President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the retaliation they attracted will likely weigh on US growth and boost inflation, according to analysts, but, beyond that, uncertainty surrounding the levies threatens to overshadow optimism about his future policies.Trump reignited trade wars this week with hefty duties on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese imports, drawing sharp retaliation from Ottawa and Beijing, including new tariffs on key American farm products.Collectively, these could dent US GDP growth by one percentage point and hike inflation by 0.6 points if kept in place for the year, said Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic.”Tariffs represent a negative supply shock. It hurts production, raises prices,” she told AFP, warning that business and consumer confidence also take a hit from levies.And the unpredictability of Trump’s tariff plans stand to offset positivity about the president’s promises of deregulation and tax cuts, which are seen as pro-growth, she said.”That hope and excitement right now is overwhelmed by the uncertainty of what’s going to play out,” she added.It also remains unclear if new tariffs will be long-lasting, and they come atop cost-cutting measures in the federal government which are being challenged in courts, KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk said.The fallout from these efforts can undermine demand.Trump has not only quickened the pace of tariff hikes in his second term by tapping emergency economic powers to impose them without an investigation period, but his levies cover a larger value of goods.Trump’s first-term tariffs hit $380 billion worth of US imports over 2018-2019, mainly from China, said Erica York of the Tax Foundation.But his latest duties introduced over a month impact $1.4 trillion of imports, mostly from allies, she added.”Because of the faster implementation and the larger magnitude, the new tariffs will be much more disruptive to the US economy than Trump’s first trade war,” York said.- Prices, jobs -While the situation is fluid, Bostjancic said prices of products like motor vehicle parts could rise by 10 percent within months, given how integrated North American supply chains are.This could inflate consumer costs for big ticket items. Used car prices could increase if producing new vehicles became pricey, analysts said.New homes stand to become more expensive too, potentially making property owners reluctant to move and weighing on the housing market, said Jessica Lautz at the National Association of Realtors.Trump’s latest 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods hits lumber imports, which are important to homebuilders.With the breadth of Trump’s current tariff plans, “some companies may not be able to maintain the same level of employment,” Swonk of KPMG warned.During Trump’s first term, despite an initial uptick in steel industry employment when he imposed tariffs on imports of the metal, these were more than offset by higher input costs and layoffs elsewhere, she noted.- ‘Choke points’ -Other near-term effects include countries’ readiness to to hit US “choke points” following experiences from his first administration, said Swonk.”They’re going to look for the places that are the biggest pinch points for the president’s party and that’s the Republican Party,” she told AFP.This means taking aim at Republican-dominated states.When the world’s biggest economy takes action like sweeping tariffs other countries tend respond strategically, targeting countermeasures at areas which likely have more political sway over the administration, she said.Farm and food products are often primary targets of retaliation, said Wendong Zhang of Cornell University. This could spark the need for federal aid to farmers subsequently.Already, China said it would impose 10 percent and 15 percent levies on various US agricultural exports including soybeans.In Trump’s first term, retaliatory tariffs on the United States caused more than $27 billion in US agricultural export losses from mid-2018 to late-2019.Economists say the hit to growth and inflation in 2025 could be somewhat counterbalanced by aggressive deregulation efforts next year, as Trump’s government seeks to rein in the budget deficit and make certain tax cuts permanent.For now, the “uncertainty effect,” serves as a tax of its own, Swonk said.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now aiming for Wednesday to conduct the next test flight of its massive Starship rocket, following a last-minute cancellation on Monday.The world’s biggest and most powerful launch vehicle is set to lift off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, during a launch window that opens at 5:30 pm local time (2330 GMT).It will be Starship’s eighth orbital mission — all so far uncrewed — and the first since its dramatic mid-air explosion over the Caribbean during its last test.Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall — about 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty — Starship is designed to eventually be fully reusable and is key to Musk and SpaceX’s vision of colonizing Mars.Meanwhile, NASA is awaiting a modified version of Starship as a lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon this decade.The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded Starship after its previous flight on January 16 ended with the upper stage disintegrating in a fiery cascade over the Turks and Caicos Islands, prompting cleanup efforts for fallen debris.Last Friday, the FAA announced that Starship could proceed with its next flight before the agency finalizes its review of SpaceX’s “mishap investigation.”During Joe Biden’s presidency, Musk frequently accused the FAA of excessive scrutiny over SpaceX’s safety and environmental concerns. Now, as one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisors, the world’s richest person faces allegations of wielding undue influence over regulatory agencies overseeing his companies.For the upcoming flight, SpaceX says it has introduced numerous upgrades to the upper-stage spaceship that enhance its reliability and performance.The mission, expected to last just over an hour, includes another attempt to catch the booster stage using the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms — a feat SpaceX has successfully executed twice, including in the last flight.Additionally, Starship will deploy Starlink simulators designed to mimic Starlink satellites, which will burn up upon atmospheric re-entry.Eventually, SpaceX aims to recover the upper stage as well, but for now, it is targeting splashdown in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Australia, as in previous flights.In a recent interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Musk said the toughest engineering hurdle is building a “fully reusable orbital heat shield — a problem that has never been solved before.”Despite the challenge, Musk remains optimistic, predicting that Starship will be fully and rapidly reusable by next year, a milestone he describes as the “fundamental breakthrough required for life to be multiplanetary.”

Florida’s attorney general said Tuesday that a criminal investigation has been opened into self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and his brother, who flew to the southern US state last week from Romania, where they faced rape and human trafficking charges.”These guys have publicly admitted to participating in what very much appears to be soliciting, trafficking, preying upon women around the world,” James Uthmeier said in comments posted online by a reporter with EW Scripps broadcasting.”This is an ongoing criminal investigation and we’re going to use every tool we have to ensure that justice is served,” he said.Andrew Tate arrived in the United States on Thursday — the first time he has been out of Romania since his 2022 arrest.Prosecutors in the eastern European country allege that Tate, 38, his brother Tristan, 36, and two women set up a criminal organization in Romania and Britain in early 2021 and sexually exploited several victims.Andrew Tate, speaking to reporters after arriving in Fort Lauderdale last week, said he and his brother have “yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives ever.””We live in a democratic society where it’s innocent until proven guilty, and I think my brother and I are largely misunderstood,” he said.The government in Bucharest said the Tates, who have British and US nationalities and have been under judicial supervision in Romania, need to return to court on March 24, with a no-show potentially leading to “preventive arrest.”Four British women, who have accused Tate of rape and coercive control in a separate civil case in the United Kingdom, recently voiced concern that the US government would help the Tates escape.In a joint statement, the four British women said they “feel retraumatized by the news that the Romanian authorities have given in to pressure from the Trump administration to allow Andrew Tate to travel.” Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu has said Richard Grenell, special envoy for President Donald Trump, raised the case at the Munich Security Conference in February.Trump last week denied all knowledge of any advocacy for the Tates from his administration.”I know nothing about that,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll check it out.”A Romanian court has granted a British request to extradite the Tates, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.Andrew Tate moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in the United Kingdom.He leapt to fame in 2016 when he appeared on the “Big Brother” UK reality television show, but was removed after a video emerged showing him attacking a woman.He then turned to social media platforms to promote his often misogynistic and divisive views on how to be successful.Banned from Instagram and TikTok for his views, Tate is followed by more than 10 million people on X, where his posts are often homophobic and racist.