MAGA oligarchs’ policies threaten to ruin Christmas COMMENT | THE CONTRARIAN | This week, Donald Trump spotlighted for pro-democracy forces his greatest political vulnerability. He gave it away on Tuesday, in his tiff with Amazon founder (and Washington Post owner) Jeff Bezos. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt scolded Amazon …
Read More »Trump administration’s 1st 100 days push Mideast further into ‘arena of destruction,’ says expert
BEIRUT | Xinhua | The Trump administration’s first 100 days in office have pushed the Middle East further into “an arena of deals and more destruction,” a Lebanese expert has said. The administration’s handling of Mideast affairs exposed a foreign policy approach driven by short-term interests, reckless bargaining and a …
Read More »Could Trump trash the US-Africa AGOA trade pact?
African nations have enjoyed duty-free access to the US market for over two decades under the AGOA. What if US President Trump refuses to renew it? ANALYSIS | ADWOA TENKORAMAA DOMENA | The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade agreement at the core of US economic policy on Africa, …
Read More »What’s behind Trump’s spat with Fed Chair Jerome Powell?
WASHINGTON | Xinhua | After branding Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as a “major loser” and suggesting he might oust him, U.S. President Donald Trump reversed course on Tuesday, stating he had “no intention of firing” Powell. Trump’s about-face came after U.S. stocks and the dollar took another dive …
Read More »Will Trump unite China and Europe?
COMMENT | NANCY QIAN | With little economic or political rationale, US President Donald Trump has introduced some of the highest tariffs in more than a century, and imposed them on nearly every economy in the world. Then, suddenly, despite his insistence that the tariffs were here to stay, he paused the …
Read More »How Trump’s tariffs could wreak havoc on North America’s auto supply chains
NEW YORK | Xinhua | Ford CEO Jim Farley warned at a recent investor conference in New York that levying steep tariffs on imported goods “would blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we’ve never seen.” For years, the U.S. auto supply chains have been deeply integrated with its …
Read More »Canada eyes China-style gains in Africa with first-ever strategy
Canada debuts its first-ever strategy for Africa, as Ottawa seeks to diversify markets and blunt geopolitical shocks amid rising trade tensions with Washington. SPECIAL REPORT | BIRD AGENCY | Early in March, Canada unveiled its much-touted Global Africa Strategy in a subdued Toronto event, timed eight days before a cabinet …
Read More »Harvard says ‘no’ to Trumpism
Harvard University rejects Trump administration’s demands on sweeping changes WASHINGTON | Xinhua | Harvard University on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s demands to make sweeping changes to its governance, hiring and admissions practices, despite billions of dollars in federal funding being at risk if it fails to comply. “We have …
Read More »Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’
Why it could usher in economic catastrophe by reducing demand for US exports while increasing the cost of living domestically COMMENT | CHRIS LEHMANN | So far Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day”—his midweek announcement of a battery of reciprocal tariffs intended to punish longtime US trading partners—has been greeted with a ringing …
Read More »Is AGOA gone with Trump’s new tariffs?
Analysts say the new tariffs suggest that the renewal of the initiative is extremely unlikely COVER STORY | THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES | In what has been described as one of the most disruptive moments in trade history, U.S. President Donald Trump on April 02 unleashed sweeping tariffs on nearly all …
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