World

by Joy CHIANG

Taipei had sought to avoid Trump's threatened levies by pledging increased investment in the United States and more purchases of US energy, but it was still hit by a 32 percent tax on its imports, excluding semiconductor chips.

China responded to president Donald Trump's trade war threats with its own 34-percent retaliatory tariffs on all U.S. goods, and a CNN correspondent warned that farmers could be hit hard by the move.

The president announced so-called reciprocal tariffs on imports from about 90 countries Wednesday, which he dubbed "Liberation Day," and claimed the new taxes were necessary to erase trade deficits between the U.S. and its trading partners, and China responded with a corresponding duty to that imposed by Trump.

A landmine-hunting rat in Cambodia has set a new world record by sniffing out more than 100 mines and pieces of unexploded ordnance, a charity said Friday.

Ronin, a giant African pouched rat, has tracked down 109 landmines and 15 other potentially deadly war remnants since his deployment to northern Preah Vihear province in August 2021, the Belgian charity APOPO said in a statement.

Republican pollster Sarah Longwell thinks that President Donald Trump's carefully crafted image is faltering as his economic policies leave Americans desperate.

"Trump's carefully curated impression, you know, through his years on 'The Apprentice,' for voters is that he's a businessman. So, I hear it over and over and over again when people say, look, I don't like his personality or, you know, I don't always like the way he behaves this way or that. But he's a businessman, and I think he's going to lower prices. I think he's going to do good things for the economy. And so right now, what you're seeing is Donald Trump taking a knife to the mythology that keeps him above water with people."

President Donald Trump has been ordered to pay £626,000 in legal fees after a lawsuit he brought in England was thrown out of court, said The Guardian.

Trump sued Orbis Business Intelligence, a consulting firm founded by Christopher Steele, who penned an extensive memo that claimed Trump was conspiring with Russia to win the 2016 election. The dossier also alleged that as a result of those relationships in Russia, Trump was "compromised."

CNN's Dana Bash on Thursday mocked President Donald Trump for leveling tariffs against an island that are inhabited solely by penguins.

"No one is safe from President Trump's new tariffs, not even penguins," she said. "A remote island near Antarctica that is home to mainly penguins, no humans, is now subject to a 10 percent American tariff. This is not a joke. We are not kidding. These penguins, who do not trade goods or services with the United States as far as we know, are on the receiving end of a new tax."

The U.S. car company Stellantis has announced that it will stop producing vehicles at plants in Mexico and Canada as President Donald Trump's tariffs take effect.

Trump announced a 25% tax on automobiles, and according to one MSNBC host, Trump's tariffs are already hitting Americans.

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle reminded viewers Thursday morning that, for all of his bragging, President Donald Trump was always a terrible businessman.

Speaking to "Morning Joe's" Jonathan Lemire, she proclaimed, "Donald Trump is not trusted in a business sense."