Hijacking news: Fake media sites sow Ukraine disinformation

TRUST MEDUZA


By AFP
March 23, 2025


Researchers have warned that several Russia-linked fake news websites are pushing disinformation about Ukraine - Copyright AFP Sergei SUPINSKY
Anuj Chopra with Johanna Lehn in Berlin and Bozhidar Angueloff in Sofia

A fake news website falsely claimed that Ukraine’s president is paying Western reporters to tarnish US President Donald Trump — part of a series of deceptive reports spread by Russian-linked portals mimicking media outlets.

The disinformation tactic, amid heightened international efforts to halt the three-year war with Russia, seeks to undermine both Ukraine and public trust in mainstream media, researchers say.

This adds to the increasingly troubling trend of attributing false information to established media brands, illustrating how the news medium is being actively hijacked to advance Ukraine-related disinformation.

Earlier this month, Clear Story News falsely reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was using US taxpayer dollars to pay Western media journalists to target Trump.

The article was accompanied with an image of a letter purportedly sent by Zelensky’s office to the leader of Ukraine’s parliament, demanding that a “plan” be developed to “create a negative image” of Trump.

The letter appeared fabricated, with the seal and signature digitally altered and the formatting inconsistent with official letters from Zelensky’s office, disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said, citing analysis from the media verification platform InVID.

NewsGuard called Clear Story News a Russian influence site linked to John Mark Dougan, a US fugitive turned Kremlin propagandist.

The article and purported letter were published a week later on USATimes.news, which researchers said was another apparently Russian-backed site.

– ‘Piggybacking on credibility’ –

The fake sites seek to make false information appear more credible and believable by exploiting public trust in legitimate media.

“These sites are often designed to mimic the tone, layout, and branding of traditional local news in order to launder false narratives through seemingly trustworthy, independent sources,” NewsGuard researcher McKenzie Sadeghi told AFP.

“It’s less about directly attacking the media and more about piggybacking on its credibility to reach audiences who might otherwise be skeptical of state-backed propaganda sources.”

NewsGuard has identified 1,265 sites that present themselves as neutral news outlets but are backed by or tied to partisan groups or hostile governments, including Russia and Iran.

Last month, AFP’s fact-checkers debunked a false claim that Zelensky had bought Adolf Hitler’s former retreat, the Eagle’s Nest, in the German state of Bavaria.

The claim was shared by aktuell-nachricht.de, a German-language site that purports to be a media outlet, without a publication date or the author’s name. The site listed a company name and an address on its about page, but AFP was unable to locate either.

The site is linked to a Russian influence network dubbed Storm-1516, according to the German nonprofit Correctiv.

Western intelligence officials and disinformation researchers have associated the network with Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff, who fled to Russia while facing a slew of charges including extortion.

– ‘Irony’ –

“The irony is that the bad actors behind these operations are often dismissive and even downright hostile to mainstream news outlets yet go to great lengths to imitate it,” Sadeghi said.

The blizzard of falsehoods promoted by such sites reflects a new normal in the age of information chaos, which researchers say is stoking distrust in the mainstream press.

Propaganda-spewing websites have typically relied on armies of writers, but generative artificial intelligence tools now offer a significantly cheaper and faster way to fabricate content that is often hard to decipher from authentic information.

Adding to the trend is the growing tactic of attributing false information to legitimate media organizations.

These include a video styled as a Wall Street Journal report promoting the false claim that US Vice President JD Vance rebuffed a top Ukrainian official.

Another was a fake Economist magazine cover that warned of an “apocalypse” and World War III over US military support for Ukraine.

“Disinformation actors are deliberately mimicking the names, logos, and formatting of trusted news organizations, including by using AI, to make their false claims appear legitimate,” a separate NewsGuard report warned.

“They exploit the credibility of these organizations and aim to increase the chances that the false narrative will spread widely and be believed despite being baseless.”

burs-ac/des

France’s Dassault says upping Rafale warplane output


By AFP
March 23, 2025


President Emmanuel Macron has said France was going to 'increase and accelerate Rafale orders' - Copyright AFP Lionel BONAVENTURE

France’s Dassault Aviation is looking to ramp up production of its Rafale combat planes, its CEO said on Sunday, after President Emmanuel Macron said the country would increase orders.

European countries including France have been seeking to boost defence spending and increase weapons production in the face of possible US security disengagement and Russian aggression linked to the war in Ukraine.

Macron said on Tuesday that France was going to “increase and accelerate Rafale orders”.

Dassault Aviation chief executive Eric Trappier said the company had increased output from one war plane a month in 2020 to more than two per month this year, and was working with suppliers to be able to produce combat planes even faster.

“We are planning to deliver three per month next year, and four from 2028-2029,” he told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

“We have heard the president’s call and are studying the possibility of ramping up to five Rafale per month. There are no concrete orders yet, but we want to be ready,” he said.

However, he did not say when this might be possible.

Trappier said that, if the French government approved, the company would also be “ready to provide its services” to any country reviewing its orders for US-made F-35 combat planes since President Donald Trump took office.

Germany on Friday said it was committed to buying F-35 fighter jets despite reports that it was reconsidering due to worries about an over-reliance on US defence supplies.

But Canada said last week it was reviewing a major purchase of F-35s amid serious tensions over tariffs and Trump threatening to annex the country.

That announcement came two days after Portugal said it, too, was re-examining a possible purchase of F-35 fighter jets.

Trappier said that Portugal had not yet reached out to his company.

Last year, France’s air force had 108 Rafale jets, and the navy had 41. France was due to receive 56 additional aircraft before Macron’s announcement.

The defence minister last month said the air force needed 20 to 30 more Rafales to face a crisis scenario.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Indigenous leaders end world voyage with prayer for nature

FIRST NATIONS RESISTANCE TO GLOBALIZATION

By AFP
March 23, 2025


Mapuche Indigenous leaders conducted an ancestral ceremony of the Anasazi culture - Copyright AFP William WEST

The leaders of 22 Indigenous peoples from five continents held prayers for nature in Chile on Sunday at the end of a 46-day pilgrimage around the world.

The “Indigenous sages” carried out an ancestral ceremony of the Anasazi people, who lived in the Chaco Canyon before European settlement in what was to become the US state of New Mexico.

It was a ritual that, for the first time, brought together peoples from all over the planet — travelling together on a journey that began in Italy and passed through India, Australia, and Zimbabwe before concluding in Chile.

During their closing ceremony, representatives of peoples such as the Khalkha of Mongolia, the Noke Koi of Brazil, and the Kallawaya of Bolivia sang, danced, and prayed to the rhythm of drums, around an altar where they lit a sacred fire.

“The feathers represent the continents, and today, for the first time, we have the five continents,” said Heriberto Villasenor, director of Raices de la Tierra, an NGO dedicated to the preservation of Indigenous cultures.

At the end of the event, the leaders embraced and shared a message, urging greater care for the environment.

“We are part of nature. We are not separate from it. We are at a critical moment when so much destruction has taken place, much of it at human hands,” Rutendo Ngara, 49, a representative of the South African group Oba Umbuntu, told AFP.

The leaders also shared their concerns about what is happening in their own home regions.

“Unfortunately, they are trying to extract uranium in Mongolia. It is an important element that is supposed to remain underground,” Tsegi Batmunkh said.

In January 2025, the French nuclear group Orano signed an agreement with Mongolia to exploit a large uranium deposit in the southwest of the country.

The leader of Brazil’s Noke Koi people, Yama Nomanawa, called for an end to the “destruction of the Earth” — particularly in the Amazon basin.

According to a 2024 study published in the journal Nature, scientists estimated that between 10 and 47 percent of the Amazon region will be exposed to forest loss by 2050, which could lead to widespread ecosystem change.

“The Earth is crying out very loudly, but no one is listening. The jungle is screaming; it is not being respected by humans. Let’s protect life, save life here on the planet,” the 37-year-old Brazilian Indigenous leader said.

Brazil’s Lula to build trade ties on Japan state visit

POST-GLOBALIZATION; A MULTIPOLAR WORLD

By AFP
March 24, 2025


Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is seeking to ramp up exports to Japan - Copyright AFP/File EVARISTO SA

Brazil’s president starts a four-day state visit to Japan on Monday, accompanied by a 100-strong business delegation as US tariffs push the countries to nurture trade ties elsewhere.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba are also expected to discuss the joint development of biofuels ahead of November’s COP30 UN climate summit in the Brazilian Amazon.

In talks on Wednesday, the leaders will reportedly restate their commitment to free trade following US President Donald Trump’s levies on steel and other imports.

“Everyone who was talking about free trade is now practising protectionism,” Lula, 79, said ahead of his departure.

“I think this protectionism is absurd,” he told Japanese media.

Brazil is the second-largest exporter of steel to the United States after Canada, shipping four million tonnes of the metal in 2024.

Lula and Ishiba will likely agree to regular leaders’ visits and to establishing strategic dialogue on security and other matters, Japanese media reported.

The pair may also affirm the importance of the rules-based international order, a phrase often used to make a veiled dig at Chinese foreign policy.

– Beef to planes –

A welcome ceremony will be held for the left-wing president on Tuesday at Tokyo’s Imperial Palace, followed by a state banquet that evening.

It will be Lula’s third visit to Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy, as president of Brazil.

Ramping up Brazilian exports to Japan — from beef to planes — is a key objective for Lula, who on Wednesday will attend an economic forum aimed at forging new opportunities.

China is currently Brazil’s top trading partner, with Japan trailing behind as its 11th largest partner globally, according to Brazilian officials.

Brazil has “increased its commercial dependence on China in recent years”, Karina Calandrin, a professor at business school Ibmec in Sao Paulo, told AFP.

But since taking office in January, Trump has slapped tariffs amounting to a 20 percent hike on Chinese overseas shipments, which last year reached record levels.

This, Calandrin said, “puts Brazil at risk, making it more vulnerable to any change in the international scenario”.

Yet efforts to diversify foreign trade could prove difficult given the South American powerhouse’s “structural dependence” on commerce with China, said Roberto Goulart, an international relations professor at Brasilia University.

A more balanced trade landscape for Brazil in the Asia-Pacific region is unlikely in “the short term”, he said.

Meanwhile, Tokyo could see stronger ties with Brasilia as a way to keep Brazil from forming a closer relationship with China and Russia, fellow members of the BRICS emerging economies bloc.

– Apology –

Brazil is home to the world’s largest Japanese diaspora, a holdover of mass migration in the early 20th century.

Last year, Lula’s government issued a historic apology for its persecution of Japanese immigrants during and after World War II.

Thousands living along the coast of Sao Paulo were forced off of their land in 1943, while at least 150 Japanese immigrants and their offspring later wound up incarcerated on a remote island.

An apology is “the least we can do to acknowledge our mistakes in the past”, Lula told Japanese media ahead of the trip.

NAKBA 2.0

West Bank Palestinians in ‘extremely precarious’ situation: MSF


By AFP
March 24, 2025


Thousands of West Bank Palestinians have been displaced since January 21, when the Israeli army launched an operation targeting Palestinian armed groups - Copyright AFP JAAFAR ASHTIYEH

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced on Monday the “extremely precarious” situation of Palestinians displaced by the ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank.

According to the United Nations, some 40,000 residents have been displaced since January 21, when the Israeli army launched an operation targeting Palestinian armed groups in the north of the territory.

The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.

The Israeli operation started two days after a truce agreement came into effect in the Gaza Strip between the Israeli military and the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers.

The situation of the displaced Palestinians is “extremely precarious”, said MSF, which is operating in the area.

Palestinians “are without proper shelter, essential services, and access to healthcare”, the NGO said.

“The mental health situation is alarming.”

In a statement to AFP, the Israeli military (IDF) said it had been operating “against all terrorist organizations, including Hamas, in a complex security reality”.

“The IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals,” the statement said.

MSF said the scale of forced displacement and destruction of camps “has not been seen in decades” in the West Bank.

“People are unable to return to their homes as Israeli forces have blocked access to the camps, destroying homes and infrastructure,” said MSF Director of Operations Brice de la Vingne.

“Israel must stop this, and the humanitarian response needs to be scaled up.”

Dubbed “Iron Wall”, the Israeli operation is primarily targeting three refugee camps — Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams — and defence minister Israel Katz said in February it would last several months.

“I have instructed (the soldiers) to prepare for a prolonged stay in the evacuated camps for the coming year, and not to allow the return of their residents or the resurgence of terrorism,” he said in a statement.

Pushing effort to sack security chief, Israel PM alleges anti-govt plot

By AFP
March 24, 2025


Anti-government demonstrators protest outside the Israeli prime minister's office in Jerusalem during the meeting for a vote of no confidence against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara - Copyright AFP Menahem KAHANA

Israel’s prime minister, pushing to dismiss internal security chief Ronen Bar, on Monday alleged an attempt to bring down his government after Israeli media reported Bar’s agency spent months probing far-right infiltration of the police.

The police are under the supervision of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. The minister opposed a ceasefire in Gaza but rejoined the government last week when Israel resumed intensive bombing of the Palestinian territory in its war against Hamas.

In his latest accusation against Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Bar of investigating Ben Gvir without his approval.

Netanyahu is pressing ahead with proceedings to sack Bar, a move which the Supreme Court blocked on Friday and sparked protests around Israel.

“The claim that the prime minister authorised Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to gather evidence against minister Itamar Ben Gvir is yet another exposed lie,” Netanyahu said.

“The document that was published, which shows an explicit directive from the head of Shin Bet to collect evidence against the political echelon, resembles dark regimes, undermines the foundations of democracy, and aims to bring down the right-wing government”, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

The accusation came the day after Netanyahu’s government began proceedings to sack Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and two days after Bar’s firing on Friday. The Supreme Court froze Bar’s dismissal that same day.

Ben Gvir reacted on X, calling Bar a “criminal” and a “liar, who is now trying to deny his attempt to conspire against elected officials in a democratic country, even after the documents were revealed to the public and the world.”

The unprecedented moves to dismiss the Shin Bet chief and now the attorney general have widened divisions in the country as Israel resumes its military operations in the Gaza Strip.

A reignited protest movement has seen demonstrators accuse the prime minister of threatening democracy.

Netanyahu has cited an “ongoing lack of trust” in Bar and insists it is up to the government who will head Shin Bet.



– Adversary of the far-right –



Bar’s calls against “Jewish terrorism” in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and his warnings to Ben Gvir not to enter Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound were among factors that made him an adversary of Netanyahu’s far-right ministers.

The Supreme Court froze Bar’s dismissal after the filing of appeals, including from opposition leader Yair Lapid’s centre-right Yesh Atid party.

The opposition appeal highlighted what critics see as the two main reasons Netanyahu moved against Bar.

The first was his criticism of the government over the security failure that allowed Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest day in the country’s history.

The second was what the opposition appeal said is a Shin Bet investigation of Netanyahu’s close associates on suspicion of receiving money linked to Qatar.

Netanyahu’s office has dismissed such accusations as “fake news”.

Israel’s cabinet passed a vote of no confidence on Sunday against Baharav-Miara, the first step in a process to dismiss her.

Netanyahu’s office has cited “significant and prolonged differences between the government and the government’s legal adviser,” a role which the attorney general has.

Following the Supreme Court’s initial ruling in the Bar case, Baharav-Miara said Netanyahu cannot name a new internal security chief and is “prohibited to take any action that harms” his position.

Journalist working with Al Jazeera killed in Israeli Gaza strike, network says


By AFP
March 24, 2025


Relatives mourn Palestinian journalist Hussam Shabat during his funeral at the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza - Copyright AFP BASHAR TALEB

Al Jazeera said on Monday that a journalist working with one of its channels was killed in an Israeli strike on his vehicle in northern Gaza.

“Hussam Shabat, a journalist collaborating with Al Jazeera Mubasher, was martyred in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the northern Gaza Strip,” an Al Jazeera alert said, referring to the network’s live Arabic channel.

The territory’s civil defence agency confirmed his death, as well as that of Muhammad Mansour, an employee of the Islamic Jihad-affiliated Palestine Today TV.

The agency said Shabat was targeted by an Israeli drone strike on his car on Monday afternoon near a petrol station in the northern town of Beit Lahia.

It said Mansour was killed in a separate airstrike on his home in the southern city of Khan Yunis in the morning.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, said airstrikes had targeted more than 10 cars in various areas of the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate called the deaths of Shabat and Mansour “a crime added to the record of Israeli terrorism”.

“This horrific war crime aims to obscure the truth and terrorise all those who carry the message of free speech,” it added.

It said that more than 206 journalists and media workers had been killed since the start of the war, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel restarted intense air strikes across the densely populated Gaza Strip last week followed by ground operations, shattering the relative calm of a six-week ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday that 730 people had been killed since Israel resumed bombardments on March 18, including 57 in the past 24 hours.

Earlier in March, Gaza’s civil defence agency said nine people including journalists were killed in Israeli strikes in the north of the territory, an attack Hamas denounced as a “blatant violation” of the fragile ceasefire.

Conservatives target Trump as Canada Federal Election campaign kicks off


By AFP
March 24, 2025


Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre speaks in Ottawa on March 4, 2025 - Copyright AFP Dave Chan

Ben Simon

Canada’s Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre argued Monday that he is the strongest candidate to take on US President Donald Trump, whose annexation and tariff threats have shaken the once promising chances of a Tory-led government.

The leading candidates ahead of Canada’s April 28 election fanned out on the first full day of campaigning in a vote certain to be dominated by Trump.

Liberal leader and Prime Minister Mark Carney, who replaced Justin Trudeau earlier this month, was in the eastern province of Newfoundland, saying Canadians needed to view the United States as “a friendship lost.”

Trump’s return, while potentially devastating for Canada’s economy, appears to have boosted the Liberals, with several polls showing them as a slight favorite, a stunning turnaround from early January when the Conservatives looked headed for a landslide.

Poilievre built significant support as a relentless critic of an unpopular Trudeau government, but Trump’s return and Trudeau’s departure have forced the Conservatives to pivot.

Flanked by his wife and two young children at a packaging plant outside Toronto, Poilievre fought back against perceptions that Carney was the better counter to Trump.

“There’s a reason why Donald Trump wants the weak, out of touch Liberals in power. They have handed him control of our economy,” Poilievre said, an apparent references to Trump’s recent comment that he would “rather deal with a liberal” in Canada.

“I know that people are scared, they feel threatened… and now they are facing these unjustified threats from President Trump who quite frankly needs to knock it off,” Poilievre said.

He pledged tax cuts to boost the economy so Canada can “confront Donald Trump and the Americans from a position of strength.”

Political analysts have argued that to win Poilievre may need to re-center the campaign on non-Trump issues that made the Liberals vulnerable after a decade in power, like soaring housing costs.

But given Trump’s primacy in Canadian politics, Poilievre has increasingly taken aim at the president.

For Conservative supporter Valerie Orr, 81, Trump’s dominance in the campaign is unhelpful.

“This threat from the south has diverted too much attention,” she told AFP in a parking lot outside the Poilievre event.

“Who ever heard of a state the size of Canada… Come on, be real,” she said, praising the Conservative leader for focusing on the challenges people face trying to “make it through the week.”



– Friendship ‘lost,’ ‘strained’ –



Carney, who previously led the central banks in Canada and England, has tried to position himself as a departure from Trudeau and a seasoned economic crisis manager.

He spoke on Monday in Gander, a town that sheltered thousands of Americans whose trans-Atlantic flights were abruptly forced to land there after the September 11 attacks.

“Canadians did extraordinary things for Americans when they needed it. Now, we need to do extraordinary things for ourselves,” he said.

“In this crisis caused by the US president and those who are enabling him, we lament a friendship lost, or at least a friendship strained,” he added.

Trump has threatened, withdrawn and imposed a dizzying array of tariffs on Canadian goods, with more levies expected next week, triggering a trade war economists say could plunge Canada into a recession.

His tariffs and repeated threats to turn Canada into the 51st US state, combined with Trudeau’s departure have upended Canadian politics.

On January 6, the day Trudeau announced his plans to leave office, the Liberals held 20.1 percent support with the Conservatives at 44.2 percent, according to aggregated polling data from the public broadcaster CBC.

On Monday, the Liberals were at 37.8 percent and the Tories stood at 37.2.

The data shows the Carney-led Liberals have eaten into support for the left-wing New Democrats, who progressives may not trust to take on Trump.

Trump to impose sharp tariff on countries buying Venezuelan oil

TRUMP TARIFF TERRORISM

By AFP
March 24, 2025


US President Donald Trump holds cabinet meeting 

- Copyright AFP Brendan SMIALOWSKI

Beiyi SEOW and Becca MILFELD

US President Donald Trump announced Monday steep tariffs on imports from countries buying oil and gas from Venezuela, a punitive measure that could hit China and India, among others, and sow fresh global trade uncertainty.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has unleashed tariffs on US allies and foes alike, attempting to strong-arm both economic and diplomatic policy.

The latest across-the-board 25 percent levies targeting buyers of Venezuelan oil will come into effect April 2, Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

These could hit China and India, with experts noting that Venezuela exports oil to both those countries, as well as the United States and Spain.

Trump has dubbed the date “Liberation Day” for the world’s biggest economy, already promising reciprocal tariffs tailored to each trading partner in an effort to remedy practices that Washington deem unfair.

He earlier also said sector-specific duties would come around the same day — but the White House said Monday it might take a more targeted approach.

In his latest announcement involving Venezuela, the president cited “numerous reasons” for what he called a “secondary tariff.”

He accused Venezuela of “purposefully and deceitfully” sending “undercover, tens of thousands of high level, and other, criminals” to the United States.

He added in his post that “Venezuela has been very hostile to the United States and the Freedoms which we espouse.”

Under past rounds of sanctions, Venezuela had been able to shift exports to major economies like China and India.

Trump’s announcement comes as the deportation pipeline between the United States and Venezuela was suspended last month when Trump claimed Caracas had not lived up to a deal to quickly receive deported migrants.

Venezuela subsequently said it would no longer accept the flights.

But Caracas said Saturday that it had reached agreement with Washington to resume repatriations after which nearly 200 Venezuelan citizens were deported from the United States via Honduras.

Separately Monday, the Trump administration extended US oil giant Chevron’s deadline to halt its operations in Venezuela through May 27.

The company had been operating in Venezuela under a sanctions waiver previously granted.



– Narrower focus? –



Trump’s latest move adds to tariffs he has vowed would start on or around April 2.

Besides reciprocal tariffs, he has promised sweeping sector-specific duties hitting imported automobiles, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

As things stand, however, his plans for the day might become more targeted.

Sector-specific tariffs “may or may not happen April 2,” a White House official told AFP, adding that the situation is “still fluid.”

But the official reaffirmed that reciprocal tariffs would take place.

Trump told reporters Monday he would announce car tariffs “very shortly” and on pharmaceuticals sometime down the line.

US partners are furthering talks with Washington as deadlines loom, with EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic heading to the country Tuesday to meet his American counterparts — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade envoy Jamieson Greer.

Hopes of a narrower tariff rollout earlier gave financial markets a boost.

The White House has vowed to impose “big tariffs” on April 2 in a major escalation of Trump’s trade war, saying that “America has been ripped off by every country around the world.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo last week that Washington would go to trading partners with an indication of where tariff levels and non-tariff barriers are.

If countries stopped their practices, Bessent added, they could potentially avoid levies.

In the same interview, Bessent noted levies would be focused on about 15 percent of countries who have trade imbalances with the United States, dubbing these a “dirty 15.”

Hyundai announces new $21 billion investment in US manufacturing

TRUMP TARIFF GRIFT


By AFP
March 24, 2025


Hyundai has announced a new multi-billion-dollar investment in US manufacturing - Copyright AFP Jung Yeon-je

South Korean auto giant Hyundai on Monday announced a multi-billion-dollar investment in the United States, including a new $5.8 billion steel plant.

The plant, which will be based in the US state of Louisiana, “will create 1,300 American jobs,” Hyundai executive chairman Euisun Chung told reporters at a White House event alongside President Donald Trump.

The move will also serve “as the foundation for a more self-reliant and secure automotive supply chain in the US,” he added.

Hyundai’s announcement makes it the latest firm to announce plans to invest billions of dollars into the United States since Donald Trump’s return to power in January.

The US president has repeatedly threatened to impose painful tariffs on companies that do not relocate manufacturing jobs to the United States from overseas.

In response, domestic and foreign firms, including Apple and Oracle, have announced plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into US projects over the next four years.

“Cars are coming to this country at levels never seen before,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

The investment was “a clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work,” he said.

“Hyundai will be producing steel in America and making its cars in America, and as a result, they’ll not have to pay any tariffs,” he added.