By MICHELLE GUMEDE, Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — U.S. reciprocal tariffs have put an estimated 30,000 jobs at risk, South African authorities said Monday, four days before a 30% U.S. tariff on most imports from South Africa kicks in.

South Africa was slapped with one of the highest tariff rates by its third-largest trading partner — after China and the EU — creating uncertainty for the future of some export industries and catapulting a scramble for new markets outside the U.S. Tariffs come into effect on Aug. 8.

In an update on mitigation measures, a senior government official warned that an estimated 30,000 jobs were in jeopardy if the response to the higher tariffs was “mismanaged”.

Trucks move amid containers stacked at a depo, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

“We base this on the ongoing consultations that we have with all the sectors of the economy from automotive, agriculture and all the other sectors that are going to be impacted,” said Simphiwe Hamilton, director-general of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.

South Africa is already grappling with stubbornly high unemployment rates. The official rate was 32,9% in the first quarter of 2025 according to StatsSA, the national statistical agency, while the youth unemployment rate increased from 44,6% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 46,1% in the first quarter of 2025.

In his weekly public letter on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa must adapt swiftly to the tariffs since they could have a big impact on the economy, the industries that rely heavily on exports to the U.S. and the workers they employ.

“As government, we have been engaging the United States to enhance mutually beneficial trade and investment relations. All channels of communication remain open to engage with the US,” he said.

“Our foremost priority is protecting our export industries. We will continue to engage the US in an attempt to preserve market access for our products.”

President Donald Trump has been highly critical of the country’s Black-led government over a new land law he claims discriminates against white people.

Negotiations with the U.S. have been complicated and unprecedented, according to South Africa’s ministers, who denied rumors that the lack of an ambassador in the U.S affected the result of the talks. The Trump administration expelled Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, in mid-March, accusing him of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates Trump.

International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola highlighted that even countries with ambassadors in the U.S. and allies of Washington had been hard hit with tariffs. However, Lamola confirmed that the process of appointing a replacement for Rasool was “at an advanced stage”.

The U.S. accounts for 7.5% of South Africa’s global exports. However, several sectors, accounting for 35% of exports to the U.S., remain exempt from the tariffs. These include copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, lumber products, certain critical minerals, stainless steel scrap and energy products remain exempted from the tariffs.

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The government has been scrambling to diversify South Africa’s export markets, particularly by deepening intra-African trade. Countries across Asia and the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have been touted as opportunities for high-growth markets. The government said it had made significant progress in opening vast new markets like China and Thailand, securing vital protocols for products like citrus.

The government has set up an Export Support Desk to aid manufacturers and exporters in South Africa search for alternate markets.

While welcoming the establishment of the Export Support Desk, an independent association representing some of South Africa’s biggest and most well-known businesses called for a trade crisis committee to be established that brings together business leaders and government officials, including from the finance ministry.

Business Leadership South Africa said such a committee would ensure fast, coordinated action to open new markets, provide financial support, and maintain employment.

“U.S. tariffs pose a severe threat to South Africa’s manufacturing and farming sectors, particularly in the Eastern Cape. While businesses can eventually adapt, urgent temporary support is essential,” said BLSA in a statement.

Nueva York es uno de los 20 estados que han demandado a la administración Trump por esta solicitud, que según los defensores tendrá un “efecto intimidatorio” sobre la participación en el programa SNAP entre las personas necesitadas que cumplen los requisitos. La alcaldía ha declarado que está estudiando sus opciones y que la medida “solo empeorará la inseguridad alimentaria en nuestra ciudad”.

Leche de fórmula para bebés expuesta en un supermercado Key Food de la avenida Jerome, en el Bronx. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Este artículo se publicó originalmente en inglés el 31 de julio. Traducido por Daniel Parra. Read the English version here.

Las autoridades de Nueva York y los defensores contra el hambre condenaron la solicitud del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA por sus siglas en inglés) para que los estados compartieran información personal de los beneficiarios de cupones de alimentos, y la alcaldía dijo que está revisando sus opciones en torno a la orden, cuyo plazo venció esta semana.

En mayo, el Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA por sus siglas en inglés) solicitó a los estados que entregaran datos —como nombres, fechas de nacimiento, direcciones personales y números de la Seguridad Social— de todos los beneficiarios del Programa de Asistencia Nutricional Suplementaria (SNAP por sus siglas en inglés) de los últimos cinco años antes del 30 de julio, so pena de perder la financiación federal.

Citando la orden ejecutiva del presidente Donald Trump de marzo, el USDA afirmó que los datos le ayudarán a combatir despilfarro, fraude y abuso.

Las ayudas alimentarias, comúnmente conocidas como cupones de alimentos, pueden utilizarse para comprar alimentos y comestibles en tiendas autorizadas. Alrededor de 2.9 millones de neoyorquinos de bajos ingresos están actualmente inscritos en el programa, es decir, cerca del 14 por ciento de la población del estado. Casi un tercio son niños. 

El 23 de julio, el USDA amplió la petición de información solicitada para incluir el estatus migratorio y la información sobre los miembros del hogar. Aunque los inmigrantes indocumentados no pueden acogerse al programa, las familias con estatus migratorio mixto, con niños que sean ciudadanos estadounidenses pueden acceder a las prestaciones.

A principios de esta semana, 20 fiscales generales estatales —incluyendo Nueva York— demandaron para desafiar a la administración Trump.

Sin embargo, según la Oficina de la Fiscal General de Nueva York, el plazo del miércoles seguía en vigor a pesar de la acción legal, por lo que los estados y los distritos de servicios sociales aún pueden responder.

Si bien SNAP está financiado por el gobierno federal, en Nueva York, la Oficina de Asistencia Temporal y por Discapacidad (OTDA por sus siglas en inglés) se encarga de gestionar y distribuir las prestaciones a nivel estatal. En la ciudad de Nueva York, la Administración de Recursos Humanos, que forma parte del Departamento de Servicios Sociales de la ciudad, supervisa el programa a nivel local.

La alcaldía no respondió a las preguntas sobre si cumpliría la norma, pero la condenó. “Estamos estudiando nuestras opciones”, dijo un portavoz de la alcaldía.

“Solicitar a los estados que proporcionen al gobierno federal información privada y sensible sobre las solicitudes de SNAP es ilegal y disuadirá a los neoyorquinos de solicitar estos servicios esenciales, y retirar la financiación federal por no cumplir con este mandato solo empeorará la inseguridad alimentaria en nuestra ciudad”, añadió el portavoz. “Instamos al gobierno federal a revertir esta decisión”.

A nivel estatal, OTDA tampoco proporcionó detalles sobre cómo respondería, afirmando que “la OTDA no hace comentarios sobre litigios pendientes”, dijo un portavoz de la agencia por correo electrónico. Un portavoz del USDA también se negó a comentar, citando la demanda en curso.

El 23 de julio, la comisionada de la OTDA, Barbara Guinn, presentó un comentario solicitando formalmente que el USDA retirara el aviso propuesto, alegando problemas legales, operativos y éticos con la creación y el uso de la base de datos nacional de información sobre SNAP propuesta por el USDA.

“La revelación de tales personas en violación de las garantías de privacidad es inapropiada, y no autorizada, y no sirve a ningún propósito relacionado con la administración efectiva del programa SNAP”, escribió Guinn.

La inseguridad alimentaria en Nueva York creció al 4.7 por ciento de los hogares de 2021 a 2023, mientras que la dependencia del SNAP ha aumentado constantemente después de la pandemia, llegando a 1.75 millones de hogares en todo el estado en marzo de 2025. 

Los niños representan el 30 por ciento de los inscritos en SNAP en Nueva York; las personas mayores constituyen el 21 por ciento y 10 por ciento eran residentes discapacitados que no son adultos mayores.

“Estamos profundamente preocupados por la solicitud de datos, incluyendo su potencial efecto intimidatorio sobre la participación en SNAP”, dijo Krista Hesdorfer, directora de asuntos públicos de Hunger Solutions New York, una organización estatal sin fines de lucro dedicada a aliviar el hambre, que también ayuda a los neoyorquinos elegibles a acceder a SNAP.

Los defensores dijeron a City Limits que esta solicitud se suma al miedo y al caos que ya se siente entre las comunidades de inmigrantes a medida que la administración Trump intensifica los esfuerzos de deportación, incluidos los arrestos de personas que se presentan en tribunales de inmigración, muchas de las cuales no tienen antecedentes penales.

La política sólo conducirá a una mayor renuencia a inscribirse en el programa SNAP, incluso si las personas son elegibles, dijeron los defensores.

“Si usted me puede encontrar un inmigrante indocumentado que de alguna manera falsificó documentos para obtener SNAP, yo le puedo encontrar 10.000 de los miles de inmigrantes documentadosy legales que no están solicitando SNAP”, dijo Joel Berg, CEO de Hunger Free America.

El USDA argumenta que la solicitud de información está destinada a deshacerse de los llamados “aislamientos de datos” para detener el despilfarro, el fraude y el abuso de fondos federales.

La administración Trump ha estado trabajando en varios formas para recopilar toda la información que sea posible relacionada con inmigración sobre las personas, incluida la creación de un sistema de intercambio de datos entre ICE y el IRS, el uso de bases de datos de Medicaid y la firma de acuerdos entre el Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano de los Estados Unidos y el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional.

“La gente tiene más miedo que nunca a solicitar las prestaciones a las que tiene derecho legalmente”, dijo Berg. “La gente tiene miedo incluso de acudir a comedores de beneficencia y despensas de alimentos. Hay gente que tiene miedo de ir de compras. Piden a sus amigos que compren por ellos. Se ponen literalmente bajo arresto domiciliario”.

Aunque la solicitud de datos del USDA no menciona la detenciones de autoridades migratorias, los defensores de los inmigrantes y de la lucha contra el hambre dijeron que el objetivo principal es ayudar a las autoridades a encontrar a personas que podrían ser deportadas.

“Como uno de seis hijos criados por una madre soltera que tenía tres trabajos para poner comida en la mesa, el alcalde Adams entiende la importancia de garantizar que las familias nunca tengan que pasar hambre”, dijo un portavoz de la alcaldía.

“SNAP ayuda a miles de neoyorquinos a poner comida en sus mesas, y estamos dedicados a asegurar que todos los que necesitan estos beneficios puedan sentirse cómodos accediendo a ellos, independientemente de su estatus migratorio”.

Para ponerse en contacto con los reporteros de esta noticia, escriba a Daniel@citylimits.org. Para ponerse en contacto con la editora, escriba a Jeanmarie@citylimits.org.

The post Petición de datos de beneficiarios de cupones de alimentos disuadirá a posibles beneficiarios, afirman funcionarios y defensores appeared first on City Limits.

By MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — New images of emaciated Israeli hostages held in Gaza have horrified Israelis and added pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire with Hamas, even as his government considers another expansion of the nearly 22-month war.

The videos released late last week by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad show two skeletal hostages pleading for their lives. In one, Evyatar David says he is digging his own grave and speaks of days without food. In the other, Rom Braslavsky writhes in agony on a dirty mattress and says injuries in his foot prevent him from being able to stand.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

The videos led tens of thousands of Israelis to take to the streets on Saturday night and demand a ceasefire deal, in one of the largest turnouts for the weekly protests in recent months.

“In this new video, his eyes are extinguished. He is helpless, and so am I,” Braslavski’s mother, Tami, said in a statement.

Warnings of famine in Gaza

The videos were released as warnings about famine among Palestinians are growing in Gaza. Images of starving Palestinians have drawn international condemnation of Israeli policies limiting aid deliveries into the territory.

Families of the hostages fear that the lack of food threatens the remaining hostages, too. Fewer than half of the 50 hostages are believed to be alive.

Families of hostages protest, demanding the release from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was shocked by the images of the two hostages and met with the Red Cross to ask that it bring hostages food and medicine — access that the organization says it has never been granted by Hamas.

“When I see these, I understand exactly what Hamas wants,” Netanyahu said on Sunday. “They do not want a deal. They want to break us using these videos of horror.”

Netanyahu said the videos renewed his determination to release the hostages and eliminate Hamas. He added that the militant group is starving the hostages “like the Nazis starved the Jews.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was “appalled by the harrowing videos” and called for access to the hostages.

Hamas’ military wing said it was ready to respond positively to Red Cross requests to deliver food to hostages, if humanitarian corridors for aid deliveries are opened in a “regular and permanent manner” in Gaza. It also asserted that the hostages “eat the same food as our fighters and the general public” and denied any intentional starvation of them.

Israel’s mission to the U.N. said it requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the hostages, which will take place Tuesday. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he will travel to New York for the meeting.

The videos were being used by Hamas “to force upon us their conditions on remaining in power in Gaza,” Sa’ar asserted.

Netanyahu on Monday said he will convene the Cabinet this week to instruct Israel’s military on how to achieve the goals of defeating the enemy, releasing the hostages and assuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel: “all of them, without exception.”

More starvation deaths

The videos of the hostages emerged as experts warn that Gaza faces “a worst-case scenario of famine ″ because of Israel’s blockade.

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No aid entered Gaza between March 2 and May 19, and aid has been limited since then. The United Nations says at least 850 people have been killed attempting to access aid near chaotic and dangerous distribution sites set up by Israel and the United States in May.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday that five more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the past 24 hours. A total of 87 adults have died of malnutrition-related issues since the ministry started counting such deaths in late June, it said.

Ninety-three children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war in Gaza began, the ministry said. Israel’s government has denied that people are starving to death in Gaza.

About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on southern Israel that sparked the war, and another 251 were abducted. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 60,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up over half the dead, is part of the Hamas government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable casualty count. Israel has disputed the figures but hasn’t provided its own.

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and ANDREW DeMILLO, Associated Press

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he will begin trying to remove Democratic lawmakers from office Monday if they don’t return after dozens of them left the state in a last-resort attempt to block redrawn U.S. House maps that President Donald Trump wants before the 2026 midterm elections.

The revolt by the state House Democrats, many of whom went to Illinois or New York on Sunday, and Abbott giving them less than 24 hours to come home ratcheted up a widening fight over congressional maps that began in Texas but has drawn in Democratic governors who have floated the possibility of rushing to redraw their own state’s maps in retaliation. Their options, however, are limited.

At the center of the escalating impasse is Trump’s pursuit of adding five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas before next year that would bolster his party’s chances of preserving its slim U.S. House majority.

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The new congressional maps drawn by Texas Republicans would create five new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats.

A vote on the proposed maps had been set for Monday in the Texas House of Representatives, but it cannot proceed if the majority of Democratic members deny a quorum by not showing up. After one group of Democrats landed in Chicago on Sunday, they were welcomed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, but declined to say how long they were prepared to stay out of Texas.

“We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don’t know,” said state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus leader.

But legislative walkouts often only delay passage of a bill, including in 2021 when many of the same Texas House Democrats left the state for 38 days in protest of new voting restrictions. Once they returned, Republicans still wound up passing that measure.

Four years later, Abbott is taking a far more aggressive stance and swiftly warning Democrats that he will seek to remove them from office if they are not back when the House reconvenes Monday afternoon. He cited a non-binding 2021 legal opinion issued by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, which suggested a court could determine that a legislator had forfeited their office.

He also suggested the lawmakers may have committed felonies by raising money to help pay for fines they’d face.

“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said.

In response, House Democrats issued a four-word statement: “Come and take it.”

The state of the vote

Lawmakers can’t pass bills in the 150-member Texas House without at least two-thirds of them present. Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the majority-Republican chamber and at least 51 left the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus.

Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would still meet as planned on Monday afternoon.

“If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table. . .,” he posted on X.

Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, said on X that Democrats who “try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.”

Fines for not showing up

A refusal by Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served that year. Two years later, Republicans pushed through new rules that allow daily fines of $500 for lawmakers who don’t show up for work as punishment.

The quorum break will also delay votes on flood relief and new warning systems in the wake of last month’s catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at least 136 people. Democrats had called for votes on the flooding response before taking up redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so.

Illinois hosts Texas lawmakers

Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender who has been one of Trump’s most outspoken critics during his second term, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state to break quorum.

Texas House Democrats join Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks about the Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)

Last week, the governor hosted several Texas Democrats in Illinois to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a similar event in his own state.

Pritzker also met privately with Texas Democratic Chair Kendall Scudder in June to begin planning for the possibility that lawmakers would depart for Illinois if they did decide to break quorum to block the map, according to a source with direct knowledge who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.

“This is not just rigging the system in Texas, it’s about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come,” Pritzker said Sunday night.

Trump is looking to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House just two years into his presidency, and hopes the new Texas map will aid that effort. Trump officials have also looked at redrawing lines in other states.

Associated Press writer Nadia Lathan in Austin contributed to this report.