Trump pulls US out of UN cultural agency Unesco for second time
The withdrawal from the Paris-based agency, which was founded after World War 2 to promote peace through international co-operation in education, science and culture, will take effect at the end of next year.
The move is in line with the Trump administration's broader 'America first' foreign policy, which includes a deep scepticism of multilateral groups, including the UN, the World Trade Organisation and the Nato alliance.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Unesco 'supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes totally out of step with the commonsense policies Americans voted for'.
The state department accused Unesco of supporting 'a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America first foreign policy'.
It said its decision to admit the Palestinians as a member state was 'highly problematic, contrary to US policy and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric'.
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eNCA
11 hours ago
- eNCA
Trump hikes India levy as tariff deadline approaches
WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered steeper tariffs on Indian goods over New Delhi's continued purchase of Russian oil, opening a new front in his trade wars just hours before another wave of duties takes effect. Trump's additional 25-percent tariff on Indian goods, set to come into place in three weeks, stacks atop a separate 25-percent duty entering into force Thursday. This takes the level to 50 percent for many products. Trump's order also threatens potential penalties on other countries for "directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil," a key source of revenue for Moscow's war in Ukraine. But exemptions remain for goods targeted under sector-specific duties such as steel and aluminum, and categories that could be hit later, like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. Smartphones are also among this list of exempted products for now, notably shielding Apple from a major hit as the US tech titan shifts production from China to India. India's foreign ministry condemned Trump's tariff announcement Wednesday, calling the move "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable." The ministry had previously said that India began importing from Russia as traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict. It noted that Washington at that time had "actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy market stability." But Trump recently ramped up pressure on India over its purchases of Russian oil, threatening new tariffs as part of a campaign to force Moscow into ending its devastating invasion of Ukraine. India's national security adviser was in Moscow on Wednesday, media in New Delhi reported, coinciding with a visit by US envoy Steve Witkoff. The latest 25-percent additional tariff is notably lower than a 100-percent level Trump floated last month when he told Russia to end its war in Ukraine within 50 days or face massive new economic sanctions. The Republican said at the time that these would be "secondary tariffs" targeting Russia's remaining trade partners, seeking to impede Moscow's ability to survive already sweeping Western sanctions. - Tariff turmoil - Trump's latest salvo targeting India came after he separately took aim at Brazil over the trial of his right-wing ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro -- who is accused of planning a coup. On Wednesday, US tariffs on various Brazilian goods surged from 10 percent to 50 percent, although broad exemptions including for orange juice and civil aircraft are expected to soften the blow. Come Thursday, a new wave of tariffs on imports from dozens of other economies, ranging from the European Union to Taiwan, is set to kick in. These updated "reciprocal" tariffs, meant to address trade practices Washington deems unfair, go as high as 41 percent for countries like Syria. Other major US trading partners face varying increases from a current 10-percent level, starting at 15 percent for economies like the EU, Japan and South Korea. Countries not targeted by these "reciprocal" tariff hikes continue facing a 10-percent US levy Trump imposed in April. Trump's plans have sparked a rush to avert the steeper duties, with Switzerland's President Karin Keller-Sutter hurrying to Washington this week ahead of the Thursday deadline. Though she secured a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, it was unclear if she would meet Trump or any top economic officials. Her Alpine country faces a 39-percent duty on many of its exports, and while its key pharmaceutical sector has been spared for now, Trump has said a potential separate tariff could eventually rise to 250 percent. Some of Trump's sweeping tariffs face legal challenges over his use of emergency economic powers, with the cases likely to ultimately reach the Supreme Court. By Beiyi Seow
Daily Maverick
11 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Loaded for Bear: As Anthropocene descends into the ‘Madocene' a ‘Madness Index' is in order
I propose that a Madness Index could supplement the Uncertainty Index. The global body politic is going right off its rocker, howling at the moon like some demented wolf on an acid trip. We are living in an age of 'great uncertainty', we are often told, and there is an entire conference industry now devoted to that subject. There are even indices to track uncertainty, with an excellent website devoted to that matter. Its main show is the Economic Policy Index (EPU), but there are other indices on the site, including the Trade Policy Uncertainty Index, the Monetary Policy Index and the Climate Policy Uncertainty Index. One unifying theme here is 'policy uncertainty'. But there is a root cause to all this uncertainty, and it is hiding in plain sight. It can be summed up in one word: madness. And I mean of the stark, raving, frothing-at-the-mouth, bug-eyed kind. The global body politic is going right off its rocker, howling at the moon like some demented wolf on an acid trip. Scientists speak of the current geological phase of the Earth's history as the Anthropocene, which speaks bluntly to humanity's impact on the environment. The Anthropocene can also be broken down into eras, and right now it is descending into the 'Madocene'. Just look at the utter insanity that is Trump 2.0. US Republicans are celebrating a massive tax hike on the middle class — which is what US President Donald Trump's tariffs are — and pretending they are something else against all evidence and the most basic grasp of economics or history. Denial of reality It's the denial of reality that is so troubling. I'm no shrink, but when you start denying what you see with your own eyes, I take it as a clinical sign of insanity. Trump and his 'policies' and politics are the most obvious manifestation of this insanity. The 6 January 2021 coup attempt at the US Capitol was a 'peaceful protest' by patriots attempting to nip a stolen election in the bud. Never mind that 174 police officers were injured, five people died as a result, and that there is no evidence of a rigged election. There's nothing to see here folks, and so we have Trump 2.0 — tariffs imposed on islands only inhabited by penguins, tariffs raised and lowered, tariffs today but not tomorrow — an endless cycle of madness and mayhem amid threats to annex Canada and Greenland. Part of Trump's base — the QAnon crowd — for years hyped the conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats were involved in a cabal of Satanic cannibalistic paedophiles. The files around notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — who reportedly killed himself in prison in 2019 — were a red rag for this lot. And suddenly there is nothing to see there! Even Trump's gullible base is not buying that, and so we now have a situation where the president of the US is losing political capital with one of his key crazy constituencies against the background of mounting suspicions — Trump and Epstein were pals — that he is in those files in a disturbing kind of way. The attempts to distract from all of this have included allegations that former US president Barack Obama committed treason because of his murky role in the 'Russiagate hoax' — which, as David Graham at The Atlantic notes, is not a hoax. We are in an age in which the US president — who spouts crazy stuff all the time — is trying to hide the spoor of his relationship with a paedophile who would make the Vatican blush by accusing a former president of treason — a crime that Trump himself demonstrably committed on 6 January 2021. Trump last week fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, claiming that the latest jobs data report was 'rigged' to make him look bad. Trump wants to manipulate the numbers and will probably appoint a minion to do so, which will undermine the credibility of crucial US data that moves global markets. The US president is also gunning for Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell because he has been reluctant to lower interest rates, in part because of the inflationary impact of Trump's tariffs. And he has said that nominees for the 12-member Federal Open Market Committee that sets US monetary policy will be litmus tested — if they won't lower rates, they won't get the job. For markets, this assault on central bank independence and statistical agencies in the world's most important economy is baie mal. We've also seen the denial of science on the vaccine and climate change fronts even as the fossil fuels uncorked by the Anthropocene continue to burn our planet. To sum up, Trump 2.0 is madness on steroids. And the zaniness does not end there. Russian President Vladimir Putin's three-day war in Ukraine is well into its third year with no end in sight, and no goal beyond paranoid delusions about Nato's borders — as if Latvia was a threat to Russia. North Korea remains a nuclear-armed madhouse, and the people of Gaza face genocide and starvation. I'm sure Trump still has the hope he floated a few months ago of turning the strip into a beachfront stripper zone. Can't let a little genocide and starvation get in the way of the new Ibiza! In Afghanistan, the Taliban are back baby, and those dudes are pretty bonkers. Meanwhile, here in the lovable loony bin called South Africa, the daily headlines are a reminder of our plunge off the deep end under a political mutant called the Government of National Unity. Just take Pieter-Louis Myburgh's takedown of the Independent Development Trust CEO and spokesperson after they offered him R60,000 in cash to quash a probe. That is, among other things, downright crazy. There are pockets of political sanity out there. Mark Carney, the prime minister of my native Canada, is a wooden central banker who speaks in complete sentences. How boringly sane! But there is lunacy galore out there. So I propose that a Madness Index could supplement the Uncertainty Index. I'm open to suggestions on this front. But I think it should perhaps be linked to, say, the price of gold, which has reached insane levels as it is an asset that thrives on madness. It could go something along these lines — a graph that since about 2016 has soared in an increasingly vertical fashion from 'Oupa had too much brandy' to 'wow, that's kind of nuts' to 'straight-jacket' levels and then 'batshit crazy'. Where it goes beyond there is worth pondering. Maybe the 'bat-excrement' phase could be a wide range that might peak in 30 to 50 years time. Or maybe the bat-excrement hitting the AI-powered fan could mark the next stage of this collective acid trip. From there, I guess we're off to Mars with Elon Musk. DM Letters will be edited.
IOL News
13 hours ago
- IOL News
Rebuilding a devastated Mariupol under Russia's thumb
People enjoy a beach in the Russian-controlled port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, with Mariupol commercial port seen in distance. Russia captured Mariupol after a weeks-long siege of the city in the first weeks of its 2022 military offensive on Ukraine. Thousands of civilians were killed. Image: Olga MALTSEVA / AFP Sun-seekers crowded onto the beach in Mariupol in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine - a devastated city which Moscow wants to turn into an improbable seaside resort. "Take a dip in the Sea of Azov!" said 52-year-old local Ivan, who like other beachgoers lapped up the good weather and mild waters of a coastline that is now entirely Russian-held. "Mariupol was, is and will be Russian," said the man, whose name has been changed. The slogan is the same one repeatedly put forward by Moscow, which took the city in May 2022 after a long siege. Exiled Ukrainian city officials say 22 000 civilians died in the Russian offensive and the UN estimates 90 percent of Mariupol's housing was damaged or destroyed. Some 300 000 of the predominantly Russian-speaking city's pre-conflict population of 540 000 has fled, the exiled authorities estimate. President Vladimir Putin quickly hailed what he called the liberation of Mariupol, while Kyiv and the majority of the international community denounce it as an occupation. In September 2022, Russia announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions including Donetsk where Mariupol is located - even though it does not fully control the areas. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ People visit the Zhdanov Museum, the institution dedicated to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's henchman Andrei Zhdanov (1896-1948), a Mariupol native responsible for setting Soviet cultural policy and one of the architects of Stalin's repressions, in the Russian-controlled Azov Sea port city of Mariupol. Image: Olga MALTSEVA / AFP Across Ukraine, the resistence put up by its forces in the city during the early weeks of Russia's military offensive has become a symbol of resilience. The city defenders, particularly the soldiers and civilians who held out during the last days of the siege of the Azovstal steelworks, are hailed as heroes. Russia in 2022 promised to rebuild the city within three years, hoping to showcase Mariupol as a symbol of its ability to bring prosperity to parts of Ukraine it controls. But Denis Kochubey, the city's exiled deputy mayor, said Moscow's reconstruction is just "a large-scale propaganda project." The building work is "aimed at erasing the memory" of Russia's actions in Mariupol by "showing that they have brought development". In the city, AFP reporters saw cement mixers operating at various construction sites. Russian military vehicles also went back and forth from the front line, about two hours' drive away. A woman walks past a "Mak Fly" restaurant, which serves burgers and fries, on Lenin Avenue in the Russian-controlled Azov Sea port city of Mariupol. Image: Olga MALTSEVA / AFP At the entrance to Mariupol, behind the sprawling hulk of Azovstal, stand some new apartment blocks. Galina Giller, a pensioner, was given a one-bedroom flat for free by the Moscow-installed authorities in May 2024. "They wrote to me saying I would get an apartment without any preconditions. They gave us the keys, we came to see it and I ordered furniture," the 67-year-old widow said. Giller fled the fighting in 2022 initially to nearby Donetsk, then to Crimea - another Ukrainian region that was annexed by Russia in 2014. "I am terribly sad for the ordinary people," she said. Like all the inhabitants who agreed to speak to AFP, Giller, who said she has Cossack and Greek roots, is a native Russian speaker. She still has Ukrainian citizenship but recently also received a Russian passport. A view of a newly built high-rise apartment complex in the Russian-controlled Azov Sea port city of Mariupol. Image: Olga MALTSEVA / AFP Moscow has handed out 3.5 million Russian passports to people living in areas it controls in Ukraine -- a policy that Kyiv has denounced as an "illegal" violation of its sovereignty. In Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia, Russian passports facilitate access to social benefits and protect residents from potential expropriation. Putin in March issued a decree that requires Ukrainians living in Moscow-controlled areas to "regularise their legal status" - meaning to become a Russian citizen or register as a foreign resident. The city now uses the Russian ruble and has Russian-style phone prefixes and car number plates. In a park where Russian flags fluttered in the wind, posters hail Russian soldiers who died during the offensive as "heroes of our time" - a reference to a literary classic by Russian writer Mikhail Lermontov. "I don't see any occupation here. I can travel freely on Russian territory," said Renald, 33, who wore a t-shirt with the log of Wagner, a former mercenary group that fought on the Russian side against Ukraine. Like most of the residents willing to speak to a foreign media outlet, Renald did not want to give his surname. Elena, beauty parlour worker who left the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals to buy a house in Mariupol last year. Image: Olga MALTSEVA / AFP Those who oppose Russian control of the city prefer to stay silent - or have long left Mariupol. The risk of being imprisoned is high with Russia cracking down on dissent. Authorities regularly arrest and give long prison sentences to people accused of "collaborating" with Kyiv. And people accused of "discrediting" the Russian army get jailed. One ex-resident, Tetiana, who spoke to AFP from outside Ukraine, said she feared "something bad" would happen if she went back, after criticising Moscow over the destruction of the city. In central Mariupol, many buildings have been restored. Cafes and supermarkets are open and the bars draw clients by blasting out techno beats. On Lenin Avenue, a "Mak Fly" restaurant serves burgers and fries. Authorities are also rebuilding the bombed-out theatre -- which Ukraine says was targeted despite being used as a shelter for civilians and with the word "children" scrawled on the courtyard in giant Russian letters. A Russian serviceman guards the entrance to the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol. The banner on top bears portraits of (L-R) head of Russia's Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow-installed head of the Donetsk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, and reads "Our strength is in unity!". Russia captured Mariupol after a weeks-long siege of the city. Image: Olga MALTSEVA / AFP According to Amnesty International, the March 2022 strike killed "at least a dozen people and likely many more". The Russian-appointed city authorities ignored numerous AFP requests to comment on the reconstruction. One of the most visible signs of Russian control was the inauguration this year of the Zhdanov Museum by decree from Putin. Set up on the site of a museum about local folklore, the institution is dedicated to henchman Andrei Zhdanov (1896-1948), a Mariupol native responsible for setting Soviet cultural policy and one of the architects of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's repression. Under the Soviet Union, Mariupol was known as Zhdanov between 1948 and 1989. Museum director Pavel Ignatev rejected accusations against his hero, saying that "historians... never found a document with the signature of Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov that authorised any kind of repression, execution or expulsion". Outside the city centre, there are quiet roads with houses gutted by the fighting. Some doors still have bullet holes and signs in Russian saying "Children", "Residents" or "Bodies". Mariupol is still far from becoming the seaside resort Moscow wants. AFP reporters noted frequent power and water cuts in the city. Sergei, 52, who builds advertising billboards, meets with AFP reporters at his partially destroyed city centre house, which was hit by two missiles in 2022. Image: Olga MALTSEVA / AFP Sergei, 52, lives with his dogs in a rundown house -- partly destroyed in the siege -- where weeds sprouted up in the garden. Sergei, who builds advertising billboards, said he had been to see local authorities three times to ask for compensation "but they themselves had no idea". "There were a lot of people there in the same situation as me who went to bother them with all sorts of questions," he said with a sigh. He abandoned his search. In independent and international media, there have been multiple allegations of corruption over the vast sums being poured into Mariupol's reconstruction. City authorities in exile said that the Russian-installed municipality is making lists of "ownerless" homes and apartments of residents who fled. The lists are sent to courts which give the property to people who stayed and whose housing was destroyed during the 2022 siege. Luisa Nalivay, director of the Mariupol branch of the real estate agent Ayax, boasted that her firm "has been present in Mariupol since the first day after the end of the fighting". She said the price per square metre of new housing has jumped from 85 000 rubles (R18 500) in 2022 to 200 000 rubles (R45 000) now. Nalivay said the rise was due to the low interest rate of just two percent on mortgages offered by Moscow to Russians who move to Mariupol. The rate can rise to more than 20 percent in Russia. Nalivay said "many people" from Russian regions wanted to move to Mariupol. "There are people who come for work, fall in love with the city and its mild climate and decide to move here with their families," she said. She said the air quality has been particularly good since the "metal works are currently stopped".
