Trump doubles foreign steel tariffs to 50%
President Trump announced a doubling of tariffs on foreign steel from 25 per cent to 50 per cent during an event celebrating a "partnership" between U.S. Steel and Japan 's Nippon Steel.
Trump characterised the deal as an investment and partnership, while reports suggest it's an acquisition of U.S. Steel, with the steelworkers union reserving judgment until more information is available.
The proposed merger, once blocked by President Biden due to national security concerns, is now framed by Trump as beneficial, promising a $14 billion investment from Nippon Steel into U.S. Steel.
Union President David McCall expressed skepticism, emphasising the need for binding commitments and cautioning against trusting Nippon Steel due to past trade law violations.
Trump claimed the deal would keep US Steel's headquarters in Pittsburgh, maintain full blast furnace capacity for 10 years, and create or save over 100,000 American jobs, though details of the agreement remain unclear.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
US elected officials face wave of violent threats prompting calls for security
A fresh wave of violent threats and incidents targeting elected officials broke out in the US this week, prompting more urgent calls for increased security measures just days after the killing of a Minnesota state legislator and the shooting of another. Amid a series of attacks involving federal and local officials, the latest incidents included death threats against Zohran Mamdani, the New York mayoral candidate, a purported road rage attack on Max Miller, the Ohio congressman, and an alleged kidnapping attempt targeting Paul Young, the mayor of Memphis. The New York police department (NYPD) hate crimes task force is investigating multiple death threats against Mamdani, a Muslim democratic socialist candidate in the final stretch of his campaign and endorsed by national figures such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The intimidation included threats to blow up his car and Islamophobic voicemails left at Mamdani's office in the city's Queens borough. 'The violent and specific language of what appears to be a repeat caller is alarming and we are taking every precaution,' his campaign said Thursday, blaming the threats on 'dehumanizing, Islamophobic rhetoric designed to stoke division and hate'. Miller contacted the US Capitol Police after being 'run off the road' by a man displaying a Palestinian flag who allegedly yelled 'death to Israel'. Miller, who is Jewish and on the US Holocaust Memorial Council, said the incident occurred while driving in his congressional district and that he knows the identity of his alleged assailant, who also threatened to kill his family. Early on Friday afternoon, a man was arrested in connection with the incident. The suspect was named as Feras Hamdan, 36, of Westlake, near Cleveland, and authorities said he turned himself in to police and is due to appear in court, according to local media reports. Meanwhile, Memphis police arrested 25-year-old Trenton Abston on charges including stalking and attempted kidnapping after he allegedly scaled a wall at Young's residence in Tennessee with what police described as a 'nervous demeanor'. Officers recovered 'a taser, gloves, rope and duct tape' from the suspect's vehicle. The string of incidents came just days after the killing of Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota Democratic state representative, and her husband Mark, with John Hoffman, a state senator, and his wife seriously wounded in a separate attack by the same gunman last Saturday as anti-Trump 'No Kings' protests were getting underway for millions across the country. The suspect, Vance Boelter, 57, was captured after a large manhunt and faces murder charges, amid reports that he is an extremist and was pro-Trump and anti-abortion. The discovery of a hit list containing 'dozens and dozens' of Democratic politicians' names in Boelter's car has sent new shockwaves through the political community. Hillary Scholten, a member of Congress from Michigan, cancelled a public town hall, citing safety concerns. The escalating threats have left congressmembers from both parties demanding additional security funding and enhanced protection measures in recent days, as fears grow that political violence is becoming normalized across American politics. The Capitol Police requested nearly $1bn in funding for next year, while Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, posted that 'the violence and threats against elected officials has drastically increased' and called for more money to protect lawmakers. Capitol Police investigated 9,474 threats to lawmakers and their families last year, an increase of nearly 1,500 compared with 2023, which have escalated over the last five years but peaked in 2021. Only eight convictions were made over the threats in 2024, according to a bipartisan letter from Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin representative, and Joseph Morelle, a New York representative, sent Tuesday to the Department of Justice. Mike Johnson linked the violence to broader political rhetoric. 'What happened to Max [Miller] this morning is yet another outrageous example of unhinged rhetoric inspiring unstable people to threaten and attack elected officials,' the House speaker said. 'We must turn down the temperature in this country.'
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
$177 million AT&T data breach settlement wins US court approval
June 20 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge granted preliminary approval on Friday to a $177 million settlement that resolves data security lawsuits against AT&T (T.N), opens new tab over breaches that exposed personal information belonging to tens of millions of the telecom giant's customers. U.S. District Judge Ada Brown in the federal court in Dallas, Texas, said in a ruling that the class-action settlement was fair and reasonable. The deal resolves claims over data breaches that AT&T announced in May and July last year.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Emmett Till memorial in Mississippi could be removed as part of DOGE-recommended $1 billion cuts to national parks
Moves made by Donald Trump 's administration could pave the way for the removal of a national monument honoring Emmett Till, an icon of the civil rights movement, risking a public outcry. Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), formerly led by tech boss Elon Musk, has recommended slashing the budget of the National Park Service by nearly $1 billion. Meanwhile, a Justice Department opinion released earlier this month grants presidents the right to revoke the status of national monuments for the first time since the 1930s. Together, the two steps could mean the demise of the Till memorial as part of Trump's drive to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) values from public institutions, a culture war that has seen him attack the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., for promoting 'improper, divisive or anti-American ideology' and attempt to remould the Kennedy Center according to his own tastes, among other targets. 'We are seeing this effort to erase and reverse history and historic preservation,' historian Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources and government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, told CBS News. 'This is turning quickly into a dream deferred.' Till, a Black Chicagoan, was just 14 when he was kidnapped in Mississippi on the night of August 28, 1955, by two white men who accused him of behaving disrespectfully towards a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her grocery store earlier in the day as he visited family in the town of Money. The assailants were Bryant's husband, Roy, and his half-brother, John W Milam, who beat, tortured, and eventually murdered Till, dumping his body in the Tallahatchie River, from which it was recovered three days later. He was buried in Chicago, with his mother, Mamie, insisting on an open casket funeral while his killers went on to be acquitted by an all-white jury. Remembered as a martyr to racial prejudice in America by the civil rights marchers of the 1960s and immortalised in song by Bob Dylan, Till was finally awarded a monument dedicated to his memory and that of his mother by Joe Biden in 2023. The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument covers three sites: Graball Landing in Mississippi, where Emmett's body was found; Sumner in the same state, where Bryant and Miliam were tried in the local courthouse; and Chicago's Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Illinois, where the boy's funeral service was held. Spears and his colleagues were influential voices in seeking federal protection for those sites, which was granted by Biden and could now be stripped away by Trump. 'Let's make sure it doesn't happen to anybody else's son ever again,' the historian said in appealing for their upkeep. He likened the proposed DOGE cuts to the National Parks Service to 'amputating an arm for a hangnail.' Former National Park Service director Chuck Sams, who left his role earlier this year, said the loss of the Till memorial would be 'very sad and egregious.' 'People don't like to look at their past when it shows a negative light of who we are, and I can understand that nobody likes to look at their own personal past that may have a negative light, but we also know that in order to learn from our own history, we also have to learn from our past mistakes,' Sams said. 'And we, as Americans, have never been actually scared to do so, and I don't think we should be now. We look at our past, and we know that from our past mistakes that we have become stronger.' Other sites reportedly being considered for removal include the Chuckwalla and Sattitla Highlands national monuments in California, and the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona, the latter due to its reputed uranium resources. White House spokesperson Anne Kelly responded to the threat to the monuments in a statement in which she said: 'Under President Trump's leadership, [Interior] Secretary [Doug] Burgum is keeping our parks ready for peak season, ensuring they are in pristine condition for visitors, and restoring truth and sanity to depictions of American history in line with the president's executive order. 'The president is simultaneously following through on his promise to 'Drill, Baby, Drill' and restore American energy dominance.'
