Afrasianet - the management of culture US President Donald Trump said he would impose 100 percent tariffs on films produced in foreign countries, escalating his trade disputes with countries around the world.

Trump said he had instructed the Commerce Department and the Commercial Representation Authority to begin the process of imposing the tariffs, noting that the U.S. film industry "faces a very rapid death."

Trump blamed the decline on "coordinated efforts" by other countries that provide incentives to attract filmmakers and production studios, calling it a "threat to national security."

He added on his platform Truth Social: "We want movies to be made in America again!"

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik responded to the announcement, saying, "We're working on this."

But details of the decision remain unclear; Trump's statement did not indicate whether the cartoons would include U.S. production companies that produce films abroad.

Several blockbuster films have recently been shot outside the United States despite being produced by American studios, including "Deadpool, Wolverine," "Weekd" and "Gladiator 2."

It was also unclear whether the cartoons would include movies shown on catwalks such as Netflix, as well as those shown in cinemas.

Britain's Department of Culture and Information, the British Film Institute and the American Film Industry Association, which represents the five largest U.S. studios, did not respond to BBC requests for comment.

The governments of Australia and New Zealand have expressed support for their countries' film industry.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said: "No one should doubt that we will unhesitatingly defend the rights of the Australian film industry."

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told a news conference that his government was waiting for more details on the proposed tariffs, adding: "But we will undoubtedly be strongly supportive and supportive of this sector and this industry."

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has imposed tariffs on several countries.

Trump says the tariffs will boost U.S. industries and protect jobs, but they have caused global economic turmoil, and markets have expected commodity prices to rise around the world.

Before his inauguration, Trump appointed three movie stars — Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone — as special envoys tasked with promoting business opportunities in Hollywood, which he described as "a great place but a lot of problems."

"They will serve as my special envoys with the aim of bringing Hollywood, which has lost so much business to foreign countries over the past four years, back to its former state, to be bigger, better and stronger than ever," he wrote at the time.

Despite the challenges, the United States remains a major global film production hub, according to film industry research firm Broadpro.

The company's latest annual report shows that U.S. production spending was  $14.54 billion last year — down 26 percent from 2022.

Countries that saw an increase in production spending during the same period include Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom, according to the report.

The U.S. film industry was already affected by Trump's trade policies before this latest announcement.

In April, China announced that it would reduce its quota of American films allowed into the country.

"The U.S. government's wrong action to use tariffs against China will inevitably lead to a decline in the popularity of American films with domestic audiences," the China Film Administration said.

"We will follow market rules, respect audience choices, and reduce the number of imported American films."

However, many workers in the American film sector have warned that this decision will harm this industry and will work to decline it and cause the bankruptcy of many companies that enter the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars from this industry.

Confrontation with Trump

Culture and learning have not been spared from Trump's decisions, as he has imposed a blockade on universities, preventing thousands of billions spent on these universities from accessing them, using them for experiments and research, and improving the status of education, including Harver University. 

Harvard University, which conducts world-class research thanks to government funding and donors, ranks first in the top 10 in the world.

The Trump administration has decided to freeze $2.2 billion in funding and $60 million in Harvard contracts.

In the latest development, the administration announced that it had launched an investigation to confirm that grants worth more than $8.7 billion from various Harvard organizations were used in accordance with civil rights laws.

The administration is using financial cuts and investigations into universities to pressure university administrations to prevent pro-Palestine demonstrations. The administrations of these universities are also witnessing a legal battle with the Trump administration through mutual lawsuits in this context. 

However, according to students, the most important development suppressing freedom of expression in universities is the revocation of visas and deportation measures implemented by the US administration against students demonstrating in support of Palestine.

With US support, Israel has been waging a genocidal war in Gaza since October 7, 2023, that  has left about 168,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing.

President Donald Trump's administration has frozen   $2.2 billion in aid toHarvard University after the university, which accuses  it of anti-Semitism, rejects its terms.

Trump's Joint Task Force on Combating Anti-Semitism said it had "decided to freeze $2.2 billion in subsidies that the university was to receive over several years, as well as $60 million in government contracts."

The team added that the university administration rejected a request from Trump to take punitive measures against students who reject the war on Gaza and clamp down on demonstrations calling for an end to the Israeli occupation ofPalestine.

"It is time for prestigious universities to take this issue seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue to receive taxpayer support," the education ministry said.

In a letter to students, staff and professors, Rector Alan Garber said that "government demands exceed the powers of the Trump administration and violate the rights of the university enshrined in the Constitution."

He explained that government demands to reduce the power of some students, professors and staff based on their intellectual views are unprecedented and seek to control the university. 

Trump has set his sights on prestigious universities that have seen angry protests sparked by Israel's devastating war in the Gaza Strip. 

Mahdaoui's abduction

In a related context, three members of the  US Congress demanded in a joint statement the immediate release of Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested by immigration authorities.

Days earlier, Mahdaoui entered an immigration office to finalize the final step in the U.S. citizenship process, but instead, armed individuals in civilian clothes with covered faces arrested him and took him handcuffed to an unknown location.

"Authorities have refused to provide any information about where Mahdaoui was taken or what would happen to him," the congressmen said in a statement, calling the arrest immoral, inhumane and illegal.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib explained  Mahdawi's kidnapping for his activism against  the genocide in Gaza.

U.S. District Judge William Sessions ordered the president and other senior officials not to deport Mahdaoui from  the United States or remove him from Vermont. 

Trump administration officials have said student visa holders are at risk of deportation for supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel's behavior  in its war on Gaza, calling their actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy. Trump's critics have called the measures an assault on free speech rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

International newspapers: Trump's campaign on universities is "authoritarian" and harms the country and Harvard stood in front of him

Several international newspapers have covered the war of US President Donald Trump and his administration on university higher education institutions in the United States, and the opinions of intellectuals and journalists on what is happening.

The Trump administration has frozen more than $2 billion in federal funding for Harvard, the nation's richest university, after refusing to comply with government demands on governance, admissions and employment policies. 

The move is part of a broader crackdown the administration is waging against U.S. universities over issues such as anti-Semitism, anti-war protests in Gaza and diversity and inclusion programs.

A challenge for universities

Despite having huge financial reserves of $53 billion, federal funding accounts for 11 percent of its revenue and supports basic research in cancer, AIDS and organ transplantation, which in fiscal year 2024 reached $686 million.

Harvard may struggle to make up for its financial losses, as more than 80 percent of funding is "constrained" by donors and cannot be freely used to offset federal funding. 

She stressed that the university cannot increase spending without compromising its stock and affecting its expenses in the long term, and that most of the research is funded by federal grants allocated to specific projects, and alternative sources cannot be easily obtained.

The freeze on funds has already halted vital projects, raising widespread concern about the future of scientific research in the United States if the political escalation against academic institutions continues.

A loss for the country

In an article published in the Washington Post, American writer Katherine Rambell asserted  that Trump's policies against higher education "destroy" the country's most important export, higher education.

U.S. universities attract many international students, whose tuition fees generate more income for the U.S. economy than valuable exports such as natural gas and coal, and generate a large trade surplus that helps fund scholarships for low-income Americans.

The Trump campaign is undermining the country's soft power by alienating international students from universities, where students imbibe American values and bring them home, boosting the image of the United States around the world.

Resistance spreads

Harvard's explicit rejection of the Trump administration's policy could mark a turning point in the relationship between US universities and government, especially in light of what he described as  the White House' s attempt to impose ideological censorship on higher education.

Trump's demands to scrap diversity programs and appoint professors from "diverse perspectives" are a cover for a broader attack on liberal thinking at universities.

Harvard's categorical rejection of those demands despite the administration's threats has given universities and other legal institutions the courage to stand up to what he saw as an "authoritarian encroachment" on academic and constitutional freedoms. 

The Wall Street Journal asserted that while Harvard may pay a heavy political and financial price for its stance, it has made it a symbol of academic resistance against government interference in university affairs.

As soon as news of Harvard's stance broke, MIT, Princeton University and other universities sued the U.S. Department of Energy to block cuts in federal research grants, which the agency said would save $405 million a year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Stanford University President Jonathan Levine and Dean Jenny Martinez have both expressed support for Harvard and vowed to resist Trump, according to the report .  

Condemnation of those who surrendered

In an article published by  the Washington Post,  David Ignatius described Harvard's position as heroic and noble in the face of "humiliating" political and economic blackmail from the Trump administration.

He stressed that freedom is not free and that defending it is a duty, and Harvard did this job with rare courage, as he put it, and told the bully Trump and his policies "no."

While the press generally praised Harvard's stance, other educational institutions condemned it, and in an interview with The Intercept, Professor Joseph Stiglitz, a renowned American economist  who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001 and is one of  Columbia  University's most prominent professors, criticized the retreat of some universities against Trump, first of all Columbia.

In his view, the university compromised its principles by agreeing to the administration's demands, especially with regard to the appointments of professors and the monitoring of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, which was imposed a kind of "academic guardianship."

He concluded that money is important for the survival of universities, but more important is academic freedom and freedom of expression and thought, commenting that "if we lose our academic freedom, we lose everything." 

The US revoked the visas and legal status of more than a thousand students starting in March, and many students sued the Trump administration for revoking their visas, and temporary reinstatement orders were issued for a small number of students.

 The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced  that US authorities have taken legal action against nearly two thousand university students and pro-Palestinian activists, following US President Donald Trump 's decree to combat "anti-Semitism."

This comes at a time when the Trump administration expressed appreciation for the steps Yale University has taken against its pro-Palestine students, who protested the visit of Israeli National Defense Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the campus.

It also acknowledged that Customs and Immigration arrested Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil , who led solidarity protests at Columbia University last year, despite the absence of any arrest warrant against him.

Robert McCau, director of government affairs at CARE, noted that as part of the anti-Semitism decree signed by Trump on Jan. 30, pro-Palestine protests have been banned on university campuses.

Legal proceedings

He stated that after the visa cancellation phase, many people were arrested and legal action was taken against them.

He pointed out that the arrests of the students began with the student at Columbia University and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested on the eighth of last March for leading protests in support of Palestine, but no official charges were brought against him. 

He added that the Trump administration is trying to suppress pro-Palestinian activism by linking it to "anti-Semitic" legislation and discrediting activists.

He pointed out that the real goal is to arrest as many people as possible and initiate legal proceedings against them in order to prevent activity in support of Palestine.

Although U.S. citizens also participate in solidarity activities with Palestine, foreign students are particularly targeted as the "weakest link" because they do not enjoy the rights enjoyed by citizens, and are punished more.

University counseling

U.S. universities are advising their foreign students on how to deal with the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants, including warnings against leaving the country and advice on how to complete the degrees they are studying for.

Immigration authorities initially arrested students who had participated in pro-Palestinian protests, then expanded to target thousands of foreign students for arrest and deportation for minor offenses. 

According to more than 20 students, immigration lawyers and university officials, some university counselors privately inform students from abroad that they must seek a lawyer and continue to attend classes while appeals against their decisions continue.

University faculty members have also appealed to the judiciary to examine the constitutionality of the arrests.

On the other hand, it was noted that foreign students in American universities avoid expressing their opinions after the punitive measures of the US administration against those participating in the demonstrations in support ofPalestine.

The revocation of visas for foreign students and the deportation arrest of some of them in a measure that went into effect after President Donald Trump came to power, has changed behaviors at U.S. universities, especially among foreign students.

 Opinions of students on the Harvard campus, which the Trump administration has threatened to cut federal funding.

Despite their different nationalities and the countries from which they came to Harvard, one of America's most prestigious universities, international students in the United States have the same concerns: the risk of their visas being canceled.

Boston, Massachusetts, is known as a city of students and science, home to the best universities in the country, and has the largest number of international students with more than 44,000 students from around the world.

Harvard's 6,793 international students make up 27% of the university's total student population.

However, the US measures against foreign students and their threats to cancel their visas have spread fear and confusion in them, as they have reached the point of fearing to express their opinions in the United States. 

These pressures were clearly reflected in the participation of foreign students in the demonstrations condemning the cutting of funding to universities in several American cities, where these demonstrations received only the timid participation of foreign students, and those who participated concealed their faces to avoid revealing their identity.

International students also avoid posting on social media regarding issues related to Palestine or university funding.

To dispel the atmosphere of anxiety and fear that affects international students, Harvard University sends "Know Your Rights" emails to inform them of the progress of legal proceedings to address matters related to demonstrations and the like, as well as to organize seminars on campus and answer their inquiries.

In the end, Trump is replacing culture and education with the restoration of prisons and preparing them for the new inmates that the US administration intends to arrest, knowing that the United States of America includes thousands of prisons that break the record for prisoners relative to any country in the world. But that seems insufficient for the Trump administration, which has begun repairing old prisons, some of which have not been used for decades, most notably Guantánamo and Alcaters.

What do we know about Alcatraz prison that Trump ordered to reopen?

The island, which houses the first lighthouse on the west coast of the United States, was built in the mid-nineteenth century to guide ships across the waters of the Pacific Ocean. It was also a defensive fortress equipped with hundreds of cannons to protect California from any naval attack.

It was not without an environmental touch, as it was a nature reserve for the pelicans, from which it derives its name.

But Alcatraz became famous during the years when this rock overlooking San Francisco Bay in northern California was transformed into a maximum-security federal prison where some of the most dangerous gangsters in the United States were held.

Between 1934 and 1963, the prison, also known as "The Rock" or "The Rock", became the place where criminals who were extremely dangerous to traditional prisons on the mainland were sent.

The most famous escape attempt occurred in 1962, when three prisoners disappeared and no trace of them was found. However, the legends surrounding the prison walls still feed on oral narratives and Hollywood movies.

Today, President Donald Trump ordered the reopening and expansion of the nation's most famous prison to be used to hold "America's most vicious and violent criminals."

Despite its international fame, here are five facts you may not know about Alcatraz

Model prison?

On a barren rocky island in the North Pacific, the first fortifications were built at Alcatraz around 1850 and used as a military prison.

The authorities believed that only geographical isolation could prevent any escape attempt, given the intensity of the surrounding currents and the low water temperatures.

By 1912, the island had the largest reinforced concrete building in the world.

But in 1933, Alcatraz began to establish its reputation as a special kind of detention facility, with the Federal Prison Service calling it a "prison prison."

In fact, the ultimate destination for those who cannot be caught in any other U.S. prison has been the most rebellious and dangerous criminals.

Alcatraz was also an experimental model of what became known as the three-by-one guard system, in which one guard was assigned to every three prisoners, a system that was later implemented in other federal prisons.

The first prison director was James Johnston, who saw the prison not as a means of rehabilitation or integration of inmates into society, but rather as a place of strict discipline.

Under his policies, each prisoner was assigned an individual cell: far from being a luxury, solitary confinement was believed to be a means of preventing intrigue and intrigue.

The harsher rule, according to prison inmates' testimonies, was strict silence, with prisoners only allowed to speak during weekend breaks. Those who broke the rules were doomed to the "pit," an underground chamber where a prisoner could be held for weeks.

Small numbers, but big names

According to the Federal Penitentiary Service (BOP), the number of Alcatraz inmates has never exceeded its maximum capacity.

On average, it housed only 260 to 275 prisoners, less than 1 percent of all federal prisoners. But despite the small numbers, the names behind bars were shiny, as the prison housed prominent figures from the world of organized crime, especially during the Great Depression.

The most famous of them was Alphonse "Al" Capone, a famous gangster and well-known smuggler, who led one of the most dangerous criminal organizations out of Chicago.

Capone was transferred to Alcatraz after Atlanta prison authorities failed to prevent him from running his criminal activities from inside the cell. He spent more than four years at The Rock, before being transferred to another facility after contracting syphilis.

Among the names that have gone beyond the prison walls is murder convict Robert Stroud, best known as the "Alcatraz Birdwatcher."

He was fond of birds and kept a number of them during his previous prison time in Kansas, but pets were forbidden at Alcatraz and he continued his passion for ornithology through books alone.

Alvin Karbowitz, known by his nickname "Krebi Karps," was considered the "No. 1 Public Enemy" on the FBI's list in the 1990s, and he is also the longest-serving prisoner at Alcatraz, where he spent 25 years and one month.

Among the names that passed through these cells were the gangster George "Machine Gun" Kelly Barnes and Rafael Cancele Miranda, a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, who was one of the perpetrators of the armed attack on the Capitol in Washington during the fifties.

Escape attempts... Frustrating

when designing Alcatraz the architects made sure to make it an impenetrable prison, equipped with barbed wire, electrified fences, and watchtowers with armed guards standing around the clock.

However, that did not stop dozens from trying to escape. Official records indicate 14 escape attempts in nearly three decades, involving 36 prisoners. According to the Federal Prison Service, 23 of them were rearrested, six were killed during escape attempts, and two others drowned.

But five of the prisoners were never found; authorities classified them as "missing," although some unofficial accounts suggested they managed to escape.

The first escape attempt occurred in 1936, just two years after The Rock was converted into a federal prison, and was a desperate and simple attempt: a prisoner named Joe Powers tried to climb the prison wall, but was shot dead by guards when he ignored their orders to stop.

The more complex attempts came nearly a decade later.

In 1945, John Giles almost managed to escape, stealing a uniform and falsifying documents that enabled him to board a military ship that reached the mainland. However, the authorities noticed a discrepancy in the details of his uniform, leading to his detection and re-arrest.

In 1946, the prison witnessed the most violent escape attempt, later known as the "Battle of Alcatraz". Six prisoners managed to seize firearms, killing two guards and wounding 18 others, but their plan ultimately failed and they were unable to escape.

The last two escape attempts occurred in 1962, and they marked the final seal on Alcatraz prison's fate.

In the first attempt, prisoners Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglien managed to escape without a trace, except for some personal belongings found on nearby Angel Island. They have been recorded in official reports as missing persons who are presumed to have drowned.

In the second attempt, John Scott and Darl Parker managed to break the bars and escape through a basement kitchen, but authorities intercepted them in the island's waters and re-arrested them.

American cinema has contributed significantly to the consolidation of Alcatraz in the collective consciousness, although not always accurate or faithful to the facts documented by historians and documentary filmmakers.

According to a spokesman for the Federal Prison Service: "Alcatraz was not the cursed prison in the United States as portrayed by many books and movies. Some prisoners even considered living conditions, such as individual cells, to be better than those in other federal prisons."

One of the most famous works was the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood. The film recounts the escape attempt made by Frank Morris and the Angeline brothers, and alludes to their success in making land, although there is no conclusive evidence to this day.

Robert Stroud's fame as "The Bird Watcher" was boosted by a biographical book, which was later made into a 1972 film starring Burt Lancaster.

Another notable work is "First-Degree Crime", which portrayed prisoner Henry Theodore Young Ketim alone who went to prison for a minor crime. However, contemporary records indicate that Young had a long criminal record and later added a murder in prison.

In recent years, Alcatraz has returned to the screen, being the main scene of the 1996 film The Rock, starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery. She also took inspiration in a video game and also appeared in the 2012 TV series Alcatraz but has yet to renew its first season.

Why was the prison closed?

Besides repeated escape attempts, the cost of operating Alcatraz was one of the main reasons why it was officially closed in 1963. The U.S. Department of Justice estimated at the time that maintaining its salt-eroded facilities required an investment of more than five million dollars, while the cost of holding a single prisoner was close to ten dollars a day, a budget that far exceeds the cost of inmates in other prisons.

But the closure of the prison did not keep the island deserted for long. In 1969, it was taken over by indigenous activists, who gathered under the name "Sons of All Tribes" and launched a project to transform the island into a school and cultural centre. They based their claim on historical rights to the island, which in the nineteenth century was a place of imprisonment for tribal leaders who rebelled against the U.S. government.

However, the project did not last long due to several challenges, including funding difficulties, the high costs of transporting supplies to the island, internal disputes between activists, and a large fire that destroyed parts of the remaining facilities, prompting then-US President Richard Nixon to order the evacuation of the island in 1971.

Today, Alcatraz has become one of San Francisco's top attractions, visited annually by about 1.3 million tourists. It is also the starting point for the famous Alcatraz Escape triathlon, in which hundreds of athletes participate to prove that fleeing the island to land is not impossible, provided the right training and equipment are available. 

This new U.S. policy is a message to those who still glorify the American dream, which seems to be disappearing, although this dream has long since been dissipated.