US updates: Trump to double steel tariffs to 50%

The European Union on Friday rejected US President Donald Trump's tariff announcement regarding steel imports.

"We strongly regret the announced increase of US tariffs on steel imports from 25% to 50%," said a spokesman for the European Commission in Brussels, which is responsible for EU trade policy, warning that it "undermines ongoing efforts to reach a negotiated solution" with the US on trade.

"This decision adds further uncertainty to the global economy and increases costs for consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic."

The commission would be "ready" to retaliate, the statement read.

"If no mutually acceptable solution is reached, both existing and additional EU measures will automatically take effect on 14 July — or earlier," a spokesperson for the bloc said. 

EU counter-tariffs on the US had already been planned in reaction to Trump's initial tariff decisions, but it held back after Trump granted many countries and the EU a 90-day pause.

A commercial truck carrying an estimated 70,000 pounds (31,751 kilograms) of honeybee hives overturned in western United States, authorities said on Friday.

About 250 million bees are estimated to have been set free.

Read more on their escape and why bees are important.

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Saturday cautioned that China was "credibly preparing to potentially use military force" in a bid to reorder the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.

Hegseth reassured Washington's allies in the region that they would not be abandoned to tackle the growing military and economic pressures from Beijing.

Read more on the Pentagon chief's remarks at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore.

The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to pause a judge's ruling blocking President Donald Trump from carrying out mass layoffs of federal workers.

The firings were part of the White House's plans to overhaul government and restructure federal agencies.

The appeals court ruling means that, for now, the Trump administration cannot proceed with plans to shed tens of thousands of federal jobs and shutter many government offices and programs.

US District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco on May 22 blocked the large-scale layoffs, saying that the president may only restructure agencies when authorized by Congress.

The Trump administration had sought an emergency stay of the injunction.

But the three-judge 9th Circuit panel denied the stay bid pending an appeal, which could take months to resolve.

The administration will likely now ask the US Supreme Court to pause the ruling.

US television broadcaster PBS filed suit against President Donald Trump and members of his administration on Friday in an attempt to block what it says is overreach and a First Amendment violation.

Trump signed an executive order stripping Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) of all federal funding on May 1, calling it "radical, woke propaganda disguised as news" and claiming it was biased against him. 

"PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms," said PBS legal representative Z.W. Julius Chen.

"But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television," the suit charges, "our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS's programming, including by attempting to defund PBS."

PBS asserts the order "makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech. That is blatant viewpoint discrimination."

Trump has been on a crusade against private and public media outlets, forcing massive payouts for supposed injustices and actively influencing corporate and editorial decision-making at news outlets, such as most recently at CBS. 

National Public Radio (NPR) filed a similar suit on Tuesday. 

Both PBS and NPR are non-profits that rely on partial public funding. The remainder of their revenue comes from corporate and individual sponsors as well as viewer donations. 

Beyond news, PBS produces educational content for children and adults — the most famous examples of which are perhaps Sesame Street and Ken Burns. 

PBS operates a 330-station system that often serves remote communities otherwise cut off from the rest of the country. They are also often the only source of critical information viewers have during emergencies.

US President Donald Trump said his administration would double duties on steel imports to 50%.

He announced the tariff hike while speaking in Pennsylvania at a US Steel plant, where he also touted a "partnership" between the American steelmaker and Japan's Nippon Steel.

"We're going to bring it from 25% to 50%, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry," he said. "Nobody's going to get around that."

The move puts further pressure on global steel producers and threatens to deepen Trump's trade war and increase market uncertainty over Trump's disorienting tariff regime. 

US President Donald Trump held a press conference together with billionaire Elon Musk, in which he thanked him for his time as a senior advisor to the administration, leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, also known by the internet meme DOGE.

Despite its name, DOGE is not a cabinet-level department.

Trump praised Musk's work as "fantastic," while calling the world's richest man a "great patriot."

The US president said Musk will continue to support his administration even after his time as special advisor is done, which was also echoed by the billionaire himself.

"Elon is really not leaving," Trump said. "He's going to be back and forth."

Elon Musk said he will continue to support the work done by DOGE "as a friend and an advisor to the president."

"It's not the end of DOGE, but the beginning," Musk said, adding that the office's influence will only grow stronger.

"I'm confident we'll see trillions of dollars of savings overtime."

The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from more than 500,000 migrants from four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. 

This brings the number of people who could be exposed to deportation to almost one million.

The Court put on hold a federal judge's order halting the administration's move to end the so-called "parole" granted to 532,000 of the migrants from the four countries by previous US President Joe Biden.

EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said the bloc is "fully invested" in reaching a deal with the United States to avoid sweeping tariffs.

"Our time and effort fully invested, as delivering forward-looking solutions remains a top EU priority. Staying in permanent contact," Sefcovic said in a post on social media platfrom X after speaking with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. 

The EU is seeking an end to 25% tariffs on steel and cars and for Trump to drop his so-called "reciprocal" tariff. It was provisionally set at 20% for the EU but is being held at 10% during a 90-day pause until July.

Trump threatened last Friday, but then postponed, to slap EU goods with a huge tariff, in a sign of increasing frustration that talks with the EU were "going nowhere."

US President Donald Trump is set to bid farewell to his billionaire adviser Elon Musk with a press event in the Oval Office on Friday.

"This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social media platform on Thursday. 

"Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House," Trump said.

Musk has been heading up the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE that has been behind the drastic federal workforce cuts.

Over a month ago, Musk indicated that from May onwards, he would be spending "significantly" less time working as Trump's cost-cutter and focus on his e-car company Tesla, which has posted plunging sales figures.

Musk claimed that DOGE had saved taxpayers $160 billion although the numbers have been questioned, with some suggesting that some savings had been double-counted.

It hasn't been a smooth 130 days in Washington, with Elaine Kamarck of the Brookings Institution telling AFP news agency the beginning of the end "started (in) mid-March when there were several meetings in the Oval Office and in the cabinet room where basically Elon Musk got into fights."

Musk publicly called Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro "dumber than a sack of bricks." 

As indicated by Trump in his social media post, this doesn't appear to be the end of things.

"I think they genuinely like each other and I think Musk has a lot of money that he can contribute to campaigns if he is so moved. I think there will be a continued relation," Kamarck told AFP. 

Elon Musk has finished his time as a "special government employee," with US President Donald Trump saying an Oval Office press event is planned for Friday to bid the Tesla billionaire farewell.

Musk has claimed his cost cutting measures at the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE have saved taxpayers $160 billion (€141 billion), although the sum has been questioned. Democrats in particular have argued that Elon Musk and DOGE have no authority to make the spending cuts.  

We're also following the EU saying its "fully invested" in reaching a deal with the Trump administration to avoid sweeping US tariffs.

This blog will keep you updated with these stories plus other news from the United States, along with DW analysis and on-the-ground reporting.