Could Trump's threats against Brazil backfire?
There's deepening conflict between the United States and Brazil over the prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
US President Donald Trump threatened 50-percent tariffs – 'unacceptable blackmail', says Brazil's President Lula da Silva.
So what's next? And who stands to win or lose? Presenter:
Adrian Finighan Guests:
Graziella Testa – Professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation
Vinicius Rodrigues Vieira – Professor at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation
Michael Shifter – Senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue
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Al Jazeera
8 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump administration declassifies Martin Luther King Jr assassination files
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has released more than 230,000 pages of files relating to the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. In a statement issued on Monday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the release 'unprecedented' and cited the president's commitment to 'complete transparency'. Trump signed an executive order after taking office, declassifying documents relating to the assassinations of King, former President John F Kennedy and former Senator Robert F Kennedy. King's records had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered them and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration. The National Archives released records from John F Kennedy's November 1963 assassination in March and files related to the June 1968 murder of Robert F Kennedy in April. King was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998, but King's children have expressed doubts that he was the assassin. His family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, were given advance notice of the release and had their own teams reviewing the records ahead of the public disclosure. Those efforts continued even as the government unveiled the digital trove. In a lengthy statement released on Monday, the King children called their father's assassination a 'captivating public curiosity for decades'. But the pair emphasised the personal nature of the matter and urged that 'these files must be viewed within their full historical context'. During his lifetime, the civil rights leader had been the target of an 'invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign' orchestrated by then-FBI director J Edgar Hoover, they said in a joint statement. The FBI campaign was intended to 'discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King's reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement,' they said. 'These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth.' It was not immediately clear on Monday whether the release would shed any new light on King's life, the civil rights movement or his murder. Timing of release raises eyebrows Besides fulfilling the intent of his January executive order, the latest release serves as another alternative headline for Trump as he tries to mollify supporters angry over his administration's handling of records concerning the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in 2019, during Trump's first presidency. Trump last Friday ordered the Department of Justice to release the grand jury testimony but stopped short of unsealing the entire case file. On social media, users accused the administration of releasing King's files as an attempt to distract from criticisms over its handling of the Epstein files. This is shameful. Instead of honoring the Trump administration's promise to release the Epstein files, DNI Tulsi Gabbard is trying to distract the public by dredging up discredited FBI smears against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., against his family's wishes. Weaponizing… — Evaristus Odinikaeze (@odinikaeze) July 21, 2025 Bernice King and Martin Luther King III did not mention Trump in their statement on Monday. As of late Monday afternoon, the administration had not commented on the release. The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department lawyers in June asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order ahead of its expiration date.
Qatar Tribune
10 minutes ago
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Stellantis suffers $2.7 bn H1 loss amid US tariff hit, legal charge
Agencies Jeep parent company, Stellantis, reported a major loss on Monday for the first half of the year, citing the initial effects of new U.S. tariffs and a significant financial hit stemming from a change in US laws. The 2.3-billion-euro ($2.7-billion) net loss in the first half of the year came as sales in North America continued to slump, down 25% by volume in the second quarter year-over-year. The carmaker, whose stable of brands also includes Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat, said first-half net revenues dropped 12.6% to 74.3 billion euros, according to the preliminary and unaudited results. Sales of vehicles fell by 6% in the second quarter year-over-year, after having dropped 9% in the first three months of 2025. Stellantis said 'the early effects of U.S. tariffs' had a 300-million-euro negative impact and disrupted its plans to boost its struggling performance in North America. Automakers have struggled to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's new tariff of 25% on imported cars that are not largely made within North America. The company, which also owns the Chrysler, Dodge and Ram Truck brands, paused production at some plants in Canada and Mexico in April as the tariffs went into force. Stellantis said the sharp drop in North American sales volume was 'due to factors including the reduced manufacture and shipments of imported vehicles, most impacted by tariffs,' as well as lower sales for corporate fleets. Stellantis also took a 3.3-billion-euro charge, which it said was 'primarily related to programme cancellation costs and platform impairments, net impact of the recent legislation eliminating the CAFE penalty rate and restructuring.' Trump's massive tax and spending legislation, approved earlier this month, removed the penalties for not respecting the so-called CAFE fuel economy targets, meaning automakers can produce and sell more higher-polluting cars in the United States. The company said it was in the early stage of taking action to improve performance and profitability, with new products expected to deliver a larger impact in the second half of suspended its financial guidance in April due to the heightened uncertainty generated by U.S. tariffs. Analysts at finance group ODDO BHF said a drop in sales was widely expected and noted that new chief executives often clean house by passing new provisions or restructuring charges. Company veteran Antonio Filosa took over as chief executive in June and immediately launched a management headed up the North American region that accounts for most company profits and whose struggles last year precipitated the sacking of Carlos Tavares, and has retained responsibility for the region.
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
As Trump's tariff deadline looms, economists see calm before the storm
When United States President Donald Trump unveiled his steep 'reciprocal' tariffs on dozens of countries in April, economists issued warnings of catastrophic economic harm. So far, their fears have not materialised. The US economy – the single biggest driver of global growth – has defied expectations across numerous metrics, with inflation staying low, employment and consumer spending remaining robust, and the stock market reaching record highs. Still, even if the limited fallout from Trump's tariffs has taken some analysts by surprise, economists warn that the US and global economies may just be experiencing the calm before the storm. Dozens of US trade partners, including close allies such as South Korea and Japan, are facing tariffs of 25 percent to 40 percent unless they seal trade deals with the Trump administration by an August 1 deadline. 'When you start to see tariffs at 20 or more, you reach a point where firms may stop importing altogether,' Joseph Foudy, an economics professor at the New York University Stern School of Business, told Al Jazeera. 'Firms simply postpone major decisions, delay hiring, and economic activity declines,' Foudy added. 'The uncertainty around trade in that sense is as costly as the actual tariff rates.' Even countries that are able to hammer out a deal in time are likely to face significantly higher duties. Trump's preliminary agreements with Vietnam and China, announced in May and early July, respectively, stipulate minimum tariff rates of 20 percent and 30 percent. On Friday, the Financial Times reported that Trump was pushing for a tariff of 15-20 percent on the European Union, which is the US's single largest trading partner and is facing a 30 percent duty from August 1, in any deal reached with the bloc. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has warned that Trump's mooted 30 percent tariff would 'disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains, to the detriment of businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic'. 'Harm growth' 'In my view, the few tariff agreements that have been reached represent nontrivial changes in US trade policy and so will harm growth, so even if much less extreme than threatened, will matter,' Steven Durlauf, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, told Al Jazeera. Economists widely agree that the impact of tariffs implemented so far has not been fully felt, as many businesses built up their stockpiles of inventories in advance to mitigate rising costs. Under the existing measures – including a baseline 10 percent duty on nearly all countries, and higher levies on cars and steel – the effective average US tariff rate currently stands at 16.6 percent, with the rate set to rise 20.6 percent from August 1, according to The Budget Lab at Yale Department of Economics. Even if Trump does not sharply hike tariffs on August 1, economists expect inflation to rise at least somewhat in the coming months, with higher prices in turn likely to drag on growth. In an analysis published last month, BBVA Research estimated that even the current level of US tariffs could reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.5 of a percentage point in the short term, and by more than 2 percentage points over the medium term. 'It is too soon to expect big effects on prices in the US, as there was a large increase in exports to the US in anticipation of higher tariffs, and firms are waiting to see where things will end up in terms of tariffs that affect them. So, not surprising, we have seen limited effects so far,' Bernard Hoekman, director of Global Economics at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, told Al Jazeera. 'But if the US does what it has indicated it wants to do – raise average tariffs to the 20-30 percent level – there will be a much larger impact.' Trump and his allies have repeatedly dismissed economists' warnings about his tariffs, pointing to the steady stream of positive data to make the case that the economic consensus is flawed. 'The Fake News and the so-called 'Experts' were wrong again,' Trump wrote on Truth Social in response to a recent report from his Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) that found prices of imported goods fell by 0.1 percent from December to May. 'Tariffs are making our Country 'BOOM.'' The CEA report's methodology drew criticism from some economic analysts, with the National Taxpayers Union saying it failed to take account of stockpiling by importers and covered a period that was 'way too short to draw any definitive conclusions'. Despite the strong headline figures on the US economy, economists have also pointed to warning signs in the data. In a note last week, Wells Fargo economists Tim Quinlan and Shannon Grein pointed out that discretionary spending on services in the US fell 0.3 percent in the year up to May, indicating potential economic storm clouds ahead. 'That is admittedly a modest decline, but what makes it scary is that in 60+ years, this measure has only declined either during or immediately after recessions,' Quinlan and Grein said. Durlauf, the University of Chicago professor, said the Trump administration had little cause to see the relative health of the economy up until now as a vindication of its economic plans. 'First, there is widespread belief that tariff threats will not be realised in actual agreements. Second, the effects of tariffs on prices and output take some time to work through the system,' Durlauf said. 'There is no sense that the absence of large effects on real activity and inflation, so far, in any way vindicate claims of the Trump administration.'
