Category: 2. World

RIO DE JANEIRO:

US President Donald Trump threatened China, India, and some of the world’s fastest-emerging economies with higher import tariffs, hitting back at BRICS criticism of his trade policies as the bloc meets Monday.

The 11-nation grouping — which also includes US allies Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia — is concluding a two-day summit in Rio de Janeiro.

On Sunday, BRICS leaders described Trump’s stop-start tariff wars as “indiscriminate,” damaging, and illegal, drawing a late-night rebuke from the pugilistic US president.

“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Trump wrote on social media.

BRICS members account for about half the world’s population and 40 percent of global economic output.

Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, BRICS has come to be seen as a Chinese-driven effort to curb US global influence.

But it is a quickly expanding and often divergent grouping — bringing together arch US foes like Iran and Russia, with some of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Some US allies inside the bloc had tried to blunt criticism of Trump by not mentioning him or the United States by name in their summit statement.

Saudi Arabia — one of the world’s biggest purchasers of US high-tech weapons — even kept its foreign minister away from Sunday’s talks and a BRICS group photo of leaders, seemingly to avoid Washington’s ire.

But such diplomatic gestures were lost on the US president.

In April, Trump threatened a slew of punitive duties, before backing off in the face of a fierce market sell-off.

Now he is threatening to impose unilateral levies on trading partners unless they reach “deals” by August 1, with BRICS nations seemingly faced with higher tariffs than planned.

It cannot have helped that BRICS leaders also condemned the recent US and Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities — a show of solidarity with fellow member Iran.

Beijing on Monday insisted BRICS was not seeking confrontation with the United States.

“China has repeatedly stated its position that trade and tariff wars have no winners and protectionism offers no way forward,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. AFP

The move follows the lifting of sanctions on Damascus after the fall of the al-Assad government last year.

The United States will revoke its designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) as Washington softens its approach to post-war Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government last year.

The decision, which takes effect on Tuesday, comes as part of US President Donald Trump’s broader strategy to re-engage with Syria and support its reconstruction after more than a decade of devastating conflict.

“This FTO revocation is an important step in fulfilling President Trump’s vision of a stable, unified, and peaceful Syria,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Monday.

HTS had been designated as a “terrorist” group by the US since 2018 due to its former ties to al-Qaeda.

The group emerged out of the al-Nusra Front, once al-Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, but formally severed those ties in 2016 after HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa declared the group’s independence.

Al-Sharaa, who led the opposition forces that removed al-Assad in a lightning offensive last December, has since become Syria’s president.

He has launched what many experts have described as a charm offensive aimed at Western powers, including meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and, most recently, Trump in Riyadh in May.

The Trump administration and the European Union have since lifted sanctions on Syria.

“In line with President Trump’s May 13 promise to deliver sanctions relief to Syria, I am announcing my intent to revoke the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation of al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” Rubio said.

“Tomorrow’s action follows the announced dissolution of HTS and the Syrian government’s commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms.”

HTS was dissolved in late January, with its forces folded into the official Syrian military and security forces.

Damascus welcomed the US decision as a step towards normalisation. In a statement, Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the delisting of HTS was a “positive step toward correcting a course that previously hindered constructive engagement”.

The ministry added that it hoped the move would “contribute to the removal of remaining restrictions that continue to impact Syrian institutions and officials, and open the door to a rational, sovereign-based approach to international cooperation”.

Meanwhile, HTS remains under United Nations Security Council sanctions, which were imposed in 2014 over its previous affiliation with al-Qaeda. Al-Sharaa also remains under UNSC sanctions, which can only be removed by the Council itself.

Al-Sharaa is reportedly preparing to attend the UN General Assembly in New York this September.

London
CNN
 — 

Shares in Tesla plunged 6.79% Monday after its CEO Elon Musk said he is forming a new American political party, provoking an irate response from President Donald Trump.

Shares in Tesla (TSLA) had dropped as much as 7.6% in premarket trading. The stock pared some of its earlier losses but still posted its biggest single-day loss since June 5, when Musk and Trump traded barbs on social media.

Tesla short sellers made roughly $1.6 billion in profit on Monday, according to data from analytics firm ORTEX.

“I’m saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late Sunday, also mentioning Musk’s Saturday announcement that he is forming a political party to rival the main Republican and Democratic parties.

Ahead of boarding Air Force One in New Jersey Sunday, Trump also called Musk’s announcement “ridiculous” and said it would sow confusion.

Neil Wilson, a strategist at UK trading platform Saxo Markets, said Monday that Tesla investors were concerned on two fronts: firstly, that further friction between Musk and Trump would lead to additional cuts to US government EV subsidies and, secondly, that Musk appeared “distracted.”

“Investors had cheered Musk stepping back from frontline politics but are now worried he’s going to (be) sucked back in and take his eye off Tesla,” Wilson wrote in a note.

Trump and Musk began trading barbs in early June after the Tesla CEO criticized Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” — a massive tax and domestic policy bill, which the president signed into law last week. Musk has argued that the policies will add trillions of dollars to the federal budget deficit.

“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” Musk said on his social media platform, X, Saturday. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

Trump, in his Sunday post, said third political parties “have never succeeded in the United States” and that “the one thing (they) are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS.”

Tesla’s fortunes have taken a turn in recent months as it has grappled with intensifying competition from rival EV makers and the fallout from Musk’s foray into US politics.

Last week, the company reported a record fall in second-quarter sales, selling 13.5% fewer vehicles compared with the same period in 2024. For that year, Tesla has also reported its first-ever annual decline in sales as a public company. The drop was small — around 1% — though it marks a striking turnaround for an automaker historically accustomed to robust sales growth.

Notably, Tesla is poised to lose its title as the world’s largest EV maker, based on annual sales, to Chinese automaker BYD, even though BYD has not entered the US market.

Meanwhile, Musk’s recent involvement at the wheel of the US government, helming the Department of Government Efficiency and spearheading mass layoffs of federal workers, has, among other controversies, sparked protests outside Tesla’s showrooms worldwide.

In May, Musk announced he would step down from his government position, raising hopes among investors that he will now have more time to work on his companies, which include SpaceX and X. But the billionaire’s feud with Trump, and likely upcoming attempts to woo voters to his new party, have thrust him back into the political arena.

Shares of Tesla nearly doubled after election day, setting a record high in mid-December thanks to investor expectations that an alliance between Trump and Musk would be beneficial for Tesla. But the controversy and blowback caused by Musk’s political activities sent shares tumbling, and they’ve lost more than a third of their value from since.

CNN’s Michael Williams, John Towfighi and Chris Isidore contributed reporting.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The president of Brazil says his fellow leaders of major emerging economies have just wrapped up their most important BRICS summit yet, today in Rio de Janeiro. The BRICS group of nations is seen as a rising counterweight to Western powers like the U.S. It tried to avoid confrontation with President Donald Trump by issuing a low-key joint statement from its meeting, but Trump threatened new tariffs on BRICS countries anyway. He accused them of pushing, quote, “anti-American policies.” From Rio, NPR’s Carrie Kahn reports.

CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: It’s been raining during most of the two-day BRICS conference, which was billed as a celebration of the Global South unity and clout in a troubled world. But by the end of the summit, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s mood also turned gray.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA: (Speaking Portuguese).

KAHN: “No, no, we don’t want emperors. We are sovereign nations,” said Lula. This followed Trump’s threat to slap an additional 10% tariff on BRICS countries that align with what Trump calls the group’s anti-American policies.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LULA: (Speaking Portuguese).

KAHN: “I don’t think it’s very responsible of a president of a country the size of the U.S. to be threatening the world via the internet. It’s not right,” said Lula. Trump also posted support for Lula’s chief political rival Jair Bolsonaro today. The former Brazilian president is facing trial for trying to overturn his 2022 reelection loss and stay in power. Lula declined comment on that Trump posting.

Despite the rhetorical finale, BRICS’ declaration was toned down, with no direct criticism of Trump or the U.S., says Oliver Stuenkel of Brazil’s FGV University.

OLIVER STUENKEL: This was a fairly tame summit.

KAHN: Well, at least that was the intention of BRICS diplomats and leaders, says Stuenkel.

STUENKEL: They probably believed that they could fly below the radar of Trump as long as they didn’t mention the United States, but that clearly failed.

KAHN: BRICS also tamed criticism of their own. Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who attended via video, was not called out for his invasion of Ukraine. And its newest member, Iran, was defended as a victim of Israeli airstrikes. Israel, by contrast, was mentioned more than a dozen times in the final declaration, blamed for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and strikes in Syria and Lebanon.

BRICS member South Africa jumped into the Trump fray also. Its president said the powerful can’t seek vengeance against, quote, “those who are seeking to do good in the world.” China’s foreign ministry criticized using tariffs as a coercive tool. There had been worries that the BRICS group was losing relevance as it continued to expand beyond its original members. Consensus among divergent countries, now including Indonesia and several Middle Eastern nations, has been difficult. But Brazil’s Lula was undeterred, insisting that BRICS is not a club of the privileged.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LULA: (Speaking Portuguese).

KAHN: “It’s a group of countries wanting to create another way,” he said, “with more focus on human relations and development, not confrontation.”

Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro.

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