US updates: Trump's 50% steel tariffs come into force

Venezuelan migrants sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador must be given a chance to challenge their deportations, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

US District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg said that those sent to the prison in March haven't been able to formally contest the removals or allegations that they are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. 

The judge gave the Trump administration one week to detail how it would give the deportees a way to file those challenges.

The judge wrote that "significant evidence" has surfaced indicating that many of the migrants imprisoned in El Salvador are not connected to the gang "and thus languish in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations."

Three months of legal tussles

It's the latest in the months-long legal saga over the fate of deportees imprisoned at El Salvador's maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT)

US President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, to deport the accused gang members in March without going through normal immigration procedures.

At the time, Judge Boasberg ordered the planes to turn around, a demand that was ignored. 

The US Supreme Court has since held that migrants must be allowed to challenge their removals under the Alien Enemies Act, a 18th century wartime law.

Courts around the country have sincebarred the Trump administration from further deportations of alleged Tren de Aragua members under the law.

But those rulings only applied to Venezuelans still in the United States.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who recently left his cost-cutting role in President Donald Trump's administration, has further criticized a spending bill working its way through Congress, saying a new one should be drafted.

"No one who actually reads the bill should be able to stomach it," he wrote on X.

The budget plan, which includes huge tax breaks and more defense spending, was passed by the House of Representatives last month and is now up for vote in the Senate. 

US President Donald Trump attacked Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell after a private sector jobs report showed hiring in the US fell below expectations. 

"ADP NUMBER OUT!!! 'Too Late' Powell must now LOWER THE RATE," Trump said on his Truth Social platform. "He is unbelievable."

Payrolls processing firm ADP said Wednesday that hiring increased by just 37,000 in May, the lowest monthly figure in over two years. 

Trump has frequently pressured Powell to lower interest rates in a bid to stimulate the economy.

The Federal Reserve, which serves as the US central bank, is independent and can decide rates without interference from the White House and Congress.

Powell has earlier suggested that Trump's tariff policy would increase inflation and lower US economic growth. 

The current federal funds rate currently sits between 4.25% to 4.5%. The Federal Reserve has been reluctant to lower rates due to fears that it could worsen inflation.

German mechanical engineering companies have reported that orders dropped in April as markets remain unsettled by unpredictable US tariff policies. 

The Association of German Mechanical and Plant Engineering (VDMA) trade group said orders fell by 6% year-on-year in April.

However, the VDMA said they remained 1% in the first third of 2025 compared with the previous year.

"In view of the many tariff threats and announcements by US President Donald Trump and the great uncertainty this has caused, this was an expected setback," said VDMA chief economist Johannes Gernandt.
 

European Union Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Wednesday that he had held productive talks with US trade representative Jamieson Greer as both sides try to reach a deal amid a tariff conflict unleashed by a series of trade levies imposed or threatened by US President Donald Trump.

"Had a productive and constructive discussion with @USTradeRep Ambassador Greer on the margins of the @OECD Trade Ministerial. We're advancing in the right direction at pace — and staying in close contact to maintain the momentum," Sefcovic wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The meeting came amid reports that the Trump administration was asking trading partners to present their best offers for possible deals by Wednesday.

The EU currently faces the 50% US tariffs on steel and aluminum, a 25% tariff on cars and the "reciprocal" tariffs on most goods from the bloc, which were provisionally set at 20% but are being held at 10% during a 90-day pause until July.

In its latest move to restrict abortion access, the Trump administration has revoked a health guideline introduced under the last government that protected emergency abortions when medically required, even in those states that ban the procedure.

The Biden administration issued the memo in July 2022, weeks after the Supreme Court rescinded the right to abortion that it had granted in the 1970s.

The directive, which was hotly criticized by anti-abortion advocates, interpreted the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) so that it could supersede state abortion laws if necessary to protect pregnant people.

In a letter relased on Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the EMTALA guidance was not attuned to the current administration's policy.  

"CMS is rescinding this memo ... effective May 29, 2025, consistent with Administration policy," it said.

It said the US Health and Human Services would no longer enforce the guidance.

The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute said revoking the EMTALA guidelines showed "callous disregard for the law and people's lives."

According to Guttmacher, 13 US states, mostly in the south and east of the country, have "a total abortion ban" as of May 28.

Although these bans generally allow some narrowly defined exceptions if the pregnant person is at risk of their life, it is often hard to say what legally constitutes a life-threatening condition, with some doctors possibly unwilling to provide necessary aid for fear of prosecution.
      

Even as a cloud of uncertainty hangs over Nippon Steel's planned acquisition of US Steel for $14.9 billion (€13.09 billion), Japan said it has not received a formal request from the United States to submit its best trade proposals, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told media on Wednesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Washington had asked trade partners to submit offers by the next day.

"Our country has not received any such letter," Hayashi said, adding that tariff talks with the US are ongoing and remain a top priority, according to Reuters news agency.

This comes on the heels of US President Donald Trump's 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum coming into effect midnight on Wednesday.

On Friday, Trump mentioned the deal for Nippon Steel to invest heavily in US Steel, saying at a rally, "We're here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company."

Despite his endorsement, Trump stopped short of approving the proposed Japanese acquisition, later asserting that it still required his final go-ahead.

The acquisition has been politically contentious, with both Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden expressing opposition to foreign ownership of the iconic American steelmaker during their presidential campaigns.

In January, Biden had blocked the deal on national security grounds.

Africa's economic growth is being stifled by excessive borrowing costs and unpredictable US policy shifts, said Trevor Manuel, chair of the G20 expert panel on Africa.

Talking to French news agency AFP, the former South African politician and anti-apartheid activist said African countries are facing higher debt servicing costs despite not being any more indebted than wealthier nations.

"We know that the risk premiums in general on Africa are much higher than they need to be, and that impacts them on the debt service costs," Manuel said.

Over half of Africa's 1.3 billion people live in countries where debt interest payments exceed spending on health, infrastructure and education, according to South African government data.

This year, African nations will pay nearly $89 billion (€78.29 billion) in external debt, with 20 low-income countries facing debt distress.

Manuel, a former South African finance minister, also criticized US policy shifts under President Donald Trump. He highlighted that Trump's tariffs have seriously affected countries such as Lesotho and Madagascar.

Moreover, with the termination of USAID and other international aid programmes, "the impact on the African continent is going to be very severe," said Manuel.

Billionaire Elon Musk sharply criticized US President Donald Trump's proposed tax and spending bill on Tuesday, calling it a "disgusting abomination."

Trump's "big, beautiful bill" of tax breaks and spending cuts has already been passed by the House of Representatives and is likely to be passed by the Senate next month.

The bill, which extends 2017 tax cuts and increases funding for defense and border security, will add $3.8 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion debt.

The bill also slashes green energy subsidies that will negatively impact Musk's Tesla electric car company.

In a post on his platform X, Musk called out those who voted for the bill saying "You know you did wrong. You know it."

The former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) followed his critique in another post saying: "In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people."

Mexico will ask to be excluded from the United States' increased tariffs on steel, Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said late on Tuesday.

The double duty on imported steel, announced by US President Donald Trump, came into effect midnight on Wednesday.

"We will ask on Friday that Mexico be excluded from this measure just like the United Kingdom was," Ebrard said.

The economy minister called the levy as unfair, unsustainable and inconvenient pointing out that the US exports more steel to Mexico than it imports.

"It makes no sense to put a tariff on a product in which you have a surplus," Ebrard said.

Of its total exports, 80% go to the United States, its largest trading partner. making it especially vulnerable to Trump's trade wars.

US President Donald Trump will double tariffs on most steel and aluminum imports starting Wednesday, the White House announced on Tuesday, intensifying the administration's ongoing trade battles.

The executive order increasing duties on both steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% is the latest escalation in Trump's trade wars.

The increase comes into effect at 12:01 a.m. (4:01 a.m. GMT).

The move is meant to "counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminum in the US," the White House said.

Announcing the tariff hike last week to workers at a US Steel plant in Pennsylvania, Trump said the move will "further secure the [US] steel industry."

"Nobody's going to get around that," he said.

The order also said it will "eliminate the national security threat posed by imports of steel and aluminum articles and their derivative articles."

The tariff hike excludes imports from the United Kingdom, which will continue to face a 25% rate as part of a recent bilateral trade agreement.

Other key trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, are bracing for potential economic fallout, with EU officials warning of retaliatory measures.

Meanwhile, steel prices have risen 16% since Trump took office in mid-January, according to the government's Producer Price Index.

The United States will double its tariffs on imported steel and aluminum starting Wednesday, the White House said in a statement, following an order signed by US President Donald Trump.

The order is the latest escalation in Trump's trade wars, increasing duties on both metals from 25 percent to 50 percent.

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