Trump signs memo toughening US policy toward Cuba, White House official says
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the directive will enforce a statutory ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba and supports the economic embargo of Cuba.
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Reuters
9 minutes ago
- Reuters
US tariffs could have pandemic-like impact on planemaker Embraer, CEO says
SAO PAULO, July 15 (Reuters) - The 50% tariff that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to impose on Brazilian exports starting in August could hammer the revenue of planemaker Embraer ( opens new tab like the COVID-19 pandemic did, its CEO warned on Tuesday, flagging risks to U.S. partners. Francisco Gomes Neto told reporters the tariffs would amount to a trade embargo on the regional jets it supplies to U.S. airlines and could trigger order cancellations, deferred deliveries and tough consequences for Embraer's U.S. suppliers. Sao Paulo-listed shares in Embraer, which had risen 3% earlier in the day, seesawed during his remarks, lost the gains before ticking back up 0.6%. They have fallen around 10% since Trump announced the tariffs, but are still up 33% so far this year. The U.S. is the main market for Embraer, the world's third-largest planemaker after Airbus ( opens new tab and Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab, with U.S. clients buying 45% of the firm's commercial airliners and 70% of its executive jets. Analysts had warned that the Brazilian planemaker would be one of the most affected by the tariffs. "Given the relevance of this market, we estimate that if this (tariff plan) moves on at this magnitude, we will have an impact similar to that of COVID-19 in terms of the decline in the company's revenue," Gomes Neto said. In 2020, when the pandemic ground air travel to a halt, Embraer's revenue plunged around 30% from the previous year. Gomes Neto emphasized that the tariffs would also hurt U.S. suppliers of components such as engines and avionics. "It's a lose-lose situation," he said. Aircraft are among the top U.S. imports from Brazil, along with oil, steel, coffee and orange juice. Embraer forecast the levies would generate an additional cost of around $9 million per airplane exported to the U.S., with potential impacts totaling around 2 billion reais ($360 million) this year. Shipments of E175 narrowbodies, a workhorse of U.S. regional aviation, would become "unfeasible" by the tariffs, Gomes Neto noted, adding that no order had been canceled so far. "It's a very new situation, so everyone is trying to understand this process and working toward reaching a solution within the deadline," the CEO said. In March, Embraer's E175 backlog included 90 firm orders from American Airlines (AAL.O), opens new tab, 40 from Republic, and 16 from SkyWest, which placed a fresh order in June for another 60 jets. ($1 = 5.56 reais)
The Independent
14 minutes ago
- The Independent
Google partners with Youngkin and offers AI training courses to Virginia job seekers
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced on Tuesday that Google will partner with his administration to provide free and low-cost artificial intelligence certification courses to Virginians as part of his office's ongoing effort to connect citizens to new jobs amid changes to the state's economy. The partnership, which he has described as an AI career launchpad, will provide Google-sponsored AI training courses for up to 10,000 Virginians at any given time, officials said at Google's office in the northern part of the state. The training opportunities will be listed on a job website that Youngkin launched earlier this year, in response to significant layoffs among federal workers by the Trump administration, including many workers from Virginia. 'All fields, all career movements somewhere along the way, are going to incorporate this next generation of technology,' Youngkin said at the news conference. The initiative comes with unemployment rising in Virginia, which has roughly 20,400 continued unemployment claims, state Secretary of Labor George' Bryan' Slater said after the news conference. Roughly 2,800 people initially filed unemployment claims during the first week of July, which is about 6.1 percent higher than the previous week. The AI webpage will feature the free courses as well as some low-cost learning opportunities, ranging 'from beginner friendly courses on AI fundamentals and practical workplace applications of artificial intelligence to bootcamps and degree programs offered by Virginia's leading-edge community colleges and universities,' according to the governor's office. Nicole Overley, commissioner of Virginia Works, said businesses have told her office that AI proficiency has become increasingly necessary in their industries. She said the training would help Virginians become competitive in the job markets where these very businesses are hiring. Overly confirmed that the training courses won't cost taxpayers anything and are being donated by Google. Bronagh Friel, head of partnerships at Google, said she was proud of the collaboration with the state. 'Google is committed to championing economic growth and opportunity in Virginia,' she said. ___ Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
The Guardian
14 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Republicans move to block Democratic effort to force release of Epstein files
Republican lawmakers have moved to block a Democratic effort to force the release of the so-called Epstein files, a near-mythological trove of undisclosed information about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at the center of an internal political war among US conservatives. Democrats had been pressing for an amendment to cryptocurrency legislation that would have forced the release of information and exhibits itemized in a list of evidence held by the justice department from the 2019 child sex-trafficking case against the disgraced financier Epstein. Donald Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, teased a full accounting of the Epstein evidence, including a purported client list earlier this year. But 10 days ago, she changed course when she announced that the Trump administration had reviewed the evidence, concluded that Epstein had indeed killed himself in jail, and decided not to release the contents that the justice department said included a thousand hours of video depicting child sexual abuse. That set off a firestorm within Trump's conspiracy-minded 'Make America great again' (Maga) movement that the president has since tried to calm. Democrats had weighed in on the issue, hoping to force a release of the documents. 'The question with Epstein is: Whose side are you on?' California Democratic US House member Ro Khanna, the author of the Epstein measure, told Axios. 'Are you on the side of the rich and powerful, or are you on the side of the people?' Khanna promised to introduce the amendment 'again and again and again'. But Republicans on the US House rules committee voted down the amendment that would have allowed Congress to vote on whether the evidence – which includes micro cassettes, DVDs, CDs including one labelled 'girl pics nude book 4', computer hard drives and three massage tables in green, beige and brown – should be released. Yet the federal case against Epstein, which dates back to 2005 and involves a mysterious plea deal that allowed to the financier to plead guilty to Florida state charges of solicitation of a minor, continues to challenge what political hardliners on the right and left believe is evidence of a nefarious nexus of international power. The debacle has pitted Bondi and Trump – who was friends with Epstein, his Florida neighbor for many years, before disowning him – against the deputy FBI director, Dan Bongino. Bongino reportedly clashed with Bondi over the Epstein case and considered resigning as Maga megaphones including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Megyn Kelly have called for the release of the Epstein files. In 2023, Bongino said on his rightwing podcast: 'That Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal. Please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on it.' The Daily Beast reported that Trump is furious at Bongino, who has not shown up for work since 9 July after a shouting match erupted between him and Bondi. Trump has sided with Bondi, leaving Bongino's future at the FBI open to question, and the vice-president, JD Vance, was evidently called in to mediate, according to CNN. Those developments unfolded as a recent CNN poll found that half of Americans are dissatisfied with the amount of information the government has released on Epstein's case. The poll found that Democrats and independents were relatively equal in the sense of dissatisfaction (at 56% and 52%, respectively) – but Republicans polled at 40% dissatisfaction. Just 3% of those polled said they were satisfied with the amount of Epstein-related information released by the government. On Monday, the drama turned to the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's convicted co-conspirator in the sex-trafficking case, who has appealed to the US supreme court to uphold a non-prosecution agreement contained in Epstein's Florida plea deal. The US justice department petitioned the court to deny Maxwell, 63, who is serving a 20-year sentence, the request. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'I'd be surprised if President Trump knew his lawyers were asking the supreme court to let the government break a deal,' Maxwell's attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in a statement emailed to the Guardian. 'He's the ultimate dealmaker – and I'm sure he'd agree that when the United States gives its word, it should keep it. With all the talk about who's being prosecuted and who isn't, it's especially unfair that Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison based on a promise the government made and broke.' But Congress could now call on Maxwell to testify. Citing anonymous sources, the Daily Mail reported on Monday that Maxwell is interested in doing that. In some circumstances, under federal rule 35, a convicted felon can negotiate a reduction in sentence in exchange for cooperation. Nonetheless, the government has shown little interest in doing that, especially when Maxwell was maintaining her innocence and appealing her conviction. Prosecutors made clear at the time that they considered the case closed and would not go after lesser alleged figures in the sex-trafficking conspiracy. 'It all depends on who she would be cooperating against, and what she has to offer,' defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman told the Guardian after Maxwell's conviction in 2021. 'I would not be surprised if she had already tried to cooperate and it had failed. 'Of all the people supposedly involved with Epstein, 99% of them never made it into the government's evidence,' Lichtman added, venturing that the government may have been trying 'to avoid any frolic by the jury – that they'd get distracted by the bold-face names – but many people didn't get prosecuted here when it seems like they could have'.
