British Factories ‘Turning a Corner' After US-UK Tariffs Deal
British factories showed signs of 'turning a corner' in May following a limited deal between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump's governments to lower some US tariffs, a closely watched survey showed.
S&P Global's manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 46.4, up from 45.4 in April and a three-month high.
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Trump says Putin told him in phone call he will respond to Ukraine's weekend drone attacks
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Yahoo
20 minutes ago
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Trump's 50% tariffs on imported steel, aluminum go into effect
Tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to the U.S. doubled to 50% starting at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, after President Donald Trump followed through on his plan to increase the duties. Trump said on Friday during a visit to a Pittsburgh-area steel mill that he would increase the tariff to 50%, upping the levy to protect steelworker jobs in the U.S. He signed an executive order formalizing the tax increase on Tuesday. 'We don't want America's future to be built with shoddy steel from Shanghai, we want it built with the strength and the pride of Pittsburgh,' Trump said from the U.S. Steel facility in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania The 50% tariffs 'will more effectively counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminum in the United States market and thereby undercut the competitiveness of the United States steel and aluminum industries,' the executive order said. In addition to raising steel and aluminum import tariffs to 50%, Trump said he would sign off on a deal in which Japan's Nippon Steel will acquire U.S. Steel for $14 billion. The U.S. is the world's largest steel importer, with imports accounting for about 25% of the steel used in the country annually, according to the International Trade Administration. CNN reported that in 2024, the U.S. imported $31.3 billion worth of iron and steel and $27.4 billion of aluminum, according to the Commerce Department. Canada is the largest supplier of steel to the U.S., followed by Brazil, Mexico and South Korea. Canadian authorities said they are working to have the tariffs on steel and aluminum removed. 'Canada's new government is engaged in intensive and live negotiations to have these and other tariffs removed as part of a new economic and security partnership with the United States,' the office of Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement to CTV News on Tuesday. Unifor, Canada's largest labor union, called for retaliatory tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminium to match the 50% tariff imposed by Trump. 'These tariffs are killing investment in our steel, aluminum, and auto sectors, and we are already seeing the consequences in lost jobs and economic instability,' Unifor National President Lana Payne said Wednesday in a news release. 'We need immediate and forceful action to defend good jobs and safeguard our national economic security.' The 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum apply to all countries, except the United Kingdom, which announced a preliminary trade deal with the Trump administration in May. The rate for steel and aluminum imports from the U.K. remains at 25% until at least July 9. The tariff hike arrives about three months after Trump implemented 25% duties on all imported steel and aluminum, including Mexico and Canada, its partners in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum are in violation of the USMCA. 'It's an unfair measure,' Sheinbaum said Wednesday during her daily morning news conference. 'In Mexico's case, it's unfair because Mexico imports more steel and aluminum than it exports. Formally, a tariff is imposed when there's a deficit for the United States, in other words, as if Mexico were exporting more than it was importing. It has no legal basis because there's a national treaty. It's being considered for U.S. security reasons. It's unsustainable.' The post Trump's 50% tariffs on imported steel, aluminum go into effect appeared first on FreightWaves.
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Opinion: STEM's Grand Challenges — And Opportunities
Never in our history have science and technology figured so prominently in our economic well-being and national security. STEM jobs and products dominate the economy, accounting for 69% of the U.S. gross domestic product. Emerging technologies across energy, information, transportation, healthcare, agriculture, and every other aspect of life are now battlegrounds of capable, competitive nations. In his recent letter to the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, President Donald Trump charged his Office of Science and Technology Policy to 'cement America's global technological leadership and usher in the Golden Age of American Innovation.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Tha means the administration will do all it can to bolster the STEM K-12 talent pipeline, right? And Americans will surely support policies aimed at equipping youth for high-demand and mission-critical career paths, eh? U.S. STEM education faces eight ornery, grand challenges, each conceivably conquerable if we rally. 1. America's STEM Education imperative is being eclipsed by an AI exigency. The stakes associated with leading in artificial intelligence blow the 1958 Sputnik crisis out of the sky. The Trump administration recently released an AI-in-education executive order. The STEM education community should seize leadership of a chaotic AI-in-education landscape, leveraging vast networks and partnerships as testbeds. STEM gives AI context and purpose. Many leading AI developers and funders are investing strongly in K-12 technology education. 2. Federal education research and development funding has been sharply diminished lately. STEM education leaders are going to miss the data and research that flowed from the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education through its now-diminished National Center for Education Statistics, including the hobbled National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. But as plans for carving up federal education grant programs into state block grants emerge, state STEM networks will be well-positioned to advance this sort of analysis. Related 3. Teachers of STEM subjects from pre-K to college level may not be career-ready for the modern teaching job. Systems of teacher preparation and professional development remain largely discipline focused, while the messiness of real-world issues meshes the disciplines. The President's termination of ED grants for Teacher Quality and Teacher Leadership, as well as Effective Educator Development, exacerbate the challenge of changing how we prepare educators. But state block grants could represent an opportunity for supporting STEM-focused educator development. 4. Well-documented STEM education innovations dot the U.S. education landscape, but progress toward scaling is inequitable and frustratingly incremental. A recent National Academies report examined hurdles, including decentralization and lack of incentives to scaling proven practices in STEM were familiar: increased federal investments in professional development, more data collection, and broadened connections for partnerships and collaborations. In reality, evidence-based practices identified by research have often been ignored by public school districts and the education schools that prepare teachers. If the estimated $1.5 billion annual federal education R & D investment were carved into 50 chunks for states, STEM leaders could make the case for devoting tens of millions of dollars to bringing innovations to scale. 5. Standards for K-12 science, mathematics, technology, are great for leveling the playing field, but may inhibit STEM innovation. The entire K-12 galaxy spins on a standards axis: curricula, professional development, assessment and grading, publishers, performance reviews. But when organizations and states define what students should know and be able to do at each grade level, rarely do they feature the more integrated aspects of STEM (see challenge #3). Standards-driven systems favor efficiency and conformity (i.e., teach to the standards) over creativity and inventiveness. It's time to flip the script from emphasizing content (What do you know?) to practices (What can you do?), which are hallmarks of STEM education. 6. Now that the acronym is target practice for many folks in power at the national and state level, that puts at risk the STEM community's consensus objective to broaden the talent pipeline. The shift is starkly evident at the National Science Foundation, where updated priorities state that 'Awards that are not aligned with NSF's priorities have been terminated, including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)….' Is there room to continue prioritizing outreach to the underserved and underrepresented? Yes, says NSF 'so long as these programs do not preference or limit participation based on these protected characteristics.' STEM for all. 7. The skills and attributes that STEM education aspires to imbue – teamwork, curiosity, ideation, negotiation, accountability and 95 more – are tough to measure. Simulations, portfolios, interviews, and AI chatbot diagnostics are so far questionably valid, reliable, and equitable at distinguishing learners' acquisition of soft skills, a.k.a. employability skills, 21st century skills, or durable skills. Competency born of practice is the ideal route for STEM education, and now that all 50 states permit competency-based assessment, STEM can lead a culture shift. 8. American STEM education faces a public awareness problem. The 1958 Sputnik scare was Tinker Toys compared to today's global competition to own quantum, AI, and other emerging technologies. A functionless, beeping satellite spurred a multi-billion-dollar investment in STEM, while today's government shrinks science budgets and dismisses experts. What's lacking is a jolt 'to snap the U.S. out of its complacency.' But unlike 1958, we have today a vast array of university STEM centers, local and regional STEM ecosystems, STEM specialty schools, and STEM learning centers across the continent. If public awareness of the nation's STEM imperative were prioritized as a mission action by all, the jolt could spark a STEM rally. This ornery octet of challenges faced by the STEM education community is surmountable if we work at it. A 'golden age of American innovation' sounds great but calls for a strong system of STEM education to fuel the talent pipeline and to wisely manage profound human inventiveness.
