Trump says tariff rates could be up to 70% as letters ship out
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This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.
The new duties will go into effect on 1 August, and letters will be sent out to countries in batches announcing new tariff rates. Bloomberg reported that '10 or 12' letters will be sent on Friday, with the next set to be sent out 'over the next few days'.
Trump told reporters, 'I think by the ninth they'll be fully covered,' referring to the deadline for countries to either comply or deny the new import duties set by the US. 'They'll range in value from maybe 60 or 70% tariffs to 10 and 20% tariffs,' he stated.
The US is still amid trade deals with hundreds of partners. With China, the US laid off on export restrictions in May, which led to a cooldown of trade tensions after months of threatening to increase rates. Similarly, Canada has resumed trade talks after the digital services tax was scrapped.
US negotiations with Japan are still ongoing, with the Trump stating that Japan will face duties higher than 30-35%.
The European Union is willing to accept a 10% universal tariff, according to reports, but will seek exemptions in several sectors. Trump has threatened a 50% duty on the EU's imports.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that around 100 trade partners will likely receive a 'reciprocal' rate of 10% by next week, and that a 'flurry' of deals will be negotiated before 9 July.
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed the 'big beautiful' bill that could increase national debt by $3.3 million, makes tax cuts for Trump's first presidency permanent, and cut Medicaid.
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Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Inside China's horrifying torture jails from gang-rape, human experiments and organ harvesting to inmates having nails ripped out and limbs bent back on notorious 'tiger chairs'
Mass sterilisation, mysterious injections, organ extractions and gang rape - these are just some of the sadistic conditions prisoners face in China, according to activists. Horrifying accounts of sexual abuse, torture, forced confessions and human experimentation have led rights groups to accuse the country of crimes against humanity. A shocking 2015 Amnesty International report revealed the inhumane conditions prisoners endured, and detailed how they were routinely slapped, kicked and hit with shoes or water-filled bottles. Prisoners described being strapped in so-called 'tiger chairs', with their legs tied to a bench as bricks attached to the bottom of their feet forced their legs backwards, causing them unimaginable pain. Amnesty also found that dozens of Chinese firms were producing 'tools of torture', ranging from electric chairs to deadly metal spiked rods. A separate report from Human Rights Watch in 2015 claimed Chinese detainees were being beaten and hanged by their wrists. 'Police are torturing criminal suspects to get them to confess to crimes and courts are convicting people who confessed under torture', the report said. The rights group cited former detainees as saying they were physically and psychologically tortured during police interrogations, including being whacked with electric batons, sprayed with chilli oil and deprived of sleep. Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council has been warned that China is actively selling human organs on an industrial scale, with body parts of prisoners - such as kidneys, livers and lungs - removed from them while they are still alive. While Beijing has repeatedly denied accusations that it forcibly takes organs from inmates, one survivor of organ harvesting in China revealed the horrific ordeal he endured at the hands of state-sanctioned surgeons. Between 1999 and 2006, Cheng Pei Ming faced relentless persecution for his religious and spiritual beliefs by the Chinese Communist Party, during which he is believed to have been repeatedly tortured. Cheng says he was taken to a hospital where doctors pressured him into signing consent forms for surgery In one of the most chilling episodes of his captivity, Cheng was taken to a hospital where doctors pressured him into signing consent forms for surgery. When he refused, he was immediately injected with an unknown substance which knocked him out. He awoke with a massive incision down the left side of his chest, and scans later confirmed that segments of Cheng's liver and lung had been removed. Images that surfaced on a website that shares information about the practice of organ harvesting clearly show an unconscious Cheng, which he suspects were taken by a shocked nurse or hospital worker. Beijing has denied any wrongdoing, but it admitted that organs were taken out of executed prisoners up until 2015. But many human rights organisations insist that China continues to harvest the organs of the country's oppressed ethnic minorities held in prisons. Internationals detained in China have also exposed the country's vicious treatment of prisoners and its brutal psychological torture methods. One Canadian man, who was detained by Chinese authorities for more than 1,000 days, claimed he was put into solitary confinement for months and interrogated for up to nine hours every day. ormer diplomat Michael Kovrig, his wife Vina Nadjibulla and sister Ariana Botha walk following his arrival on a Canadian air force jet after his release from detention in China, at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 25, 2021. He described the mental torture he suffered while detained Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, was taken into custody in December 2018 in China and was accused of spying. In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp last year, he described how there was no daylight in his solitary cell, where the fluorescent lights were kept on 24 hours a day. At one point, his food ration was cut to three bowls of rice a day. 'It was psychologically absolutely, the most gruelling, painful thing I've ever been through,' he said. 'It's a combination of solitary confinement, total isolation, and relentless interrogation for six to nine hours every day,' he said. 'They are trying to bully and torment and terrorize and coerce you ... into accepting their false version of reality.' Another example that has sparked international condemnation are the harrowing prison camps hidden deep within the remote Xingjiang province in western China. Branded by the government as re-education facilities, the camps are believed to hold approximately one million inmates - most of whom are Uighur Muslim - for 'vocational training', which the government argues is necessary in the region to alleviate poverty and fight extremism. Horrifying accounts of the inhumane conditions inmates endure in these facilities have led human rights groups to accuse China of crimes against humanity and possible genocide. Picture shows watchtowers on a high-security facility near what is believed to a re-educatiion camp on the outskirts of Hotan in Xiangjing The barbarity of Beijing's clandestine prisons has been detailed by those who have been lucky enough to escape. Sayragul Sauytbay, a Uighur Muslim, was forced into a camp in 2017, where she was made to teach other prisoners Chinese in a bid to strip them of their identity and indoctrinate them into the Communist regime. After being released from the camp a year later, she fled China and bravely told of the savagery she witnessed in a 2019 interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz. She described a world where prisoners were shackled, sleep deprived and subjected to humiliating punishments inside Beijing's brutal gulags. In her testimony, Sauytbay also went as far as comparing the Chinese bid to crush traditional cultures in the Xinjiang region to Nazi efforts to eradicate the Jews. During her time at the camp, she claims to have witnessed the use of mass surveillance by authorities, forced marriage, secret medical procedures, sterilisation and torture. Sauytbay described how inmates were stripped of all of their possessions upon arrival and were handed military-style uniforms. She also claimed that punishments were carried out in a so-called 'black room', a nickname given to it by prisoners because they were banned from talking about it. Tortures included being forced to sit on a chair covered with nails, beatings with electrified truncheons and having fingernails torn out. In one chillingly cruel instance, she saw an elderly woman get her skin flayed off and her fingernails ripped out for a minor act of defiance. Describing the sleeping arrangements at the camp, Sauytbay said around 20 inmates were crammed into a room measuring 50ft by 50ft, with a single bucket for a toilet. She also highlighted how people were constantly watched, with cameras installed in dormitories and corridors. Women were systematically raped, she claimed, and said that she was forced to watch a woman be repeatedly assaulted. In one instance, she saw how a woman was raped by guards as part of a forced confession. 'While they were raping her they checked to see how we were reacting. People who turned their head or closed their eyes, and those who looked angry or shocked, were taken away and we never saw them again,' she said. 'It was awful. I will never forget the feeling of helplessness, of not being able to help her.' Sauytbay also claimed that inmates were routinely starved, but on Fridays, Muslim inmates were force-fed pork and spent hours learning political slogans such as 'I love Xi Jinping.' Mysterious medical experiments were also commonplace, with Sauytbay witnessing how prisoners were given pills or injections. 'Some prisoners were cognitively weakened. Women stopped getting their period and men became sterile.' Another Uighur woman who escaped a detention camp detailed the torture and abuse she experienced at the hands of Chinese authorities. Mihrigul Tursun told reporters in a 2018 press conference in Washington that she was interrogated for four days in a row without sleep, had her head shaved and was subjected to intrusive medical examination following her arrest the year prior. 'I thought that I would rather die than go through this torture and begged them to kill me,' she tearfully told reporters at a meeting at the National Press Club. She also spoke of how her and other inmates were forced to take medication, including pills that made them faint. One day, Tursun recalled, she was led into a room and placed in a high chair, and her legs and arms were locked in place. 'The authorities put a helmet-like thing on my head, and each time I was electrocuted, my whole body would shake violently and I would feel the pain in my veins,' Tursun said. 'I don't remember the rest. White foam came out of my mouth, and I began to lose consciousness,' Tursun said. 'The last word I heard them saying is that you being an Uighur is a crime.' But their account are not the only evidence of of China's atrocious treatment of Uighur prisoners. Drone footage released in 2019 showed apparently Uighur prisoners being unloaded from a train. The detainees appeared to be blindfolded and shackled, their heads shaved. In 2022, a series of police files obtained by the BBC revealed details of China's use of these camps, and described the use of armed officers and a shoot-to-kill policy for those who dared escape. Other reports have claimed that Uighur women have been forced to marry Han Chinese men, many of them government officials. According to a report from the Uighur Human Rights Project, the Chinese government has imposed forced inter-ethnic marriages on young Uighur women under the guise of 'promoting unity and social stability'. But defectors claim that women who have fallen victim into coerced marriages often endure unimaginable abuse, including rape. Another brave Chinese whistle-blower exposed the brutal tactics used by police and guards at re-education centres in Xinjiang. The unnamed Chinese defector spoke to Sky News in 2021, in which he revealed the conditions he witnessed as a police officer in one of the prison camps. He spoke of how prisoners were brought to the re-education facilities on crowded trains and detailed how they would be handcuffed to each other and have hoods placed over their heads to prevent them from escaping. He also revealed how detainees would not be given food onboard the trains and would only be given minimal amounts of water. They were also forbidden from going to the toilet 'to keep order'. It is believed that China implemented the use of re-education camps following an eruption of anti-government protests and deadly terror attacks. In response, President Xi Jinping demanded an all-out 'struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism' with 'absolutely no mercy', according to leaked documents. China denied the existence of camps for Uighur people for years, but when images of the centres began to emerge, Beijing changed its story. The government now acknowledges the existence of the camps but has stood by the fact that they are 'vocational education and training centres' aimed at 'stamping out extremism.' The demonstrators protest against the International Olympics Committee's (IOC) decision to award 2022's Winter Olympics to China amid the country's record of human rights violations in Hongkong and Tibet as well as crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. February 03, 2022 President Xi Jinping recently vowed to reduce corruption and improve transparency in the legal system. The crackdown is predominantly focused on the Uighurs, an ethnic minority group of about 12 million people related to the Turks. But efforts from the Chinese government have also targeted other Muslim groups such as Kazakhs, Tajiks and Uzbeks. And just this week, rights groups have claimed that China is preparing to dramatically scale up forced organ donations from Uighur Muslims and other persecuted minorities held in detention camps. The claim comes after China's National Health Commission announced plans last year to triple the number of medical facilities capable of performing organ transplants in the Xinjiang region, home to the vast majority of Uyghurs in the country. The expanded facilities will reportedly be authorised to perform transplants of all major organs, including hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys and pancreas. The move has prompted warnings from rights campaigners and international human rights experts who say the planned expansion aims to fuel industrial-scale organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience. Despite China's attempts to downplay the severity of its prisons , it recently issued a rare admission that torture and unlawful detention take place in the country's justice system and has vowed to crack down on illegal practices by law enforcement. The country's opaque justice system has long been criticised over the disappearance of defendants, the targeting of dissidents and regularly forcing confessions through torture. The country's top prosecutorial body the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) has occasionally called out abuses while President Xi Jinping has vowed to reduce corruption and improve transparency in the legal system. The SPP announced last week the creation of a new investigation department to target judicial officers who 'infringe on citizens' rights' through unlawful detention, illegal searches and torture to extract confessions. Its establishment 'reflects the high importance... attached to safeguarding judicial fairness, and a clear stance on severely punishing judicial corruption', the SPP said in a statement. China has frequently denied allegations of torture levelled at it by the United Nations and rights bodies, particularly accusations of ill-treatment of political dissidents and minorities. Drone footage emerged showing police leading hundreds of blindfolded and shackled men from a train in what was believed to be a transfer of inmates in Xinjiang The Chinese government has acknowledged the existence of the camps but has stood by the fact that they are 'vocational education and training centres' But several recent cases involving the mistreatment of suspects have drawn public ire despite China's strictly controlled media. A senior executive at a mobile gaming company in Beijing died in custody in April last year, allegedly taking his own life, after public security officials detained him for more than four months in the northern region of Inner Mongolia. The man had been held under the residential surveillance at a designated location system, where suspects are detained incognito for long stretches without charge, access to lawyers and sometimes any contact with the outside world. Several public security officials were accused in court this month of torturing a suspect to death in 2022, including by using electric shocks and plastic pipes, while he was held. The SPP also released details last year of a 2019 case in which several police officers were jailed for using starvation and sleep deprivation on a suspect and restricting his access to medical treatment. The suspect was eventually left in a 'vegetative state', the SPP said.
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Gen Z takes being American for granted
In the 2025 iteration of this poll, a staggering 92% of Republicans were "extremely" or "very" proud to be American, whereas just 53% of independents and 36% of Democrats reported feeling the same. Until 2016, Democrats and Republicans remained rather similar in their patriotism, with both reaching values above 80% before the election of President Donald Trump. However, modern patriotism among Democrats is dependent on who is in the White House, rather than any genuine love of America. During the time that Joe Biden was in the White House, Republican pride in being American bottomed out at 84%. Over the same period, Democrats rose to a peak of just 62%. One significant driver of this decline is Generation Z, born between 1997 to 2012, whose patriotism lags far behind previous generations. Just 41% of Gen Z is extremely or very proud to be American, and among young Democrats, that falls to just 24%. Partisanship is getting in the way of patriotism for Democrats Being proud to be American has absolutely nothing to do with being proud of our current leaders. In their fluctuations in pride depending on who is in the White House, Democrats have lost sight of this. I am one of the most critical people of our government out there, and I think of that as being borne out of my patriotism. Criticizing the government when it does not strengthen America's foundational principles is a patriotic act. My fellow columnist Rex Huppke has the right idea. "We can love this country and loathe the people in charge," he wrote in a recent column. "We can be simultaneously proud of this country and embarrassed of the things being done in its name." Tell us: This Fourth of July, are you proud to be an American? | Opinion Forum Now, obviously, I am no Democrat, but it saddens me that this same principle apparently does not hold for many of them. To many Democrats in modern times, it seems as if their love for this country is contingent on their preferred candidates being in power. Interestingly, this seems to be a problem unique to Democrats. While some Republicans seemingly faltered in their patriotism over the previous four years, they did not see the massive swing between the Biden and Trump presidencies that Democrats saw over the same period. This is all evidence of the fact that Democrats have attached their pride to a political movement, rather than to a love of America's founding principles. For some, this is a problem of them simply being blinded by partisanship. For others, however, it marks a much deeper problem. America's failures to live up to her founding principles at times are not evidence of those principles being bad; they are evidence of human nature being imperfect. Gen Z doesn't know how good we have it Much of Gen Z has been captured by the progressive left, many of whom do genuinely believe that America's institutions and system of government need to be torn down completely. These revolutionaries are responsible for the complete lack of patriotism among Gen Z. Opinion: Senate just passed Trump's Big Beautiful Bill - and made it even uglier Gen Z doesn't realize how lucky we are. We live in the greatest country and in the greatest time in history. There is no collective group that has it better at any point in history than we do right now. Many will disagree with me on this point, but they are mistaken. There is no place better constructed to safeguard your individual liberties than here. While we are very obviously imperfect in that goal, no other nation on earth is better equipped to pursue liberty through the freedoms that our Constitution protects. Tearing down the system that has led to such a wonderful place would be a mistake. Within a framework designed to preserve liberty is the best place to enact whatever political change it is that you want, unless your goal is not liberty. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. Those who advocate against America's foundation might feel entitled - in the sense that they believe it is the job of government to provide for them - have taken the freedoms that we have for granted or are delusional about how good others have it. I do not know how to solve the problem of restoring patriotism to those who have lost it. I am sympathetic to the frustrations young Americans have with the state of our politics, and I am hopeful that Gen Z will learn that they are better off trying to change this country, rather than destroy it. America is a wonderful place, and you would do best to fight for your political causes within her structure of liberty, rather than attempting to tear it down. Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘It's offensive': voices from Iran as fans face 2026 World Cup travel ban
'It's offensive for any football fan to be prevented from participating in the World Cup, not just Iranians,' Ali Rezaei of Tehran's Borna News Agency says. In March, the national team became the second to qualify for the 2026 World Cup that will be hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States. In June, Donald Trump authorised the dropping of bombs on Iran and hit the country with a travel ban. As things stand, while the national team will be able to enter the US next summer, fans – and perhaps media – will not. Residents of Tehran and other cities may have had enough to deal with of late, but still, being barred from entry stings, even if Iranians have long found it difficult to get into the US. 'If the US government has issues with the Iranian regime for any reason, it should not result in discrimination against Iranian citizens,' Behnam Jafarzadeh, a writer for leading sports site Varzesh3, says. 'If someone hasn't committed any illegal activity, why should they be punished? It's not just about the World Cup – the policy needs to change in general.' What can Iran do? 'Boycotting the World Cup is not a solution,' Siavash Pakdaman, a Tehran-based fan, says. 'Refusing to play on US soil would be a dangerous precedent – any host country could start excluding teams it has issues with. Just as the Iranian delegation can and should be present at the United Nations in the US, the Iranian team should also play on American soil if the draw requires it – without relocation.' There is a feeling that staying away would not make much difference anyway. 'It would only deprive the national team of the opportunity to participate in a major tournament and would ultimately hurt Iran more,' Jafarzadeh says. 'It might even be welcomed by some American officials. It could make headlines briefly, but once the tournament starts, it will be forgotten and will have achieved nothing.' Questions have been asked – including in Iran, whose supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has long banned competing against Israeli athletes – about what the international reaction would have been if Qatar had banned citizens from certain nations from attending the 2022 World Cup. 'If the USA makes it difficult for football fans to attend, then changing the host country is necessary,' Rezaei says. 'Doing so would harm the USA's reputation, not the World Cup's. If strict entry rules remain, we should focus on protecting football. This is supposed to be a celebration of sport.' Jafarzadeh is not confident that the competition could be taken away from the busiest of the three hosts. 'It is not a challenge Fifa and [its president Gianni] Infantino would want to take on.' Perhaps there is another way. 'Fifa should use all of its influence to push for a suspension of this policy at least during the World Cup.' Fifa may find it easier to place Iran in Canada or Mexico and hope that Iran don't make it to the latter stages, when there would have to be a game in the US. 'Playing in Mexico or Canada is not a real solution – it just ignores the actual problem,' Rezaei says. Many expect it to happen anyway. 'Canada has a large Iranian immigrant population, although some of them are opponents of the Iranian regime and the national team can't count on their support,' Jafarzadeh says. 'Mexico is probably a more attractive and less controversial destination for the team.' That is another question. The Iranian-American community is more than a million strong yet many of these headed west before, or in response to, the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion 'It seems that many Iranians who oppose the government consider the national team to be a representation of the regime – which I believe is wrong,' Pakdaman says. 'And since a larger number of these opponents live in the US, the team may face pressure from the audience during the matches. Of course, I hope my analysis is wrong.' Jafarzadeh, who went to the World Cups in Russia and Qatar and would love to go to the United States, says: 'Some see the team as one that represents the regime, and this sentiment is even stronger among Iranians living abroad. Of course, the war with Israel has stirred feelings of patriotism among many Iranians, but I'm not sure if this will translate into support for the national team. We'll have to wait and see how things unfold in the coming months.' That there is time is perhaps a small reason for optimism that things could change. Iran is one of 19 countries subject to a full or partial US entry ban. Several of the others retain hope of qualifying for the first 48-team World Cup, including Sudan, Sierra Leone, Venezuela and Haiti. 'Considering that there is almost a year left until the 2026 World Cup, there is a possibility that the situation may stabilise,' says Isa Azimi, a columnist and translator, regarding Iran's situation, though he is not confident. 'Despite claims of separating politics from football, Fifa has shown that it is not particularly independent when facing major political powers.' Especially when Infantino appears to prize his close relationship with Trump. 'If Fifa considers itself a global body independent of governments, it must stand up to such laws and not allow politics to contaminate the world of sports,' Pakdaman says. 'Of course, we all know that, unfortunately, such contamination exists – especially when one side of the issue is a superpower that answers to no one. It is Fifa's duty to treat all member countries equally, but will that actually happen?'
