VOA Spanish: Chevron has April deadline to liquidate Venezuelan operations
U.S. oil company Chevron will have until April 3 to cease operations in Venezuela, according to the most recent license published by the U.S. Treasury Department, days after President Donald Trump announced his decision to reverse concessions to Venezuelan oil.
Click here for the full story in Spanish.
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Voice of America
13-03-2025
- Voice of America
Wall Street tumbles 10% below its record after Trump escalates trade war
Wall Street's sell-off hit a new low Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump's escalating trade war dragged the S&P 500 more than 10% below its record, which was set just last month. A 10% drop is deemed a correction by professional investors, and the S&P 500's 1.4% slide on Thursday sent the index to its first since 2023. The losses came after Trump upped the stakes in his trade war by threatening huge taxes on European wines and alcohol. Not even a double-shot of good news on the U.S. economy could stop the bleeding. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 537 points, or 1.3% Thursday, and the Nasdaq composite fell 2%. The dizzying, battering swings for stocks have been coming not just day to day but also hour to hour, and the Dow hurtled between a slight gain and a drop of 689 points through Thursday's trading. The turbulence is a result of uncertainty about how much pain Trump will let the economy endure through tariffs and other policies to reshape the country and world as he wants. The president has said he wants manufacturing jobs back in the United States, along with a smaller U.S. government workforce and other fundamental changes. Trump's latest escalation came Thursday when he threatened 200% tariffs on Champagne and other European wines, unless the European Union rolls back a tariff it announced on U.S. whiskey. The European Union unveiled that move on Wednesday, in response to U.S. tariffs on European steel and aluminum. U.S. households and businesses have reported drops in confidence because of all the uncertainty about which tariffs will stick from Trump's barrage of on-again, off-again announcements. That's raised fears about a pullback in spending that could sap energy from the economy. Some U.S. businesses say they've begun to see a change in their customers' behavior because of the uncertainty. A particularly feared scenario for the economy is one where its growth stagnates but inflation stays high because of tariffs. Few tools are available in Washington to fix what's called stagflation. There was good news Thursday, and it came on both those economic fronts. One report showed inflation at the wholesale level last month was milder than economists expected. It followed a similarly encouraging report from the prior day on inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling. A separate report, meanwhile, said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected. It's the latest signal that the job market remains relatively solid overall. If that can continue, it could allow U.S. consumers to keep spending, and that's the main engine of the economy.
Voice of America
13-03-2025
- Voice of America
Trump threatens hefty tariffs on European spirits
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened the European Union with 200% tariffs on wine, champagne and other spirits produced in the 27-nation bloc after the EU levied what he said was 'a nasty 50% tariff' on American-distilled whiskey. Trump contended in a post on his Truth Social media platform that the EU is 'one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.' He said it was formed in 1993 'for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States' economically. In the last month, Trump has been waging a tit-for-tat tariff fight with its biggest trading partners — Mexico, Canada, China and the EU — in what he says is an effort to staunch the flow of drugs, especially fentanyl, into the United States from Mexico and Canada, and also convince manufacturers to close their operations overseas and move them to the U.S. to create more American jobs. On Wednesday, Trump levied 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. from 35 countries, including the EU bloc. Europe quickly retaliated with its own tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. exports to countries that have long been U.S. geopolitical allies, while Canada imposed new tariffs on $20.7 billion worth of U.S. exports to its northern neighbor. The new EU measures will apply not only to steel and aluminum products but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods. Motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans also will be hit, as they were during Trump's first term that ran from 2017 to 2021. The EU duties aimed for political pressure points in the U.S. while minimizing additional damage to Europe. EU officials have said its tariffs, which are paid by importing companies and the cost of which is then mostly passed on to consumers, are targeting products from states dominated by Republicans like Trump, such as beef and poultry from Kansas and Nebraska, wood products from Alabama and Georgia, and liquor from Kentucky and Tennessee. Spirits producers have become collateral damage in the steel and aluminum dispute. Chris Swonger, head of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, called the EU move to tax U.S.-produced spirits "deeply disappointing and will severely undercut the successful efforts to rebuild U.S. spirits exports in EU countries.' The EU is a major destination for U.S. whiskey, with exports surging 60% in the past three years after an earlier set of tariffs was suspended. On Thursday, Swonger said in a statement, 'The U.S.-EU spirits sector is the model for fair and reciprocal trade, having zero-for-zero tariffs since 1997.' He urged the end to a tariff fight over spirits between the U.S. and Europe, saying, 'We want toasts not tariffs.' Trump's tariff wars have led to a broad Wall Street stock selloff, with the three major U.S. stock indexes plunging in recent days, with stocks falling again on Thursday in early trading. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC he was not worried. 'We're focused on the real economy,' he said. 'I'm not concerned about a little bit of volatility over three weeks. I can't tell you the market is going to go up today, tomorrow, next week.' He dismissed concerns about Trump's threat to impose bigger tariffs on European spirits. "One or two items with one trading bloc — I'm not sure why that's a big deal for the markets," he said. Trump said in his social media post that if Europe follows through on its 50% tariff on U.S.-distilled whiskey, he will impose the 200% tariff on 'all wines, champagne & alcoholic products coming out of France and other E.U. represented countries. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.' Trump also attacked The Wall Street Journal newspaper, the country's leading business publication, for refusing to support his tariff plans. A Journal editorial said this week that 'most Americans understand that tariffs are a tax on consumers and businesses.' The U.S. leader said the newspaper 'has no idea what they are doing or saying. They are owned by the polluted thinking of the European Union.' He said the newspaper's 'thinking is antiquated and weak, and very bad for the USA.'
Voice of America
13-03-2025
- Voice of America
Meta tests 'Community Notes' to replace fact-checkers
Social media giant Meta on Thursday announced it would begin testing its new "Community Notes" feature across its platforms on March 18, as it shifts away from third-party fact-checking toward a crowd-sourced approach to content moderation. Meta's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the new system in January as he appeared to align himself with the incoming Trump administration, including naming a Republican as the company's head of public policy. The change of system came after years of criticism from supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, among others, that conservative voices were being censored or stifled under the guise of fighting misinformation, a claim professional fact-checkers vehemently reject. Meta has also scaled back its diversity initiatives and relaxed content moderation rules on Facebook and Instagram, particularly regarding certain forms of hostile speech. The initiative, similar to the system already implemented by X (formerly Twitter), will allow users of Facebook, Instagram and Threads to write and rate contextual notes on various content. Meta said approximately 200,000 potential contributors in the United States have already signed up across the three platforms. The new approach requires contributors to be over 18 with accounts more than six months old that are in good standing. During the testing period, notes will not immediately appear on content and the company will gradually admit people from the waitlist and thoroughly test the system before public implementation. Meta emphasized that the notes will only be published when contributors with differing viewpoints agree on their helpfulness. "This isn't majority rules," the company said. Moreover, unlike fact-checked posts that often had reduced distribution, flagged content with Community Notes will not face distribution penalties. Notes will be limited to 500 characters, must include supporting links and will initially support six languages commonly used in the United States: English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Portuguese. "Our intention is ultimately to roll out this new approach to our users all over the world, but we won't be doing that immediately," the company said. "Until Community Notes are launched in other countries, the third party fact checking program will remain in place for them," it added. Meta said that it would not be "reinventing the wheel" and will use X's open-source algorithm as the basis of its system. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month warned that the rollbacks to fact-checking and moderation safeguards were "reopening the floodgates" of hate and violence online.
