Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the global response to new U.S. tariffs, Gaza’s escalating hunger crisis, and former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol refusing to be questioned.
‘A New Reality’
For months, world capitals have anxiously waited to see what tariffs their countries’ exports would face come Aug. 1, when U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to impose sweeping duties on nearly all of Washington’s trading partners. That day is (mostly) here.
Late Thursday, Trump issued an executive order announcing new and arbitrary tariff rates on 92 countries, though he delayed their implementation date by another seven days, to Aug. 7, to allow for the U.S. tariff schedule to be updated. “It’s a new reality for a country, and a planet, whose post-World War II prosperity was ushered in by a decades-long effort to dismantle barriers to trade,” FP trade reporter Keith Johnson reports.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump called the process “very smooth” and asserted that Friday’s announced rates would not be modified. However, he added, “It doesn’t mean that somebody doesn’t come along in four weeks and say we can make some kind of a deal.”
That may be good news for nations facing the highest rates, including Brazil at 50 percent, Syria at 41 percent, Laos and Myanmar at 40 percent, and Switzerland at 39 percent. When Trump launched his sweeping tariffs in April and then almost immediately paused them due to market panic, his administration pledged to secure “90 deals in 90 days.” So far, the White House has only struck trade frameworks with Cambodia, the European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. Negotiations with China and Mexico have been postponed, and no African countries have clinched deals thus far.
Among the nations most outraged by Trump’s new rates is Switzerland, which was hit with a tariff rate 8 percentage points higher than what the U.S. president had initially threatened, despite most countries having their initial duties maintained or reduced. Bern has been “especially mistreated,” Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin said, with the country’s main engineering association calling the announcement “economically incomprehensible” and a risk to “long-term cooperation with the U.S.” Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter has vowed to press ahead with negotiations and urged citizens not to let the White House’s announcement ruin the country’s national holiday on Friday.
Taiwan also expressed ire over Trump’s Aug. 1 measures, which will impose a 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. While this is notably less than the 32 percent rate initially threatened in April, it still exceeds the 15 percent rates of the United States’ other close East Asian allies, Japan and South Korea. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te stressed that the new rate is “temporary,” adding that “we will continue negotiations and strive for a rate that’s more favorable for Taiwan.”
Several other countries also vowed to push for a better deal, including South Africa (whose 30 percent rate went unchanged) and New Zealand (whose rate increased from a threatened 10 percent to 15 percent).
However, a few countries emerged from the Aug. 1 announcement with substantially lower rates than expected. The steepest cuts to tariffs went to Lesotho (from 50 percent to 15 percent), Madagascar (47 percent to 15 percent), and the Falkland Islands (from 41 percent to 10 percent).
Many governments also praised their lowered rates as proof of their successful diplomatic maneuvers. Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell heralded Canberra’s 10 percent rate—the minimum amount announced by the White House—as “vindication” of a job well done. Bangladesh celebrated its reduced rate from 37 percent to 20 percent as a “decisive diplomatic victory.” And Malaysia and Cambodia similarly cheered their 19 percent rates, having gone from 24 percent and from 49 percent, respectively.
Today’s Most Read
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What We’re Following
Trip to Gaza aid site. White House envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee traveled to Gaza on Friday to inspect an aid distribution site overseen by the controversial Israeli- and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). “The purpose of the visit was to give [the president] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza,” Witkoff posted on X.
Their visit comes as the world’s top hunger monitor warns of famine-level conditions in Gaza driven by Israel’s war and strict restrictions on aid entering the territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that accusations of mass starvation are overstated, and the GHF claims that much of the crisis is fueled by Hamas stealing aid from convoys. However, there is no evidence of such systematic theft, and even Trump (Netanyahu’s closest foreign ally) has publicly refuted the Israeli leader’s statement.
On Thursday, senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq called the U.S. delegation’s visit a “propaganda show,” adding that “Witkoff will only see in Gaza what the occupation wants him to see.”
More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food since May, when Israel partially lifted its blockade on aid entering Gaza, according to the United Nations’ human rights office. Shortly after the U.S. officials’ visit to Gaza on Friday, a local hospital reported that gunfire near the GHF site that Witkoff and Huckabee had visited killed at least three people and injured six others.
Act of protest. Jailed former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol refused on Friday to submit to further questioning about allegations that he and his wife exerted inappropriate influence on the then-ruling party’s election nomination process in 2022. It was the third time that Yoon had defied such a request; however, this time, Yoon’s tactics included taking off his prison uniform and laying down on the floor of his detention room. He reportedly put his clothes back on once the investigators left.
Yoon was removed from office in April after declaring a short-lived martial law order in December 2024, sparking allegations of a coup attempt. Yoon maintains that the decree was necessary to combat the then-opposition Democratic Party, which he accused of obstructing his political agenda. Yoon faces a separate trial for mounting an insurrection, which is punishable by death or life in prison.
Yoon’s lawyers have pushed back on repeated interrogation requests by claiming that the former president is unwell due to preexisting conditions, including one that risks his eyesight. They argue that Yoon has not received adequate medical care while in detention, citing an unidentified hospital.
Authoritarian shift. A change to El Salvador’s constitution could allow President Nayib Bukele to stay in power indefinitely. Lawmakers with Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party, which holds a supermajority in the country’s Legislative Assembly, approved changes on Thursday removing presidential term limits and extending the length of a term from five to six years. The legislation bolsters a Supreme Court ruling in 2021 that allowed Bukele to run for a second five-year term despite a constitutional ban; the Supreme Court was stacked with judges chosen by Nuevas Ideas.
Bukele won a landslide reelection last year, claiming nearly 85 percent of the vote, on a platform catered to fighting gang violence. But rights groups have accused Bukele of carrying out mass arrests without due process and jailing people with no ties to gang organizations, including political dissidents, activists, lawyers, and journalists. Even Bukele has dubbed himself “the world’s coolest dictator.”
Experts warn that Thursday’s constitutional change could further strengthen Bukele’s authoritarian grip on power. “This is an effort to establish a dictatorship in El Salvador,” said Juan Pappier, the deputy director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch.
What in the World?
Militant rebels seized a key Somali town on Sunday. With which organization are the rebels affiliated?
A. M23
B. Islamic State-Khorasan
C. Al Qaeda
D. Al-Shabab
Odds and Ends
It may be a woman’s world, but Justin Trudeau appears to be happy living in it. The former Canadian prime minister was spotted at American pop star Katy Perry’s concert in Montreal late Wednesday, jamming to “Firework” alongside screaming fans. Now that Trudeau is no longer in charge of running a country, it seems that he has more time to enjoy the good life. Trudeau, who separated from his wife of 18 years in 2023, was also recently photographed dining with Perry—whose split from longtime beau Orlando Bloom was confirmed last month—sparking rumors of a budding romance.
And the Answer Is…
D. Al-Shabab
The central town of Mahaas, a key government outpost, lies about 220 miles north of the capital, Mogadishu, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi reports in Africa Brief.
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