Citi Sees Africa Trading More With China, EU After US Tariff Hit
Trump unveiled a revised global plan on Thursday that imposed levies as high as 30% on imports from countries including South Africa — the continent's biggest economy — and Algeria. Goods from other major economies including Nigeria and Ghana face US duties of 15%.
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Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Old Trump speech falsely linked to South Korea trade deal
Social media posts have recirculated an old video of US President Donald Trump and falsely presented it as depicting him calling South Korean leader Lee Jae Myung a "bad negotiator" after their countries agreed a trade deal. The clip in fact shows Trump criticising then president Barack Obama as he launched his presidential campaign in June 2015. "Trump mocks Lee Jae Myung as a bad negotiator," reads a Korean-language post featuring the clip on Naver Band, a South Korean forum, on July 31, 2025. "[Trump] mocked Lee as soon as the tariff negotiations finished. [Lee] has become a total pushover," it continues. The video shows Trump saying, "The people negotiating don't have a clue. Our president doesn't have a clue. He's a bad negotiator." But its Korean subtitles mistranslate "our president" as "their president". The clip was also shared in similar posts on multiple right-wing South Korean circles on Facebook, as well as on YouTube. "The way that fool Lee acted as he did, no wonder he is being mocked," read a comment on one of the posts. Another said: "An international embarrassment to be used like that, then mocked by the US president." Under the trade deal, the United States will impose a 15 percent tariff on South Korean imports -- down from the previously threatened 25 percent -- in exchange for $350 billion in South Korean investments in US industries and $100 billion in energy purchases (archived link). A keyword search on Google found the clip corresponds to a part of a speech Trump gave on June 16, 2015, when he announced his bid for the presidency (archived link). At around the 18:50 mark of the speech posted in full by CSPAN, Trump makes the comment: "The people negotiating don't have a clue. Our president doesn't have a clue. He's a bad negotiator." This was part of a broader tirade against the Obama administration's trade and foreign policies. Trump then references a prisoner swap involving US soldier Bowe Bergdahl to illustrate his criticism of Obama's negotiating skills. Bergdahl was a US Army sergeant who was captured by the Taliban in 2009 after walking off his post in Afghanistan and was released in 2014 in exchange for five Taliban detainees held at Guantanamo Bay (archived link). "We get Bergdahl. We get a traitor. We get a no-good traitor, and they get the five people that they wanted for years, and those people are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us. That's the negotiator we have," Trump said. A full transcript of the speech published by Time magazine also shows Trump was referring to Obama (archived link). Nowhere in the video or transcript does Trump mention South Korea or Lee Jae Myung. AFP has previously debunked similar instances of Trump remarks and social media posts being misrepresented as references to South Korea.
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nvidia's China Nightmare? H20 Chip Faces Backdoor Allegations in High-Stakes Trade Showdown
China's been turning up the heat on Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), and not in a good way. This week, the country's top internet watchdog summoned Nvidia reps over what it calls serious security risks tied to the H20 chipa product Nvidia designed specifically to meet U.S. export rules. State media pulled no punches either. In a commentary published Friday, the People's Daily warned of potential chip backdoors triggering a nightmare, saying it couldn't allow infected semiconductors into its digital infrastructure. Nvidia responded firmly: Cybersecurity is critically important to us, adding that its chips don't contain any remote access pathways. Still, in today's geopolitical climate, that reassurance may not be enough. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 5 Warning Signs with NVDA. Here's where things get messier. Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. agreed to lift restrictions on H20 sales to China as part of a broader deal involving rare-earth magnetsmaterials critical for everything from smartphones to fighter jets. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had framed the H20 resumption as a meaningful breakthrough after bilateral talks in London, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the magnet issue was solved. But with Beijing now putting the H20 back under the microscope, it's unclear whether Nvidia has actually received the licenses it needs to ship the chips. And if China decides the H20 isn't up to pareither technically or politicallythose sales may stall before they even start. Meanwhile, CEO Jensen Huang has been walking a tightrope. Fresh off a high-profile visit to Beijing, Huang praised China's AI momentum and national champions like DeepSeek, all while pushing back on the idea that Nvidia would ever install surveillance backdoors into its products. He called the suggestion not only false, but bad business. Still, the reality is this: Nvidia's H20, already weaker than its flagship GPUs, now faces a political test that could matter more than its specs. Investors watching the tech standoff might want to pay close attention to what happens nextbecause this chip is turning into a geopolitical bargaining chip. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
AI is already replacing thousands of jobs per month, report finds
Artificial intelligence is already replacing thousands of jobs each month as the U.S. job market struggles amid global trade uncertainty, a report has found. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas said in a report filed this week that in July alone the increased adoption of generative AI technologies by private employers led to more than 10,000 lost jobs. The firm stated that AI is one of the top five reasons behind job losses this year, CBS News noted. On Friday, new labor figures revealed that employers only added 73,000 jobs in July, a much worse result than forecasters expected. Companies announced more than 806,000 job cuts in the private sector through July, the highest number for that period since 2020. The technology industry is seeing the fiercest cuts, with private companies announcing more than 89,000 job cuts, an increase of 36 percent compared to a year ago. Challenger, Gray, and Christmas found that more than 27,000 job cuts have been directly linked to artificial intelligence since 2023. "The industry is being reshaped by the advancement of artificial intelligence and ongoing uncertainty surrounding work visas, which have contributed to workforce reductions," the firm said. The impact of artificial intelligence is most severe among younger job seekers, with entry-level corporate roles usually available to recent college graduates declining by 15 percent over the past year, according to the career platform Handshake. The use of 'AI' in job descriptions has also increased by 400 percent during the last two years. There are other reasons for recent job losses, with more than 292,000 roles having been terminated following cuts connected to the Department of Government Efficiency, previously led by Elon Musk, a former close ally of President Donald Trump, Challenger, Gray, and Christmas found. Senior vice president Andrew Challenger said in a statement, 'We are seeing the federal budget cuts implemented by DOGE impact non-profits and health care in addition to the government.' Amid the rising costs associated with tariffs, layoffs are also increasing in the retail sector, according to the firm. Through July, retailers announced more than 80,000 cuts, an increase of close to 250 percent compared to the same period last year. "Retailers are being impacted by tariffs, inflation, and ongoing economic uncertainty, causing layoffs and store closures. Further declines in consumer spending could trigger additional losses," said the firm. White collar workers are among those at highest risk of having their jobs wiped out by AI, executives have warned. But Challenger said early last month, 'There are roles that can be significantly changed by AI right now, but I'm not talking to too many HR leaders who say AI is replacing jobs,' he added, according to NBC News. In June, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AI would 'reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains.' But he didn't specify a timeframe. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ford CEO Jim Farley would replace 'literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.' But experts argue that AI is currently affecting the job market in roundabout ways, such as many companies coming under intense pressure to cut costs because of the uncertain economic climate pushed by Trump's tariff policy and concerns about increasing inflation. As such, some companies are spending money on AI software instead of hiring new staff. The CEO of The Josh Bersin Company workforce consultancy, Josh Bershin, told NBC News,'There's basically a blank check to go out and buy these AI tools.' 'Then they go out and say, as far as head count: No more hiring. Just, 'stop.' So that immediately freezes the job market,' he added.
