Image of Trump watching South Korean presidential candidate is doctored
"Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is the only candidate who is respected by President Trump," reads the Korean-language caption of an image shared on Facebook on May 8, 2025.
The image appears to show Trump looking at a TV screen showing Han launching his campaign for president (archived link).
Han has , allowing his conservative People Power Party to field a single candidate against liberal frontrunner Lee Jae-myung (archived link).
As impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol's prime minister, Han had assumed the country's interim leadership when Yoon was suspended from office following his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024. He resigned as acting president on May 1 to run in the presidential election scheduled for June 3.
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Screenshot of the misleading claim shared on Facebook, captured May 9
Identical claims were shared in multiple Facebook groups supporting Yoon and other conservative politicians.
"President Trump looks like he is carefully watching South Korea's election. He probably ordered that Lee Jae-myung be stopped by any means necessary," read a comment on one of the posts.
While Trump reportedly asked Han whether he would run for president, the image circulating online is a fabrication (archived link).
Old Trump photo
A combination of keyword and reverse image searches on Google led to a Washington Post photo showing Trump watching news coverage on a monitor at the White House on November 20, 2020 (archived link).
The photo is captioned: "President Trump watches television after speaking to reporters at the White House on Nov. 20."
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Screenshot comparison between the doctored image shared on Facebook (left) and the photo published by the Washington Post (right)
The same photo was also used by the Seattle Times and is available on the Getty Images website (archived here and here).
A separate keyword search led to footage of Han announcing his presidential bid broadcast by YTN on May 1 (archived link).
The still used in the doctored image is shown at the 2:05 mark.
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Screenshot from YTN's broadcast used in the false posts
AFP has previously debunked similar images that were doctored to make them appear as if they showed Trump speaking with Yoon or watching news about his South Korean counterpart.
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Fashion Network
44 minutes ago
- Fashion Network
Trump tariffs put pressure on Harris Tweed makers and luxury supply chain
Harris Tweed, the centuries-old fabric woven by islanders in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, faces new global headwinds. Trump-era tariffs on wool imports are raising costs for textiles prized by luxury fashion houses worldwide. In December 1957, Reverend Murdoch MacRae traveled from his parish on Lewis and Harris—one of the Outer Hebridean islands off the northwest coast of mainland Scotland—across the Atlantic to confront the US Federal Trade Commission in Washington. At the time, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's tariffs on woolen imports threatened to trigger an exodus of island workers whose livelihoods depended on producing hand-woven tweed jackets, trousers and caps—garments long cherished by Americans, from Wall Street bankers to the Kennedys and Hollywood actors. MacRae's mission to protect the islanders from US protectionism ultimately succeeded. Yet nearly 70 years later, his achievement is being undermined by the trade policies of another figure with Hebridean roots: Donald Trump. 'Trump might portray himself as a man of Scottish heritage; he might have used the family Bible at his inauguration,' says Iain Martin, a fourth-generation weaver, but 'that man doesn't care. He's out for himself, nobody else.' Martin is one of just 150 weavers of Harris Tweed, a fabric made from coarse, woven wool. It has been his life. He started winding bobbins—a now semi-automated part of the process essential for loading yarn onto the loom—when he was five. Now, at age 57, he weaves about 8,000 meters of tweed each year, in addition to managing a 15-acre farm and caring for 600 sheep. He still uses a loom purchased by his grandfather in 1926, housed in a workshop alongside his own stack of family Bibles, a collection of colorful bobbins and a heavy blanket hand-woven by his grandmother. The distinctive diagonal-patterned Harris Tweed, unique to the Hebrides, has become part of the collateral damage caused by the US president's sweeping tariffs on global trade—measures he defends as necessary to protect American jobs. Though tweed exports are small compared to the £59.3 billion total value of UK goods shipped to the US, the island's crofters and weavers still face the same 10% tariff rate imposed on much larger exporters, even after Trump's deal with the UK government reduced levies for some other sectors. They now compete under the same terms as major companies such as automaker Jaguar Land Rover Ltd, Diageo Plc, the consumer products group, and fashion brand Burberry Group Plc. Islanders warn, as MacRae did seven decades ago, that these tariffs threaten a way of life rooted in the 18th century, on remote islands that today are home to around 26,000 people—most of them living on Lewis and Harris. The US president's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was once one of those islanders. She grew up in Lewis before emigrating to New York at age 17 in 1930. 'A lot of islanders go to work elsewhere and they never return home, but for people like me, crofting, weaving—it's in the blood,' says Martin. 'That's what draws me to keeping these traditions alive.' Nike sparks a tweed renaissance A 1993 British act of Parliament protects the manufacture of Harris Tweed, stipulating that producers must use pure sheep's wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides, weave it by hand at home and finish it in the Western Isles. They then export the fabric to around 55 countries—the US, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are the biggest markets—where designers use it in everything from luxury suits to sneakers and even whisky flasks. The industry has long been sensitive to the whims of American buyers, whose preferences have had an outsized impact on the sector. In the post-war era, purchasing a tailored tweed suit was a rite of passage for many young men. However, when US consumers turned away from wool in favor of lighter fabrics in the 1980s, Hebridean tweed-makers experienced a sharp downturn. Years later, a limited-edition tweed sneaker by Nike Inc. introduced the fabric to a younger audience, sparking a renaissance in the 2000s. The once-derelict Shawbost mill, dating back to the 1920s, was reborn as Harris Tweed Hebrides Ltd. in 2007 to capture some of that renewed US interest. Now the largest of the island's three mills and its biggest private-sector employer, the company generated a turnover of around £9 million in 2023, according to company filings. The US remains its top export market. Approximately 1 million meters of the fabric are produced annually, with the Shawbost mill accounting for about 65% of that total and supplying international brands such as Ralph Lauren Corp., Brooks Brothers and Christian Dior SE. Margaret Ann Macleod, chief executive officer of Harris Tweed Hebrides, describes the 10% tariff as 'hugely concerning,' particularly as it comes on top of higher employment taxes in the UK and against a backdrop of slowing global luxury demand. Demand for the fabric also risks being affected by the high levies the Trump administration imposed on European Union exports. Although the tariffs do not directly impact the Hebridean mills, any increase in the final retail price of garments made with Harris Tweed could prompt US clients to reconsider using the fabric. Last week, the US Court of International Trade declared the Trump tariffs illegal. However, a successful appeal by the White House has delayed a final decision, leaving those affected by the measures still awaiting clarity. 'The worst thing for buyers is being unsure,' Macleod says. 'When there are unknown costs that we can't quantify, it can make the difference between them selecting a British heritage textile or not. They may choose to delay that purchase, reduce the quantity or opt out entirely.' About 15% of Harris Tweed Hebrides' annual fabric production is already sold to Asian clients. The mill is now working to strengthen ties with markets such as South Korea—its fastest-growing market—and Japan, which Macleod will visit later this year as part of a British trade delegation. The company is also reviewing its prices—the cloth retails at £55 per meter for individual consumers—in response to the tariffs. Yet quickly pivoting to new markets is not easy for a 'slow fashion' business, where completing an order can take up to three months. The industry must also step up efforts to combat counterfeiting and raise brand awareness in newer markets like China. 'We're not going to offshore production; we legally cannot do that even if we wanted to,' says Calum Iain Maciver, interim chief executive officer of the Harris Tweed Authority, a statutory body responsible for protecting the cloth's reputation. 'Returning manufacturing plants to the USA is Trump's goal, but so many industries are caught up in that. It's quite a blunt instrument to try to solve a domestic American problem; it really is a sledgehammer.' From the sheep to the shop Producing Harris Tweed is a complex, months-long process that begins with bales of blended pure sheep wool sourced from across the UK, not just the Hebrides. Millworkers dye the wool fibers using one of 60 base colors and then spin them to achieve the fabric's rich hues. They weigh and blend different colored wools according to precise recipes created by the mill's designer to produce a wide range of shades. Next, they send the wool through carding—a mechanical combing process that disentangles and mixes the fibers—creating a candy-floss-like yarn in shades ranging from pinkish red to soft brown or earthy green. Workers then spin the yarn to strengthen it, preparing it to be wound onto bobbins. They arrange thousands of warp threads—a term derived from the Old Norse varp, meaning 'the cast of a net'—side by side lengthwise on the fabric. They then separate the threads into parallel strips and wind them onto a large beam. The mill delivers the prepared yarn and a pattern card to one of the island's self-employed weavers. The weaver introduces the weft colors—the horizontal threads woven through the warp—that create the fabric's distinctive zigzag pattern. After weaving, the mill washes, dries, steam-presses and crops the cloth before preparing it for inspection. If the cloth meets quality standards, the mill stamps it with the Orb certification mark of the Harris Tweed Authority (HTA) and readies it for export. This intricate process employs 300 millworkers and weavers, many of whom live in remote villages across the island. The HTA estimates that the sector also indirectly supports another 100 jobs in restaurants, bars and shops, along with about 1,000 registered local artisans who use Harris Tweed fabric to create and sell clothing and small accessories. 'Harris Tweed is literally woven into the community,' says Macleod. 'The economic fortunes of the islanders have always depended on the sector.' Retailers selling Harris Tweed garments, such as Peter Christian—a £10 million British tailoring brand—are already adapting to the new tariff regime. With US customers accounting for nearly 70% of its tweed suit sales, the company offered a 10% discount labeled 'reverse tariffs' in early April and scaled back advertising at the start of 2025 after a slowdown in US sales growth that predated Trump's measures. Tweed also supports the islands' £75 million tourism sector. Stornoway welcomed a record 57,000 cruise ship passengers last year. Many of these visitors tour weavers' workshops, where they learn about crofting and the craftsmanship behind Harris Tweed. They also dine in local restaurants and pubs and purchase Harris Tweed jackets or small souvenirs, such as pouches, key chains and hats. For now, says the HTA's Maciver, lobbying Washington as MacRae did in 1957 would be pointless given the current 'uncertainty and movement' surrounding the tariffs. Miriam Hamilton, 32, a weaver in Crossbost, a picturesque village 10 miles from Stornoway, says she does not plan to lower her prices to offset the higher tariffs for US customers. 'I can't absorb the extra costs,' she says.
France 24
an hour ago
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Germany faces two more years of recession if US trade war escalates: central bank
If US President Donald Trump's tariffs were to be implemented in full from July and the EU were to retaliate, then German output would decline 0.5 percent this year and 0.2 percent in 2026, the Bundesbank forecast. This would be due to a "marked decline in exports and significant uncertainty weighing on investment," it said. There would be a return to growth in 2027, with a rebound of one percent, it said. The eurozone's traditional growth engine has already contracted for the past two years due to a manufacturing slump and surging energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine, but hopes had been high for a modest recovery from this year. When Trump unveiled his "Liberation Day" tariffs in early April, he threatened to hit the European Union with a 20-percent levy over its hefty surplus in goods traded with the United States. He then paused those higher rates until July to allow for talks to try to reach a deal. More recently he said he would slap the EU with a 50-percent tariff rate as negotiations stalled -- but has also delayed that measure. The bloc still faces a "baseline" 10-percent tariff rate on all its exports to the United States, as well as higher levies on some specific sectors. Trump's tariff blitz stands to hit export power Germany hard, as the United States was Germany's top trading partner in 2024, receiving huge quantities of its cars, pharmaceuticals and machinery. As well as a worse-case scenario, the Bundesbank also released "baseline" growth projections. This envisages US trade policy having a more moderate impact on Germany as new Chancellor Friedrich Merz's planned spending surge on infrastructure and defence helps support the economy. Under these forecasts, the economy would stagnate this year before expanding 0.7 percent in 2026 and then 1.2 percent in 2027. The German government and many economic institutes have already slashed their growth forecasts for this year to zero, citing the uncertainty triggered by Trump's trade war.
Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
How did the Donald Trump-Musk feud begin? Here is the blow-by-blow
Less than a week after lavishing praise on each other in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the world's richest man, fell out spectacularly and publicly. In a war of words that escalated on Thursday, both men took to their own social media platform to attack the other. Although many political analysts had predicted that their alliance would not last, the speed with which it imploded was nevertheless dramatic. Just last Friday, Trump was celebrating Musk's work as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), overseeing the slashing of billions of dollars in federal spending. The South Africa-born billionaire had decided to step away from his work with the US government to focus on his businesses, which have suffered as a result of his foray into politics. Speaking at his send-off at the White House last Friday, the US president called Musk 'one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced'. 'He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation and we appreciate it,' Trump said. 'Just want to say that Elon has worked tirelessly helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations,' he added. In reply, Musk, who was presented with a golden key featuring the White House insignia, said he would continue to visit Trump as 'a friend and adviser'. Looking around the room at Trump's new golden decorations, the entrepreneur said: 'The Oval Office finally has the majesty that it deserves thanks to the president.' But the sheen of their formerly close relationship has now fully disappeared. After the billionaires' friendship soured this week and their dispute became deeper, questions have been raised about the damage that two of the world's most powerful men could potentially do to one another. While Musk can withhold tens of millions of dollars in promised campaign donations, Trump has threatened to cut billions in government contracts and subsidies to Musk's companies. The public rift between the two men started to open up on Tuesday, when Musk took to X to criticise Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'. The bill, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives last month but faces challenges in the Senate, includes large tax cuts and the raising of the national debt ceiling. Musk, who says the bill undermines all the savings made by DOGE, started to forcefully condemn it this week. The bill is 'massive, outrageous, pork-filled' and a 'disgusting abomination', Musk said. The Tesla CEO also lambasted House Republicans for voting for what he calls the 'big ugly bill', which he claims will increase the US deficit to $2.5 trillion (€2.19 trillion). Despite the strength of Musk's language, it wasn't until Thursday that the feud between him and Trump fully escalated. On Thursday morning, Musk reposted some old Trump social media posts, including one in which the now US president said that 'no member of Congress should be eligible for reelection' unless the country's budget was balanced. 'I couldn't agree more,' Musk wrote, in direct criticism of Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill. At around midday on Thursday, Trump responded in the Oval Office during a visit from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump said he was 'very disappointed' by Musk, before expressing doubts about whether their 'great relationship' would continue. The dispute then became more personal, with Musk, who gave the Trump campaign hundreds of millions of dollars last year, saying that the US president would not be in the White House without him. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk wrote on X. 'Such ingratitude,' he concluded. Things came to a head later on Thursday afternoon. 'The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's governmental subsidies and contracts,' Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. 'I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!' he added. Musk retaliated by claiming that Trump's name appears in the files of the paedophile and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, alleging that this was the 'real reason they have not been made public'. The White House said on Thursday evening that Musk's Epstein claim was an 'unfortunate episode'. The Trump administration has suggested the tech billionaire's criticism of the landmark bill stems from his disappointment that it does not contain policies favourable to him, something Musk has denied. By Thursday evening, it appeared that Musk was open to de-escalating the situation. After Bill Ackman, a Trump ally and hedge-fund billionaire, wrote that the two men 'should make peace for the benefit of our great country', Musk replied that he was 'not wrong'.
