US President Donald Trump said he was planning to impose a 50% tax on goods made in Brazil, escalating his fight with the South American country.

He announced the plan in his latest tariff letter, which was shared on social media.

In it, Trump accuses Brazil of “attacks” on US tech companies and of conducting a “witch hunt” against former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing prosecution over his alleged role in a plot to overturn the 2022 election.

Responding in a social media post, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said an increase in tariffs on Brazil would be reciprocated, and he warned against any interference in the nation’s judicial system.

Trump also sparred with Lula about Bolsonaro’s trial earlier this week.

At the time, Lula said Brazil would not accept “interference” from anyone and added: “No one is above the law.”

Trump has posted 22 letters to countries around the world this week, including trade partners such as Japan, South Korea and Sri Lanka, outlining new tariffs on their goods which he says will come into force on 1 August.

The moves have largely served to revive plans he had put forward in April, but that were put on hold after financial markets recoiled at the measures.

But the message to Brazil was a far more targeted missive and threatened a significant increase from the 10% tariff the White House had previously announced on goods from the country.

Unlike many other countries, the US enjoyed a trade surplus with Brazil last year, selling more goods in the country than it purchased from it.

In the letter, Trump called the 50% rate “necessary … to rectify the grave injustices of the current regime”.

He said he would order the US Trade Representative to launch a so-called 301 investigation into Brazil’s digital trade practices.

Such a move would mark a turn towards a more established legal process that the US has used to impose tariffs in the past, toughening the threat. In his first term, Trump took a similar step over Brazil’s consideration of a tax targeting tech firms.

Trump, in the letter, accused the Brazilian government of “insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans” including the censorship of “US Social Media platforms”.

Trump’s social media company, Trump Media, is among the US tech companies fighting Brazilian court rulings over orders suspending social media accounts.

The country had also temporarily banned Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, after the platform refused to ban accounts that were deemed by Brazil to be spreading misinformation about the 2022 Brazilian presidential election.

Last month, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that social media companies can be held responsible for content posted on their platforms.

In his letter, Trump also spoke favourably of former Brazilian president Bolsonaro, saying he “respected him greatly”. He added that the ongoing trial against him is “an international disgrace”.

Trump and Bolsonaro enjoyed a friendly relationship when their presidencies overlapped, with the pair meeting in 2019 at the White House during Trump’s first term. Bolsonaro is often dubbed “Trump of the Tropics”.

Both men subsequently lost presidential elections and both refused to publicly acknowledge defeat.

Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil between 2019 and 2022, is standing trial for allegedly attempting a coup with thousands of his supporters storming government buildings in the capital in January 2023 after Lula was victorious in the election.

Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time and has denied any links to the rioters or any involvement in the plot.

Earlier this week, Trump had compared Bolsonaro’s prosecution to the legal cases he has similarly faced.

“This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent – Something I know much about!” Trump had said. In response, Bolsonaro thanked the US president for his support.

Trump was also critical of the Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro, where the group of developing nations met on Sunday. Trump called the group, which includes Brazil, “anti-American” and said those countries would be charged an additional 10% tariff.

President Lula fired back on Monday against Trump’s social media threats.

“He needs to know that the world has changed,” Lula said. “We don’t want an emperor.”

Trump administration says it is targeting Francesca Albanese for encouraging ICC war crime prosecution against Israel’s Netanyahu.

Washington, DC – The administration of United States President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on United Nations expert Francesca Albanese over her documentation of Israel’s abuses against Palestinians during its war on Gaza.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the penalties on Wednesday, accusing Albanese of waging a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel”.

Albanese, who serves as UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, has been a leading global voice in calling for action to end Israel’s human rights violations.

Israel and its supporters have been rebuking Albanese and calling for her to be removed from her UN position for years.

Earlier on Wednesday, she called out European governments for allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crime charges in Gaza – to use their airspace while travelling.

“Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the [international] legal order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us,” Albanese wrote in a social media post.

Rubio cited Albanese’s push for the prosecution of Israeli officials at the ICC as the legal basis for the sanctions.

Trump had issued an executive order in February to impose penalties on ICC officials involved in “targeting” Israel.

Last month, the Trump administration sanctioned four ICC judges.

On Wednesday, Rubio accused Albanese of anti-Semitism.

“That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,” he said.

The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza for depriving Palestinians in the enclave of “objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine”.

Rubio also highlighted a recent report by Albanese that documented the role of international companies, including US firms, in the Israeli assault on Gaza, which she describes as a genocide.

“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” the top US diplomat said.

Trump’s ICC decree freezes the assets of targeted individuals in the US and bans them and their immediate family members from entering the country.

Nancy Okail, head of the Center for International Policy (CIP) think tank, decried the sanctions against Albanese as “devastating”.

“Sanctioning a UN expert gives the signal that the United States is acting like dictatorships,” Okail told Al Jazeera.

This is rogue state behavior.

You cannot say you are for the rule of law or any sort of international order if you support this.

Even if you think Netanyahu is not guilty, punishing the ICC or those engaged in its due process puts you on the side of dictators and war criminals. https://t.co/aflPVyC6b3

— Dylan Williams (@dylanotes) July 9, 2025

Over the past 21 months, Israel’s US-backed campaign in Gaza has levelled most of the territory and killed at least 57,575 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

The United States has announced sweeping changes to its non-immigrant visa policy for Nigeria, cutting the duration and conditions under which most Nigerian travellers can enter the country.

From 8 July, the US Department of State says nearly all non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visas issued to Nigerian citizens will now be single-entry and valid for only three months.

It says this is part of a global reciprocity realignment, a sharp shift from previous visa terms, which often allowed for multiple entries over two years or more.

Nigeria also offers single-entry visas valid for three months only for those planning to visit the country from the US.

The Nigerian government has not yet commented.

The State Department says visa policies remain “subject to ongoing review” and may change depending on evolving diplomatic, security, and immigration benchmarks.

In a statement, the US government said it was working closely with Nigerian authorities to ensure the country meets key international standards.

These include:

• issuing secure travel documents
• managing visa overstays
• sharing security or criminal data for public safety purposes

The US also ordered that the social media accounts of all foreigners applying for visas, including from Nigeria, would be vetted for “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States”.

Nigeria was the seventh largest source of international students to the US, and the highest in Africa, according to the 2024 Open Doors report on international education exchanges.

The report published by the US department of state, bureau of educational and cultural affairs showed a 13.5% increase from 2023.

An aide to former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he believed the US was not reciprocating but showing its displeasure with Nigeria.

Bashir Ahmad posted on X that President Bola Tinubu‘s recent visit to Brazil for the Brics gathering was behind the move.

“This is not solely about reciprocity. Rather, it appears to reflect growing US discomfort with Nigeria’s increasing global realignment, particularly the warm reception we are receiving from the Brics,” he wrote.

Immigration lawyer Godwin Oke thinks differently and told the BBC: “This is a classic case of visa reciprocity under international diplomatic practice. Countries often align their visa terms to reflect mutual treatment.

“The US had been issuing Nigerians five-year multiple-entry visas, while Nigeria only offered Americans short-term, single-entry visas. From a policy standpoint, it was only a matter of time before the imbalance was addressed.”

In March this year, the US mission in Nigeria issued a stern warning, saying overstaying a visa could lead to a permanent travel ban and potential criminal prosecution.

There is no official data showing the number of Nigerian travellers to the US who overstay their visas.

But Nigerians are worried that the number who get visas will fall under President Donald Trump’s tough immigration policies.

Many young Nigerians would like to leave the country in what is called Japa (Japa means escape in the Yoruba language) and the US remains one of the most desirable destinations.