, according to the survey.

“That route is losing some of the stigma,” said David Asay, president of Advantage Reline, a trenchless pipe rehabilitation company in Mesa, Arizona. “The perception among that younger group is no longer, ‘Oh, you’re working construction, you didn’t go to school?’ It’s, ‘What a cool skillset. You’re making a good career path.'”

Harder path for college grads

For decades, many young people shunned the trades, with everyone from economists and career experts to politicians and parents emphasizing the importance of obtaining a college diploma. That conventional wisdom isn’t entirely wrong — it’s just behind the times. 

 “The attitude was that jobs in the trades were less than desirable,” said Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angi, an online home improvement services guide told CBS News.

But several factors are contributing to a shift in how people are thinking about such occupations. For one, going to college for many Americans often requires going into debt. The average cost of college, including tuition and room and board, now tops $38,000 a year and is approaching $60,000 for private institutions, according to the Education Data Initiative. 

Factoring in the added burden of interest on student loans and potential income one foregoes while in school, the total cost of earning a bachelor’s degree can exceed $500,000, the research firm has found. 

More recently, economists also point to a jump in unemployment for recent college grads, which some experts say is an early warning sign that AI is taking jobs away from less experienced workers. The jobless rate for 23-to-27-year-old college grads this year now hovers around 4.6%, up from 3.2% for the same demographic in 2019. 

Strikingly, non-college-educated workers in the same age range have experienced a much smaller uptick in unemployment, at roughly 0.5%, over the same period, according to an analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. 

“AI can’t go out in the field”

Vinnie Curcie, founder and CEO of OC Solar, a solar installation company in Irvine, California, said the solar energy field differs from other trades in that the work requires time both in the office and in the field. OC Solar offers three main services — solar panel and battery sales, project management and installation services. But he expects AI will soon handle much of the sales and project management sides of the business. 

While prospective employees once tended to have stronger interest in the company’s marketing, management or other white-collar roles, more job candidates today are eager for roles in the field.

“More people are interested in the field because they know that’s where the job security is,” Curcie told CBS News. 

Some school districts also report seeing growing student interest in blue-collar careers. Marlo Loria, director of career and technical education and innovative partnerships at Mesa Public Schools in Mesa, Arizona, said more of her students are enrolling in schools’ welding, construction and auto shop programs than there is space for.

Asay, of Advantage Reline, added that students with an entrepreneurial bent can also be well-suited for the skilled trades.

“They can take their skills and create their own business, or become a bigger part of our business, outside of being someone with a shovel in a trench,” he said.

Palmer said his business generated $90,000 in revenue in its first year and is on track to top $150,000 in 2025, a more than 30% increase — no college degree needed. The other upside to life as an electrician, as he sees it, is the job security. 

“I don’t feel overly threatened by the growth of AI in my industry. That will be a pretty impressive robot that can do my job one day, if it ever happens,” Palmer said. 

Kayden Evans, an 18-year-old senior at Mountain View High School in Mesa, Arizona, has his eyes set on a career working with his hands, and to eventually start his own business. Currently an intern at Empire Cat, a company that sells, rents and services heavy equipment and tractors, he plans on going straight from high school into an apprenticeship with the company. 

“I wouldn’t say I am worried about AI because where I want to grow is as a field technician, and even though it helps, I don’t think AI can take that over,” he said. “AI can’t go out in the field and take apart an engine.”

NEW YORK — The U.S. Secret Service has found and is quietly dismantling a massive network of “SIM farms” across the New York area just as world leaders gather for meetings at the United Nations.

Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office, said agents found multiple sites filled with servers and stacked SIM cards, of which more than 100,000 cards were already active. Though the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made, he described it as a well-funded, highly organized enterprise and possibly run by nation-state actors — perpetrators from particular countries.

Officials also warned of the havoc the network could have caused if left intact. McCool compared the potential impact to the cellular blackouts that followed the Sept. 11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing, when networks collapsed under strain.

So what are these SIM farms and what are they capable of?

SIM farms are hardware devices that can hold numerous SIM cards from different mobile operators. These devices then exploit voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology to send and receive bulk messages or calls.

While initially developed for legitimate purposes, such as low cost international calling, the technology has become a cornerstone of organized fraud targeting mass audiences — phishing texts and scam calls.

“Scams have become so sophisticated now. Phishing emails, texts, spoofing caller ID, all of this technology gives scammers that edge,” said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

In this case, the devices were concentrated within 35 miles of the U.N. building. The investigation is ongoing, but McCool said forensic analysis currently believe the system could have been used to send encrypted messages to organized crime groups, cartels and terrorist organizations.

Anthony J. Ferrante, the global head of the cybersecurity practice at FTI, an international consulting firm, said the photos show a very sophisticated and established SIM farm that could be used for any number of nefarious activities, including the potential to overwhelm cellular networks with millions of calls in just a few minutes.

“So if you can imagine that type of magnitude on cellular networks, it would just overwhelm them and cause them to shut down,” Ferrante said in an interview. He also notes that it’s possible the system could be used for surveillance operations, given its proximity to the United Nations, “potentially that equipment could be used to either intercept communications, eavesdrop on communications, or actually, clone devices, as well.”

Ferrante, who previously served in key security positions at the White House and the FBI, says he’s awaiting the results of the investigation before drawing any conclusions about the nature of the setup, but he emphasizes that the scale of the operation shows how simple tools can pose real risks to critical infrastructure.

“The masterminds could have set this up a long time ago and be operating from thousands of miles away,” he said. “It’s a stark reminder of how deeply interconnected our world has become, where local vulnerabilities can be exploited globally.”

The federal government told Harvard University on Friday it could take control of the school’s patents stemming from federally funded research — the latest in a months-long feud between the Trump administration and the Ivy League college.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is launching an “immediate comprehensive review” of whether Harvard has complied with federal laws around patents, he said in a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber.

The patents in question could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a senior administration official said, and in his letter, Lutnick threatened to grant third-party licenses to Harvard’s patents or take the titles to any patents where Harvard has failed to comply with government title and disclosure requirements.

Lutnick ordered the Massachusetts-based school to provide information on all patents that it obtained through federally funded research.

“We believe that Harvard has failed to live up to its obligations to the American taxpayer and is in breach of the statutory, regulatory, and contractual requirements tied to Harvard’s federally funded research programs and intellectual property arising therefrom,” Lutnick said.

He gave Harvard until Sept. 5 to respond and prove it’s complying with the Bayh-Dole Act. Under that legislation, universities receiving federal research grants have to show that inventions issuing from that funding are being used to benefit Americans. 

The Trump administration wants Harvard to provide a list of all the patents it has that stem from federal grants, how the patents are currently being applied and details about licensing agreements, including whether they mandate “substantial U.S. manufacturing” and the identities of the licensees.  

A Harvard spokesperson called the move “yet another retaliatory effort targeting Harvard for defending its rights and freedom.” 

“Technologies and patents developed at Harvard are life-saving and industry-redefining. We are fully committed to complying with the Bayh-Dole Act and ensuring that the public is able to access and benefit from the many innovations that arise out of federally funded research at Harvard,” the spokesperson said.

The Trump administration has paused or cut off billions in federal research funding to Harvard, accusing the university of failing to deal with campus antisemitism. Harvard has sued over the funding freezes, alleging the government is illegally punishing the school for First Amendment-protected activity and trying to “force Harvard to submit to the Government’s control over its academic programs.”

Before the funding cutoff, the administration demanded that Harvard agree to changes — including an external audit of certain academic departments, an end to DEI programs and stricter disciplinary policies — if it wants to maintain its “financial relationship” with the federal government. Harvard rejected the demands.

President Trump has also pushed the Internal Revenue Service to review Harvard’s tax-exempt status. And he directed his administration to bar most foreign students from traveling to the U.S. to study at Harvard, though a judge blocked that move.

Mr. Trump has suggested he’s open to making a deal with Harvard. Some other Ivy League schools that faced funding freezes have cut deals with the administration, with Columbia University and Brown University making various concessions to the federal government.

President Trump said Wednesday he would impose a 50% tariff on goods from Brazil next month, one of the steepest rates for any U.S. trading partner, citing the criminal prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, which Mr. Trump called an “international disgrace.”

Mr. Trump has sent open letters to about 20 countries this week — ranging from Japan to Iraq — telling them to expect higher tariffs starting August 1, after delaying his sweeping tariffs against dozens of nations in April. So far, the 50% tariff on Brazilian imports is the highest rate threatened against any country, and Brazil is the only country to get hit with a tariff this week after being spared by Mr. Trump’s April “Liberation Day” tariffs.

Unlike many other countries that have been threatened with tariff hikes, the U.S. runs a trade surplus with Brazil, meaning Brazil buys more American goods than the U.S. buys from Brazil. Last year, the U.S. exported about $49 billion worth of goods to Brazil, and Brazil exported just over $42 billion in goods to the U.S., according to Census Bureau figures.

Mr. Trump’s letter excoriated the South American country over the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who led the country before current Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The U.S. leader called the prosecution a “Witch Hunt that should end immediately.”

Bolsonaro was indicted last year for allegedly attempting a coup to remain in office after Lula defeated him in the 2022 elections. The plan allegedly included dozens of people and involved a plot to poison Lula and shoot a Brazilian Supreme Court justice. Bolsonaro’s defense team has vehemently denied the charges. Bolsonaro has also been barred from running for office until 2030, after casting doubt on the country’s electronic voting machines.

Mr. Trump has long expressed support for Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist sometimes known as “Trump of the Tropics.” He also lashed out at Brazil over the prosecution on Monday, calling it a “terrible thing” and an “attack on a Political Opponent.”

“LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

Mr. Trump also criticized Brazil in his tariff letter for what he called “insidious attacks” on the “Free Speech Rights of Americans,” an apparent reference to the Brazilian Supreme Court’s scrutiny of Elon Musk-owned X and some other social media platforms. And he alleged Brazil has an “unfair trade relationship” with the U.S., citing “Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers.”

In the letter, Mr. Trump ordered U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to open an investigation into Brazil over “attacks on the Digital Trade Activities of American Companies” and “other unfair Trading Practices.”

A report by the U.S. Trade Representative earlier this year said Brazil charged an average tariff of 11.2% on imports as of 2023. The report says Brazil imposes “relatively high tariffs on imports across a wide range of sectors,” and “U.S. exporters face significant uncertainty in the Brazilian market because the government frequently modifies tariff rates.” It also lists some other trade restrictions, like a tariff on ethanol and import licensing rules.

As with the other countries that have faced tariff threats, Mr. Trump said his administration would “consider an adjustment” if Brazil were to change its trade practices.

Lula said in a post on X that Brazil will react to any tariff increases by invoking the country’s economic reciprocity law, which allows Brazil to impose import restrictions and other countermeasures in response to unilateral tariffs.

Separately, Mr. Trump threatened an additional 10% tariff on any countries aligned with “the Anti-American policies of BRICS,” referring to a group of developing countries and emerging markets that includes Brazil.

Tariffs are a core part of Mr. Trump’s economic strategy. The moves have sparked fears of rising consumer prices and an economic slowdown, but Mr. Trump argues tariffs are necessary to revive U.S. manufacturing and punish what he views as unfair trade practices.

The president imposed steep tariffs on dozens of countries in early April, rattling markets, before quickly delaying most of them for three months while his administration sought to negotiate trade deals. With the three-month extension set to run out this week, the administration began sending letters to various countries informing them of higher tariffs starting in August.

President Trump on Monday said the U.S will impose 25% tariffs on goods from South Korea and Japan by Aug. 1, while also threatening to hit a dozen other nations with steep import duties by next month. 

Mr. Trump initially posted two nearly identical letters, addressed to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, on his Truth Social media platform outlining the new tariffs. A 90-day freeze on country-specific U.S. tariffs on dozens of nations, including Japan and South Korea, is scheduled to expire on July 9.

Mr. Trump on Monday afternoon also announced separate tariffs on an additional 12 trade partners. Myanmar and Laos face a 40% tariff rate, the highest of the new levies the U.S. is threatening to deploy. Thailand and Cambodia face potential tariffs of 36%, while Mr. Trump announced slightly lower tariffs of 35% on both Bangladesh and Serbia. 

Indonesia is the lone country facing a possible tariff rate of 32%. Imports from South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina will be subject to 30% duties as of August 1, while goods from Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Tunisia will be taxed at 25%, Mr. Trump said in letters posted on Truth Social. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a media briefing Monday that Mr. Trump is set to sign an executive order extending the July 9 tariff freeze. The order delays the deadline to “August 1 so the reciprocal tariff rate, or these new rates that will be provided in this correspondence to these foreign leaders, will be going out the door within the next month,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt also said Mr. Trump was planning to send tariff letters to “approximately 12 other countries” informing them of new U.S. levies on their goods. She did not indicate when the notices will be sent out, but said Mr. Trump will post them on Truth Social “so you can enjoy them yourself.”

Trump is also expected to announce more deals with U.S. trade partners before the beginning of August, she said.

Mr. Trump included identical language in each letter informing recipients that the notice “demonstrates the strength and commitment of our Trading Relationship,” and that “we invite you to participate in the extraordinary Economy of the United States.”

The 25% tariffs on South Korea and Japan are in line with the so-called “reciprocal” rates Mr. Trump had announced when he unveiled country-specific duties on April 2. At the time, the Trump administration said it would impose tariffs of 24% and 25% on imports from Japan and South Korea, respectively. 

25% tariff would bog down trade

Trade policy expert Barry Appleton, co-director of the Center for International Law at New York Law School, told CBS MoneyWatch that Monday’s announcements “are simply indications that he is making them pay full admission price to access the U.S. market.”

“At 25%, it is possible, but challenging, to trade with Japan and Korea. This rate was carefully set at the higher side of the spectrum. In essence trade with the U.S. now is a pay to play proposition for Japan, Korea and likely others to come,” he said. 

Appleton added that the country-specific rates announced Monday do not bode well for other nations looking to strike deals with the U.S., including EU countries, Canada and Switzerland.

Economists warn that wide-ranging U.S. tariffs on trading partners could spark another bout of inflation and hinder economic growth, while global financial markets have heaved at the prospect of significantly higher trading costs. 

Trump administration officials have said stiff U.S. tariffs can ensure fair global trade while also boosting the American manufacturing sector. 

WASHINGTON — One key unsettled issue stalling progress on President Donald Trump’s big bill in Congress is particularly daunting: How to cut billions from health care without harming Americans or the hospitals and others that provide care?

Republicans are struggling to devise a solution to the health care problem their package has created. Already, estimates say 10.9 million more people would be without health coverage under the House-passed version of the bill. GOP senators have proposed steeper reductions, which some say go too far.

“The Senate cuts in Medicaid are far deeper than the House cuts, and I think that’s problematic,” said GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

Senators have been meeting behind closed doors and with Trump administration officials as they rush to finish up the big bill ahead of the president’s Fourth of July deadline. Much of the package, with its tax breaks and bolstered border security spending, is essentially drafted. But the size and scope of healthcare cuts are among the toughest remaining issues.

It’s reminiscent of the summer during Trump’s first term, in 2017, when Republicans struggled to keep their campaign promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, only to see the GOP splinter over the prospect of Americans losing health coverage. That legislation collapsed when then-Sen. John McCain famously cast a thumbs-down vote.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is determined to avoid that outcome, sticking to the schedule and pressing ahead with voting expected by the end of the week.

“This is a good bill and it’s going to be great for our country,” Thune said Wednesday, championing its potential to unleash economic growth and put money in people’s pockets.

The changes to the federal health care programs, particularly Medicaid, were always expected to become a centerpiece of the GOP package, a way to offset the costs of providing tax breaks for millions of Americans. Without action from Congress, taxes would go up next year when current tax law expires.

The House-passed bill achieved some $1.5 trillion in savings overall, a large part of it coming from changes to health care. The Medicaid program has dramatically expanded in the 15 years since Obamacare became law and now serves some 80 million Americans. Republicans say that’s far too high, and they want to shrink the program back to a smaller size covering mainly poorer women and children.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans are “trying to take away healthcare from tens of millions of Americans.” Democrats are uniformly opposed to what they call the “big, ugly bill.”

Much of the health care cost savings would come from new 80-hour-a-month work requirements on those who receive Medicaid benefits, even as most recipients already work.

But another provision, the so-called provider tax that almost all the states impose to some degree on hospitals and others that serve Medicaid patients, is drawing particular concern for potential cuts to rural hospitals.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said several senators spoke up Wednesday during a private meeting indicating they were not yet ready to start voting. “That’ll depend if we land the plane on rural hospitals,” he said.

States impose the taxes as a way to help fund Medicaid, largely by boosting the reimbursements they receive from the federal government. Critics decry the system as a type of “laundering” but almost every state except Alaska uses it to help provide the health care coverage.

The House-passed bill would freeze the provider taxes at current levels, while the Senate proposal goes deeper by reducing the tax that some states are able to impose.

“I know the states are addicted to it,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. But he added, “Obviously the provider tax needs to go away.”

But a number of GOP senators, and the hospitals and other medical providers in their states, are raising steep concerns that the provider tax changes would decimate rural hospitals.

In a plea to lawmakers, the American Hospital Association said the cuts won’t just affect those who get health coverage through Medicaid, but would further strain emergency rooms “as they become the family doctor to millions of newly uninsured people.”

“And worse, some hospitals, especially those in rural communities, may be forced to close altogether,” said Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the hospital group.

The Catholic Health Association of the United States noted in its own letter that Medicaid provides health insurance coverage for one in five people and nearly half of all children.

“The proposed changes to Medicaid would have devastating consequences, particularly for those in small towns and rural communities, where Medicaid is often the primary source of health care coverage,” said Sister Mary Haddad, the group’s president and CEO.

Trying to engineer a fix to the problem, senators are considering creating a rural hospital fund to help offset the lost Medicaid money.

GOP senators circulated a proposal to pour $15 billion to establish a new rural hospital fund. But several senators said that’s too high, while others said it’s insufficient. Collins has proposed that the fund be set at $100 billion.

“It won’t be that big, but there will be a fund,” Thune said.

Hawley, who has been among those most outspoken about the health care cuts, said he’s interested in the rural hospital fund but needs to hear more about how it would work.

He has also raised concerns about a new $35 per service co-pay that could be charged to those with Medicaid, which is in both the House and Senate versions of the bill.

“Getting the fund is good. That’s important, a step forward,” Hawley said. But he asked: “How does the fund actually distribute the money? Who will get it to hospitals? … Or is this just going to be something that exists on paper?”

A new analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates the package would result in up to $2.3 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years, a markedly different assessment from other analyses. In contrast, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s dynamic analysis of the House-passed measure estimates an increase in deficits by $2.8 trillion over the next decade.

__

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick, Joey Cappelletti and Fatima Hussein contributed to this story.

Washington — House Republican leaders are scrambling to shore up support for President Trump’s massive domestic policy bill amid pushback to the Senate’s changes, as the GOP seeks to approve the final version of the legislation ahead of a July 4 deadline to get the bill to the president’s desk. 

As the House met Wednesday to take up the bill, which squeaked through the Senate a day earlier, it remained unclear if Republicans have enough support to get it over the finish line. The House needs to take a key procedural vote before it can move toward final passage, but it’s not clear when that vote will take place or if it will pass. Lawmakers remained stuck on a separate vote for over an hour Wednesday afternoon.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said lawmakers are planning to forge ahead with the procedural vote Wednesday afternoon, but they are waiting for some members to return to Washington following flight delays. Those members are expected to arrive “shortly,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters.

Several members on both sides of the aisle had their flights canceled or delayed by bad weather as they raced back to Washington for the vote. All Democrats appeared to be on hand for proceedings by Wednesday afternoon. Republicans can only afford three defections if all members are present and voting. 

House GOP leaders are aiming to forge ahead quickly on the signature legislation of Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda, which includes ramped-up spending for border security, defense and energy production and extends trillions of dollars in tax cuts, partially offset by substantial cuts to health care and nutrition programs. 

But some House Republicans, who voted to pass an earlier version of the bill in May, expressed skepticism about the Senate’s changes. 

Potential holdouts, including moderates and members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, were meeting with Mr. Trump on Wednesday as the White House puts pressure on House Republicans to get the bill across the finish line. But GOP Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told reporters that he expected the procedural vote to fail in the afternoon. 

The House Rules Committee advanced the Senate’s changes to the bill overnight, setting up the action on the floor. GOP Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Chip Roy of Texas joined Democrats on the panel to oppose the rule. Both are among the group of hardliners who are likely to oppose the procedural vote in the full House.

“What the Senate did is unconscionable,” Norman said. “I’ll vote against it here and I’ll vote against it on the floor until we get it right.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has spent weeks pleading with his Senate counterparts not to make any major changes to the version of the bill that passed the lower chamber by a single vote in May. He said the Senate bill’s changes “went a little further than many of us would’ve preferred.” 

The Senate-passed bill includes steeper Medicaid cuts, a higher increase in the debt limit and changes to the House bill’s green energy policies and the state and local tax deduction.

Other controversial provisions that faced pushback in both chambers, including the sale of public lands in nearly a dozen states, a 10-year moratorium on states regulating artificial intelligence and an excise tax on the renewable energy industry, were stripped from the Senate bill before heading back to the House. 

Johnson said Wednesday that “we are working through everybody’s issues and making sure that we can secure this vote” amid the opposition. He added that he and the president are working to “convince everybody that this is the very best product that we can produce.”

“I feel good about where we are and where we’re headed,” Johnson added. 

Harris told reporters Wednesday that that the president should call the Senate back into town to come to an agreement on changes to the bill. GOP leaders, however, said the House would vote on the Senate bill “as-is.” 

Should the House make changes to the bill, the revisions would require the Senate’s approval, or force the two chambers to go to conference committee to iron out a final product that the two bodies could agree on, jeopardizing the bill’s timely passage. 

Rep. Dusty Johnson, a South Dakota Republican, seemed optimistic after the White House meetings with holdouts Wednesday, saying “Donald Trump is a closer” and adding that “members are moving to yes.”

“I know there are some members who think they’re going to vote no right now,” the South Dakota Republican said. “I think when the choice becomes failure or passage, they’re going to understand that passage beats the hell out of failing.”

In a Truth Social post Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump urged the GOP to get the bill done, saying to his party, “don’t let the Radical Left Democrats push you around.”

“We’ve got all the cards, and we are going to use them,” he said.

GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina likewise urged House Republicans to get the bill to the president’s desk Wednesday. 

“President Trump has his pen in hand and is waiting for the House to complete its work,” Foxx said. “We’ve championed this legislation for months, have guided it through the appropriate processes, and now we’re on the one-yard line.”

Meanwhile, with few levers to combat the bill’s passage, House Democrats spoke out forcefully against the legislation.

“We will not stand by and watch Trump and his billionaire friends destroy this country without putting up one hell of a fight,” Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said, calling the bill a “massive betrayal of the American people.”

Jeffries said that “every single House Democrat will vote ‘hell no’ against this one, big ugly bill,” while adding that “all we need are four House Republicans to join us in defense of their constituents who will suffer mightily from this bill.” Democratic leaders called out some Republicans by name, including Reps. Rob Bresnahan and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Reps. David Valadao and Young Kim of California.

“It’s unconscionable, it’s unacceptable, it’s un-American, and House Democrats are committing to you that we’re going to do everything in our power to stop it,” Jeffries said. “All we need are four Republicans, just four.”

Emily Hung,

Nikole Killion,

Jaala Brown and

Ellis Kim

contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump has threatened to increase levies on Japan and cast doubt that the US would reach a deal with its Asian ally, as he escalated his trade rhetoric days before his pause on some steep tariffs is set to expire.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the US president said he would impose new levies on countries that failed to agree a trade deal by July 9, when the “reciprocal” tariffs unleashed in April are set to resume. 

He also singled out Tokyo, a crucial trading partner that had been among the first countries to seek a deal with Trump after he shocked global markets in April by launching a global trade war on “liberation day”.

“We’ve dealt with Japan. I’m not sure we’re going to make a deal. I doubt it,” Trump said. 

“I’ll write them a letter to say ‘we thank you very much, and we know you can’t do the kind of things that we need, and therefore you pay a 30 per cent, 35 per cent’’ or whatever the number is that we determined,” he said. “Because we also have a very big trade deficit.”

The comments from the president suggested Trump remained willing to take a hard line on negotiations with trading partners, despite backing down on his higher global tariffs earlier this year in the face of deep market turmoil.

The US imposed a tariff of 24 per cent on all imports from Japan on Trump’s so-called liberation day on April 2, before temporarily lowering it to 10 per cent for 90 days to allow talks to take place. 

The threat to increase tariffs on the world’s fourth-largest economy will heighten fears that Trump will reignite a global trade war if his officials fail to line up countries before the his own deadline next week.

US and Japanese trade officials have been locked in intense negotiations since earlier this year.

Trump also told reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday that he was not considering extending next week’s deadline for any countries to allow talks to continue.

The US president announced a 90-day pause to his reciprocal tariffs in April after his trade war triggered a bout of severe market turmoil and a steep sell-off of US bonds.

Trump claimed at the time that he would sign 90 deals during the hiatus, although only the UK has struck a new trade agreement with the US.

On Monday, the president suggested that some countries would be barred from trading altogether with the US. “But for the most part, we’re going to determine a number,” he added, referring to tariffs. 

Trump has accused Japan of being “spoiled” and refusing to commit to buying more American rice or to allow US-manufactured cars into its market.

Japan already faces a 10 per cent tariff on most of its exports to the US, but Japanese cars and car parts are also subject to a 25 per cent border tax tariff. Steel and aluminium face a 50 per cent levy.

Earlier on Tuesday, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the country would not sacrifice its farmers to secure tariff relief from the US.

The yen strengthened 0.4 per cent against the US dollar to ¥143.42 on Tuesday while the Nikkei 225 stock index, which had closed before Trump announced his latest tariff threat, lost 1.2 per cent.

US stocks ended the day lower, with the S&P 500 down 0.1 per cent. The two-year Treasury yield, which moves inversely to prices, rose 0.05 percentage points to 3.78 per cent.

Additional reporting by George Steer in New York

Harvard University failed to protect Jewish students from harassment, the Trump administration concluded after an investigation, threatening to cut all federal funding from the Ivy League school if it fails to take action

WASHINGTON — Harvard University failed to protect Jewish students from harassment, the Trump administration concluded after an investigation, threatening to cut all federal funding from the Ivy League school if it fails to take action.

A federal task force sent a letter to Harvard on Monday finding the university violated civil rights laws requiring colleges to protect students from discrimination based on race or national origin. It says investigators found Harvard was at times a “willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff” and that campus leaders allowed antisemitism to fester on the campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” officials said in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press and first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Harvard did not immediately comment.

It’s the latest intensification in the White House’s battle with Harvard, which lost more than $2.6 billion in federal funding after rejecting a list of federal demands calling for sweeping changes to campus governance, hiring and admissions.

____

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Tel Aviv — There was cautious optimism in Israel on Wednesday that the ceasefire with Iran would hold, at least for now. The 12-day conflict left 28 people dead in Israel and hundreds in Iran. The ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration — and enforced by President Trump personally on Tuesday as it looked perilously close to failing before it even took hold — led Israel’s Home Front Command to lift restrictions on movement in the country, with Ben Gurion International Airport reopening for commercial flights.

Shops and restaurants were open, and Israelis were out on the beach in Tel Aviv, which had been largely empty for days as Israel pounded Iranian nuclear, military, and other targets and Iran responded with volleys of missiles launched at Israel.

Both Israel and Iran were quick to claim victory. An Israeli military spokesman said Wednesday that the strikes on Iran had set the country’s nuclear program back by “many years,” while President Trump told reporters at a NATO summit in the Netherlands that Iran’s enrichment work was put back “basically decades.”

Those claims come despite an initial, classified U.S. military intelligence assessment that shows, according to three sources familiar who spoke with CBS News on Tuesday, that Iran’s nuclear capability was only set back by months, and not completely destroyed.

While both Israeli and U.S. officials have said publicly that a full assessment of the damage inflicted on Iran will take some time to compile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it an historic victory.

“We have removed the threat of annihilation by nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said in a video address on Tuesday evening. He made no specific mention of the damage believed to have been inflicted on Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Iran is “not going to have a bomb and they’re not going to enrich,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday.

Iran, meanwhile, tried to present its limited retaliatory attack targeting the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, home to thousands of U.S. forces, as a victory, despite none of the missiles hitting their target. Officials in the Islamic Republic made it clear that, regardless of the damage actually caused to Iran’s nuclear program, the country’s theocratic rulers intended to not only resume but accelerate its enrichment work — and without any oversight by the United Nations’ atomic watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran’s parliament convened Wednesday and lawmakers voted to fast-track a proposal that would effectively halt all cooperation with the IAEA – cooperation that expanded under the previous international nuclear agreement with Iran, and which has continued despite serious challenges since Mr. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pact during his first term. The IAEA’s board of governors voted, to Iran’s annoyance, just before Israel launched its attacks almost two weeks ago to censure the Islamic Republic for the first time in 20 years for not working with its inspectors.

Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticized the IAEA ahead of the vote on Wednesday, saying the agency “refused to even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.” He said for that reason, Iran’s domestic atomic energy agency “will suspend cooperation with the IAEA until security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and Iran’s peaceful nuclear program will move forward at a faster pace.”

The conflicting information about the degree to which Iran’s nuclear program has been degraded left some Israelis unsure about what comes next on Wednesday, including medical student Roy Meiri.

Asked if he felt safer, Meiri told CBS News, “I still don’t know, because I don’t really know the real harm that we did to them over there.”

But life in Israel, with the ceasefire holding, at least looked more like it did two weeks earlier. All of the country’s war-time restrictions were lifted by the military, and parents brought their children back to schools across the country.

After being cooped up at home for days, Alma Rustamov couldn’t wait to get her seven-year-old son Aaron to the beach.

“After they say there is no more war with Iran, first thing, we came here,” she told CBS News.

It was a hit to Israel’s economy, too. Chaim Ashkenazy’s restaurant in Tel Aviv usually does a non-stop trade in shawarmas, and he said the security lockdown meant a lot of lost money.

The Israeli military has said it will now turn its attention back to the decimated Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have been accused of mass killings, many of them near aid distribution sites as desperate Palestinians seek food, almost every day in recent weeks. The IDF has said the incidents are under review. 

Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Wednesday that at least 49 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours alone, trying to access aid. Body after body was brought into Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, on Tuesday slammed a controversial new aid distribution group backed by the U.S. and Israel as “a death trap costing more lives than it saves.”

With the ceasefire in Iran, however, there was renewed hope on Wednesday that the diplomacy could help revive talks to end the war in Gaza, and bring home the 20 Israeli hostages still believed to be alive.

Tucker Reals

contributed to this report.

The Education Department said Wednesday that Columbia University has violated federal antidiscrimination laws and has therefore failed to meet accreditation standards.

The department’s civil rights office notified the Middle States Commission on Higher Education — which accredits U.S. colleges and universities — that Columbia was out of compliance, according to a news release from the Education Department.

The department, citing President Trump’s executive order on accreditation standards, accused the university’s leaders of failing to address antisemitism on campus after the Oct. 7 attack against Israel by Hamas.

“After Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Columbia University’s leadership acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in the release. 

She noted that the accreditation commission has “an enormous public responsibility as gatekeepers of federal student aid,” and they “determine which institutions are eligible for federal student loans and Pell Grants.” Losing its accreditation would mean that Columbia would be ineligible to offer federal financial aid to students attending the university.

“In light of OCR’s determination, Columbia University no longer appears to meet the Commission’s accreditation standards,” the department release said.

A Columbia spokesperson told CBS News the school is aware of the Department of Education’s concerns and has “addressed those concerns directly with Middle States,” referring to its accreditor. The spokesperson also said the school is “deeply committed to combating antisemitism on our campus” and is “continuing to work with the federal government to address it.”

The accreditation group confirmed to CBS News it received a letter Wednesday on the Department of Education’s issues with Columbia, but did not comment further.

Last month, the civil rights offices of the Education Department and Department of Health and Human Services determined that Columbia had “failed to meaningfully protect Jewish students against severe and pervasive harassment on Columbia’s campus and consequently denied these students’ equal access to educational opportunities to which they are entitled under the law.” 

This is a developing story and will be updated.

President Trump threatened to impose a fresh round of tariffs Friday morning, including a 25% tariff on Apple if they do not shift some of their iPhone production to the U.S. 

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” he posted Friday on his Truth Social social media platform. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!”

In a subsequent post, Mr. Trump also threatened to impose a 50% tariff on the European Union, calling the group of countries “very difficult to deal with.”

“Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” the president said in his post on Truth Social. “Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.” 

“There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States,” he added.

President Trump met with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the White House on Wednesday, according to a White House official. The official did not disclose what was discussed at the meeting.

Mr. Trump imposed sweeping tariffs in early April but later announced he would exempt high-tech products, including Apple’s iPhone, which is primarily manufactured in China. Still, tariffs are expected to hurt the company’s earnings. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a May 1 earnings call that the stepped up U.S. levies could cost the company $900 million in the current quarter.

Apple shares fell 2.6% in early trading on Friday as broader financial markets also slid. The S&P 500 sank 60 points, or 1%, to 5,782, while the Dow Jones Industrial Complex and Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.7% and 1.1%, respectively. 

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Apple invests in India 

Mr. Trump’s threats come after Apple’s supplier, contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn, on Tuesday announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in its Indian operations. 

Apple continues to make most iPhones in China, but shifting its focus to other places like India, which is subject to lower levies than China.

Mr. Trump initially imposed a 26% tariff on India, but that’s on pause until July. A 10% universal tariff on goods shipped to the U.S. from overseas remains in place.

In a March earnings call, Cook noted that over half of the iPhones produced for sale in the U.S. now are made in India, Wedbush Securities tech analyst Daniel Ives said in a research note on Friday. On that call, Cook also indicated the company would increase iPhone assembly production in India by up to 65% by this fall.

Producing iPhones in the U.S. a “fairy tale”

Apple announced in February it would invest $500 billion in U.S. manufacturing over the next four years, a move the tech giant described as its “largest-ever spend commitment.” 

“This new pledge builds on Apple’s long history of investing in American innovation and advanced high-skilled manufacturing,” Apple posted in its announcement.

The move was cheered by the Trump administration, which has touted corporate investment in the U.S. following the rollout of the president’ tariffs.

As part of their investment, Apple said it would built a new 250,000-square-foot factory in Houston, Texas where they will produce servers, which have previously been built outside of the U.S. The company hasn’t announced any plans to ramp up domestic iPhone production.

Ives thinks Apple is unlikely to shift its smartphone production to the U.S., noting the much higher domestic manufacturing costs and that revamping its supply chains to make that possible would take years. Producing iPhones in the U.S. would lift the cost for higher-end models to as much as $3,500 each. 

“We believe the concept of Apple producing iPhones in the U.S. is a fairy tale that is not feasible,” he said.

President Trump has promoted tariffs as a way to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing, secure more favorable trade deals with other countries and advance the White House’s other policies, such as curbing unauthorized immigration and trafficking of illicit drugs.

Many trade experts are skeptical that higher U.S. tariffs are likely to spur an upsurge in domestic manufacturing. That’s because companies typically base the decision on where to locate factories more on factors including labor and energy costs, tax rates, political instability and the regulatory environment. 

BENGALURU, India — India’s plans to double steel production by the end of the decade could jeopardize its national climate goals and a key global target to reduce planet-heating gas emissions from the steel industry, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report by Global Energy Monitor, an organization that tracks energy projects around the globe, said efforts to decarbonize steelmaking are gaining traction around the world. However, in India, which is the world’s second largest steel-producing nation, overwhelming reliance on coal-based technologies presents a big challenge.

“India is now the bellwether of global steel decarbonization,” said Astrid Grigsby-Schulte, project manager of the Global Iron and Steel Tracker at GEM and report co-author. “If the country does not increase its plans for green steel production, the entire sector will miss an important milestone. So goes India, so goes the world.”

Currently, up to 12% of India’s greenhouse gas emissions, which go into the atmosphere and heat the planet, come from steelmaking. That number could double in five years if steel is produced in line with the government’s plans, according to the report.

At the same time, India wants to produce 500 gigawatts of clean power — enough to power nearly 300 million Indian homes — by the end of this decade. The South Asian nation recently crossed the milestone of installing 100 gigawatts of solar power, most of which was installed in the last 10 years.

By 2070, India also aims to go net zero, that is, it will either eliminate all carbon dioxide pollution it emits or cancel it out by using other methods, such as planting trees that absorb carbon.

Steel production is one of the most carbon polluting industries, responsible for nearly 9% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The International Energy Agency has set a target for 37% of global steelmaking capacity to rely on lower-emission electric arc furnaces by 2030. Current projections by GEM show the world reaching just 36% — a shortfall largely due to India’s coal-heavy pipeline.

India plans to expand its steel production capacity from 200 million to over 330 million tonnes per year by 2030. According to the new data, over 40% of global capacity in development — about 352 million tonnes per annum — is in India, with more than half of that using coal-based capacity.

“India is the only major steel-producing nation that has so much coal-based capacity in the pipeline,” said Henna Khadeeja, a research analyst with GEM who also worked on the report.

India’s steel sector releases approximately 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide per ton of steel, roughly 25% more than the global average. China, the world’s largest steelmaker, has managed to keep its emissions lower per ton by producing more scrap-based steel and retiring older coal-based plants.

India’s heavy dependence on coal for steelmaking is driven by a combination of factors: low-cost domestic coal, a relatively young fleet of blast furnaces that still have 20–25 years of operational life left, and a lack of natural gas and steel scrap. The country’s scrap recycling ecosystem remains informal, and high-quality iron ore is scarce.

“There is potential for India to change course,” said Khadeeja of GEM. “Much of the planned capacity is still on paper. Only 8% of it has actually broken ground. This means there is still a window to shift toward lower-emission technologies.”

The consequences of producing carbon polluting steel may go beyond climate goals. While India’s steel exports are only a small share of its overall production, they could suffer as major markets like the European Union begin enforcing carbon border taxes next year.

“India may be better off tolerating some short-term pain of technological upgrading to make its steel cleaner for long-term competitiveness gain,” said Easwaran Narassimhan of the New Delhi-based think tank Sustainable Futures Collaborative.

___

Follow Sibi Arasu on X at @sibi123 ___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

It has been nearly three years since the launch of the 988 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and since then, millions seeking help have used the call center as a life-saving resource. But understaffing and underfunding threaten to upend the hotline’s mission.

The nation’s 988 hotline works like 911, bringing critical access to care for those battling mental health emergencies. Counselor Alejandra takes calls at the nation’s largest suicide prevention center — Los Angeles’ Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services. That one center receives 20,000 calls and texts a month.

Alejandra said they became a counselor because they have “personal experience with suicidal thoughts.”

As a teen, Alejandra was diagnosed with cancer, causing them to spiral into despair.  

“I know what it’s like to go through this, or not feel comfortable reaching out,” Alejandra told CBS News. 

“When someone calls prevention, they’re already breaking through a lot of barriers and a lot of stigma,” Alejandra said. “So there is vulnerability and courage in those first few of moments. I breathe deeply because those are the moments where you show someone, ‘I’m glad you called.'”

Nationwide, calls increased 40% soon after the three-digit number was officially launched in 2022.

“Since 2022, 12 million people have contacted 988 for help. So what that tells us is that people want the help,” said Didi Hirsch CEO Lyn Morris, noting that these calls are oftentimes literal life or death situations.

“We have dealt with people calling our line who have either taken measures to end their life or are sitting at home with a gun in their lap,” she said.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association outlines that, while calls have gone up, access to care after those initial calls has not increased. The study’s authors are pushing for more awareness and funding to make 988 more effective for those in need.

“We want them to have a full crisis continuum of care,” Morris said. “We need more resources, we need more therapists, we need technology. We want to be able to answer those calls in the most efficient way possible.”

One in four adults in the U.S. lives with a diagnosable mental illness, according to the National Institutes of Health. But many more could be struggling without a diagnosis, and the numbers are expected to go up.

Meanwhile, public health services nationwide could face further federal cuts.

More than 10% of the staff working for the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, which oversees the 988 hotline, were fired last month amid cuts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. One SAMHSA employee said about a quarter of the agency’s communication team, who work to raise awareness about the hotline, were let go.

“The ultimate goal is for all Americans to have access to crisis care for mental health and substance use issues, in the way that 911 provides rapid response for physical health emergencies,” SAMHSA told CBS News in a statement. “The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is working diligently to support the development and sustainability of local treatment and support connected to 988, including the expansion of mobile crisis services and 24/7 walk-in crisis care clinics across the country. Transformation of this scale and building a cohesive crisis care system takes time, and there is more work needed to be able to deliver these critical services to the American public.”

Morris said additional cuts could lead to “a very dire situation.”

“If there was any funding cut to 988 or other mental health services, there would be more hospitalizations, more death, and more mental health issues,” she said.

---

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.

For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.

Sara Moniuszko

contributed to this report.

Donald Trump has threatened additional 50 per cent tariffs on China if Beijing does not withdraw its retaliatory levies on Washington by Tuesday.

“If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

The Trump administration hit China with 34 per cent in additional duties last week, stacked on top of the 20 per cent levies it had already imposed. In response, China increased levies on US goods by an additional 34 per cent, though it held back some firepower for any negotiations. 

Trump threatened to cancel all negotiations with China unless Beijing scaled back the levies: “all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!”, he said. However, people familiar with the situation in Beijing and Washington said there had been no serious discussions of any kind between the two capitals.

Trump’s threat to sharply boost duties on China, the world’s biggest exporter, came on a day of acute volatility in US markets.

The blue-chip S&P 500 share index swung in a wide range, but was down about 2 per cent at lunchtime in New York. Apple, which is heavily exposed to China through its supply chains, dropped nearly 6 per cent.

Commodity markets were also under pressure, with Brent crude, the international marker, and West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, each down about 2 per cent. Copper, a widely used industrial metal that is viewed as a proxy for sentiment on the global economy, fell 4 per cent.

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Donald Trump said he was “pissed off” with Vladimir Putin for foot-dragging in talks over a ceasefire with Ukraine, as the US president threatened secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil if no deal is done. 

Trump’s comments on Sunday revealed the frustration at the White House with the Russian president as negotiations over a settlement of the war in Ukraine continue without a clear breakthrough.

The new threat to hit imports from countries that purchase Russian oil come as Trump prepares to impose tariffs on goods from many of America’s largest trading partners on Wednesday. The president has proclaimed the moment “liberation day”, but the plan has caused turmoil in markets and anxiety among businesses and governments worldwide. 

Trump’s outburst at Moscow is a shift in tone for the US president, who for weeks blamed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, for being reluctant to strike a deal. 

The US president chided Putin for attacking Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as Kyiv’s leader.

“If we’re in the midst of a negotiation, you could say that I was very angry, pissed off . . . when Putin started getting into Zelenskyy’s credibility,” Trump told NBC News. “That’s not going in the right location, you understand?”

While Ukraine has agreed to American demands for a full 30-day ceasefire, Russia has rebuffed the plan and conceded only to a truce regarding energy infrastructure targets and maritime operations in the Black Sea — and only if the west first lifts sanctions on some agricultural goods.

Zelenskyy has accused Russia of breaking the energy ceasefire at least twice since it was agreed. “Russia must be forced into peace — only pressure will work,” he said this weekend.

Finland’s president Alexander Stubb, who spent seven hours with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday including a round of golf, told the Financial Times the US president was “running out of patience” with Putin over the ceasefire.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” said Stubb on a visit to London where he will on Monday brief British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on his discussions with Trump.

In a phone call on Sunday evening, the UK leader updated the US president on discussions between more than 30 nations supporting Kyiv in Paris this week. 

“The leaders agreed on the need to keep up the collective pressure on Putin,” according to a Downing Street spokesperson. Trump and Starmer also discussed negotiations on an economic deal between the two nations.

Stubb said he had proposed setting a deadline of April 20 — which marks three months since Trump returned to the White House — to accept a 30-day unconditional truce on land, sea and in the air. Both western and eastern Christian churches will celebrate Easter on April 20 this year, a rare calendar alignment.

“The Russians are stalling, they’re coming up with new conditions,” Stubb said. “Let’s call Putin’s bluff for what it is. Russia at this stage does not want peace. So we need to force peace on Russia.”

Stubb shared details of his meeting with Trump in a telephone call with Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president said on Sunday evening.

“We need to engage more with America, find ways to force Russia into peace, and work on security guarantees, which must become our next step after the ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said.

“Russia continues looking for excuses to drag this war out even further. Putin is playing the same game he has since 2014.”

Trump had previously threatened Russia with new tariffs and sanctions if it resisted an agreement, but expanding the trade bluster to buyers of Russian oil in other countries will add more pressure on Putin. 

“If a deal isn’t made, and if I think it was Russia’s fault, I’m going to put secondary sanctions on Russia,” Trump told NBC.

Trump did not offer a clear explanation of what the plan would involve. He said “anybody buying oil from Russia will not be able to sell their product, any product, not just oil, into the United States”, but also said there would be a “25 to 50-point tariff on all oil”. 

The US president added that he would slap “secondary tariffs” on Iran if they failed to make a deal on its nuclear programme, as he renewed his threat of “bombing” Tehran if they did not strike an agreement.

Additional reporting by Jim Pickard in London

Washington — President Trump on Thursday threatened to impose tariffs on wines, Champagnes and other alcoholic products imported to the U.S. from France and other European countries in response to raised tariffs the European Union placed on American whiskey.

In a post to Truth Social, the social media company the president owns, Mr. Trump said the U.S. will retaliate against the European Union after it announced Wednesday that it would be increasing tariffs on U.S.-made whiskey to 50%.

“If this tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% tariff on all wines, champagnes, & alcoholic products coming out of France and other E.U. represented countries,” he wrote. “This will be great for the wine and champagne businesses in the U.S.”

Mr. Trump accused the EU of being “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the world.” 

Since returning to office, the president has threatened tariffs, and imposed the levies, on a host of major U.S. trading partners. On Wednesday, he increased tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%, prompting retaliatory action from the EU.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement Wednesday that the countermeasures from the EU are worth 26 billion euros, or $28 billion. The tariffs, set to take effect April 1, target a range of U.S. exports, including beef, poultry, bourbon, jeans and peanut butter.

“We deeply regret this measure,” von der Leyen said. “Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and worse for consumers. They are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up.”

The U.S. exported $1.2 billion in wine and related products in 2024, including more than $167 million to the EU, according to the Department of Agriculture. It is the top importer of wine, bringing in nearly $4.9 billion worth in 2023. France and Italy were the top partners for importing both wine and Champagne into the U.S.

Champagne is a sparkling wine from the Champagne region in northeast France. If it is made outside of that region, it is called sparkling wine.

Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group representing the U.S. spirits industry, called the EU’s announcement to reimpose heightened tariffs on American whiskey “deeply disappointing”

“Reimposing these debilitating tariffs at a time when the spirits industry continues to face a slowdown in U.S. marketplace will further curtail growth and negatively impact distillers and farmers in states across the country,” Swonger said in a statement. “We urge the U.S. and EU governments to come to a resolution that gets our spirits industry back to zero-for-zero tariffs.”

According to the Distilled Spirits Council, a retaliatory tariff imposed in 2018 during Mr. Trump’s first term, caused exports of U.S.-made whiskey to drop 20%. But over the last three years, exports to the EU grew nearly 60% from $439 million in 2021 to $699 million in 2024, the trade group said.

Since returning to the White House for a second term, Mr. Trump has made tariffs a key area of his economic agenda, though the levies have sparked concerns of a recession and roiled the stock market. The president declined to rule out the possibility of an economic downturn, telling Fox News in an interview that aired Sunday that “there is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.”

In an interview with CBS News, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday that Mr. Trump’s economic policies are “the most important thing America has ever had” when asked whether they would be worth it if they lead to a recession. “It’s worth it.”

Lutnick added, “The only reason there could possibly be a recession is because the Biden nonsense that we had to live with. These policies produce revenues. They produce growth. They produce factories being built here.”

The president’s trade war escalated this month with 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, as well as an additional 10% tax on goods imported from China, taking effect last week. Beijing imposed retaliatory measures that went into force Monday that target U.S. farmers with levies of 15% on chicken, wheat and corn, and 10% on soybeans, pork, beef and fruit.

The president, however, swiftly reversed course on the levies on imports from Mexico and Canada, pausing the tariffs covered under a 2020 trade deal negotiated during his first administration until April 2. That agreement, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, covers the majority of goods imported from Mexico. Those that are not subject to the deal, however, still face tariffs.

Mr. Trump has also exempted other products from his planned tariffs, including providing a one-month exemption to U.S. automakers that were bracing to be hit hard by the levies on vehicle parts and components imported from Canada, Mexico and China.

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Honda has proposed turning Nissan into a fully owned subsidiary in a move that threatens the collapse of $58bn merger talks to create the world’s fourth-largest automaker, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The two rivals announced discussions on a combination in December, but just over 40 days later the talks have already soured, as Honda faces both shareholder and internal pressure to take full control of Nissan to turn around the ailing automaker.

The latest proposal deviates from initial plans to bring the two companies under a jointly owned holding company, in a structure that would have provided room to retain Nissan’s brand and decision-making powers.

Tensions emerged early in the negotiations as the rivals clashed over the equity ratio and valuation of their assets, according to people with knowledge of the talks.

Nissan executives were taken aback by the fresh proposal, but the company has not finalised its response, the people said, adding that a board meeting would be held this afternoon.

Last week, France’s Renault had urged Nissan to negotiate a higher premium on its stake from Honda to account for Honda taking control, pressuring its alliance partner not to drag out talks, out of concern it needed to focus on reviving its business.

Nissan had originally pitched the deal as “a merger of equals” to convince factions inside the group to integrate with Honda, but people close to Renault said it was essentially Honda taking control of its Japanese partner.

Nissan’s weak financial performance has led to its market capitalisation collapsing to a fifth of Honda’s, skewing the balance of power in negotiations.

The talks were also triggered after Taiwanese iPhone contract manufacturer Foxconn approached Renault about acquiring part of its 36 per cent stake in Nissan late last year. Renault had been offloading its shareholding in Nissan following a restructuring of their 25-year alliance in 2023.

Shares in Nissan surged 7 per cent and those in Honda were also up 3.5 per cent, following Japanese media first reporting the new proposal.

During the press conference unveiling an early-stage agreement for merger talks, Honda chief executive Toshihiro Mibe said the holding company structure was needed to protect both brands, even though Honda would initially take the lead.

He warned multiple times that the merger would only proceed if Nissan successfully executed a turnaround plan that involved cutting production capacity by 20 per cent and shedding 9,000 jobs.

Honda and Nissan said in statements on Wednesday that they had originally planned to finalise and announce the direction of the management integration by the end of January but that plan has been pushed back to mid-February.

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Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Thursday evening he would pull his Jewish Power party out of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government if it implemented the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Mediators said on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed a multiphase deal to halt the 15-month-old war and free the 98 hostages still held in Gaza.

However Ben-Gvir and his ultranationalist ally, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, have repeatedly threatened to leave Netanyahu’s government if it accepts an agreement that ends the war.

Ben-Gvir repeated that threat on Thursday, but said his party could return to the government if it subsequently resumed the war.

Netanyahu’s cabinet will gather on Friday to discuss approval of the Gaza ceasefire deal, according to an Israeli official, after the premier previously delayed the meeting, accusing Hamas of backtracking on the agreement.

The departure of Jewish Power would leave Netanyahu’s coalition with a two-seat majority in Israel’s parliament.

It would also pile pressure on Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party to pull out of Netanyahu’s government, a move that would be likely to cost the veteran premier his majority.

This is a developing story

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100% tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the U.S. dollar.

His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRIC alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining.

While the U.S. dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed up with America’s dominance of the global financial system.

Trump, in a Truth Social post, said: “We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy.”

At a summit of BRIC nations in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. of “weaponizing” the dollar and described it as a “big mistake.”

“It’s not us who refuse to use the dollar,” Putin said at the time. “But if they don’t let us work, what can we do? We are forced to search for alternatives.”

Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network, SWIFT, and allow Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with partners.

Trump said there is “no chance” BRIC will replace the U.S. dollar in global trade and any country that tries to make that happen “should wave goodbye to America.”

The tariffs, if implemented, could dramatically raise prices on everything from gas to automobiles.

Originally Published: November 25, 2024 at 4:34 PM PST

Donald Trump’s election as US president is already threatening international initiatives on climate change and taxation, as diplomats from the world’s richest nations struggle to maintain a shaky consensus on the eve of a G20 summit in Brazil.

Argentina and its President Javier Milei, a close ally of Trump, threatened to block a joint communique set to be endorsed by G20 leaders at the Rio de Janeiro meeting that begins on Monday, because of objections related to taxation of the super-rich and gender equality, people briefed on the negotiations told the Financial Times.

Diplomats were racing to reach a final consensus on statements related to climate finance and geopolitical issues such as Russia’s war against Ukraine, the people said, as leaders began arriving in the Brazilian city.

Negotiators for the 20 participant nations, plus the EU and African Union, said a compromise text had been circulated for preliminary approval on Sunday evening, but it was unclear whether all countries would ultimately agree to it.

Brazilian officials were expecting bilateral negotiations with the Argentine delegation, said a person briefed on the talks.

The struggle to agree on how much developing nations should contribute to financial efforts to combat global warming mirrored negotiations at the UN COP29 climate summit taking place simultaneously in Baku.

Milei’s stance has heightened the concerns of many western diplomats who fear Trump’s election will embolden his conservative allies and spark an exodus of countries from ambitious agreements on issues such as global warming. Trump has vowed to pull the US out of the Paris climate accords.

“[The Argentine government] wants to make the G20 in Brazil a test between old and new forces,” said one Brazilian official. “After a year of negotiations on taxation and consensus they are creating problems on things they accepted before, word by word.”

Buenos Aires’ opposition to the initial draft communique prepared by the leaders’ representatives in the Brazilian city followed Milei’s talks with Trump in Florida on Thursday, in the US president-elect’s first meeting with a foreign leader since his poll victory.

Argentina was the only country to vote against a UN resolution last week, denouncing online violence against women and girls.

“We are seeing some negotiations in the G20, and I am asking all the countries to have a spirit of consensus . . . to transform this meeting to one of success,” António Guterres, UN secretary-general, told reporters on Sunday when asked about Argentina’s stance. “If G20 will be split, it will lose its global leverage and influence.”

The Rio summit, where Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will convene discussions focused on combating poverty, governance reform in international institutions and climate, is the first gathering of leaders from the world’s most powerful countries since the US election, after many skipped the COP29 summit.

Many officials present at the event, where Lula is to launch a global alliance against hunger, fear it will be overshadowed by the knowledge that Trump is opposed to many of its planned conclusions.

“We’re all supposed to sit there and talk about the future of global co-operation and pretend that there’s not this guy on his way [to the White House] who couldn’t care less,” said a European official involved in the communique negotiations. “It’s hard to see how anything decided [here] has much of a future.”

Argentina objected to the inclusion of language around taxation that Milei’s government agreed to last month at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, according to people briefed on the talks.

The October declaration pledged to “work together towards a fairer, more inclusive, stable and efficient international tax system fit for the 21st century, restating our commitment to tax transparency and fostering global dialogue on effective taxation, including of ultra-high-net-worth individuals”. 

Milei was also opposed to a reference to the Paris agreement and a commitment to “stay united in the pursuit of the accord’s goals”, officials said. Another point of Argentine resistance was reference to the US’s 2030 agenda on sustainable development. 

Milei pulled his team of negotiators from the COP29 summit this week, as negotiators in Baku grapple with trying to make progress on a deal to raise more global funds for climate finance.

The struggle to agree the G20 communique added to existing tensions within the group over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war in the Middle East. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the Rio summit, but his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping is expected to continue Beijing’s position of blocking western efforts to condemn Moscow for the war against its neighbour.

It will also be the final summit for US President Joe Biden, whose administration sought to leverage multilateral organisations such as Nato, the G7 and G20 to find responses to issues such as the Ukraine war.

“So, all this work that we have done with the US [under Biden] — what do we do with it now?” said a senior European diplomat. “We have lost the initiative.

“Biden always tried to consult with us as much as possible,” the diplomat added. “Trump will just go his own way.”