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as he ramps up trade disputes with nations around the world
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he was authorising the US Department of Commerce and Trade Representative to start the process to impose the levy because America's movie industry was dying "a very fast death"
So what might this mean for both the US film industry and the global movie business
Trump declared that Hollywood was "dying"
It's true that the industry has been through a really rough time in recent years
The pandemic saw production close down and the impact is ongoing
Hollywood studios spent $11.3 billion on productions in the second quarter of 2024, a 20% drop from the same period in 2022
as studios continued to cut costs in an attempt to recover from Covid losses
Any shoots of recovery were then severely stifled by the 2023 actors and writers strikes
Then the wildfires struck earlier this year
more and more people - not just youngsters - have been turning to YouTube and other streaming platforms for content
The US remains a major film production hub and according to Variety
2025 has seen a rebound in box office numbers since last year
with overall domestic revenues up 15.8% on 2024 so far
The latest Marvel superhero film, Thunderbolts*, topped the North American box office this weekend
marking a promising start to the summer season
But Hollywood is definitely still up against it
Watch Trump on non-US movie tariffs: 'Hollywood is being destroyed'The president says he wants to "immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands
We want movies made in America again!"
This has led to questions about whether the tariffs would also apply to American film companies producing films abroad
Several recent major movies produced by US studios were shot outside America
Hit franchises like Mission Impossible also shoot overseas
We also don't yet know if the tariffs will be applied retrospectively
Trump later told reporters that "other nations have been stealing the movies and movie-making capabilities from the United States"
which may suggest he was only referring to non-US films
White House spokesman Kush Desai told the BBC that "no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made"
and added that the administration is "exploring all options"
Many countries offer tax breaks to encourage film production such as New Zealand
Australia and the UK and that's something Trump wants to take on
But it's not the only reason a US film company might wish to film abroad
Some choose to do so for the specific location
Who could forget Tom Cruise's ascent of the Burj Khalifa
What could it mean for the next James Bond movie
but based on an iconic British character who works for MI6
And it's not just other countries that offer incentives - other US states are luring film production away from Hollywood
Illinois and Kentucky are among the many other US states which California are now competing with
who Trump described as "grossly incompetent" when speaking about the movie tariffs on Monday
is currently pushing for his plan to more than double the state's film and TV tax incentives to $750 million annually
While Newsom has made no comment yet on Trump's proposal, his senior communications advisor told Deadline: "We believe he has no authority to impose tariffs under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, since tariffs are not listed as a remedy under that law."
There are more questions than answers at this stage.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has a moratorium on tariffs for digital goods until 2026. Presumably films count as digital goods.
And what would they base the tariffs on? Box office revenue or production costs? Is streaming content included? That would have a huge impact on US companies like Netflix. What about post-production ie editing?
Tim Richards, Vue Entertainment CEO and founder, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "A big part of this is what constitutes US film - is it where the money comes from, the script, the director, the talent, where it was shot?"
And how do you even classify a foreign film when so many are co-productions and are often shot in several countries?
Trump appeared to be talking about film and not TV but it's not 100% clear at this stage. Would tariffs apply to films made for streaming or just cinema releases? We'll have to wait for more detail. And of course, Trump may rollback on the proposals as he has done with some other tariffs.
Obviously, putting a 100% tariff on foreign films means a huge cost increase for those production companies who want to sell to the US market.
Commenting on Trump's announcement, the UK government's Culture Media and Sport Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage MP said: "Last month the Culture, Media and Sport Committee warned against complacency on our status as the Hollywood of Europe. President Trump's announcement has made that warning all too real.
"Making it more difficult to make films in the UK is not in the interests of American businesses. Their investment in facilities and talent in the UK, based on US-owned IP, is showing fantastic returns on both sides of the Atlantic. Ministers must urgently prioritise this as part of the trade negotiations currently under way."
Head of media and entertainment trade union Bectu in the UK, Philippa Childs, said in a statement: "These tariffs, coming after Covid and the recent slowdown, could deal a knock-out blow to an industry that is only just recovering and will be really worrying news for tens of thousands of skilled freelancers who make films in the UK."
Kirsty Bell, chief executive of production company Goldfinch, questioned how the tariffs would work, pointing out that blockbusters like Barbie, which was distributed by US film studio Warner Bros Pictures, "was actually shot virtually entirely in the UK".
"If those US films don't get partly produced or produced in the UK, freelancers are going to be jobless. I'm telling you now, they really are going to be jobless," she told PA.
The governments of Australia and New Zealand have also spoken out in support of their countries' film industries.
"Nobody should be under any doubt that we will be standing up unequivocally for the rights of the Australian screen industry," Australia's home affairs minister Tony Burke said.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told a news conference that his government was awaiting further details of the proposed tariffs.
"But we'll be obviously a great advocate, great champion of that sector and that industry," he added.
And with the Cannes film festival just around the corner, uncertainty hangs in the air with many US film producers looking to sell foreign distribution rights.
Tariffs could incentivise US film companies to make more films on home soil but the risk is that if it's more expensive than to do so abroad, some films just won't get made.
More incentives or rebates could help offset this but we just don't know at this stage if that's under discussion on a national scale.
NPR Radio film critic Eric Deggans warned that the tariffs, should they be introduced, could further harm the industry.
Other countries may respond by placing tariffs on American films, he told the BBC, making it "harder for these films to make profits overseas".
"It may create a situation where the tariffs in America are causing more harm than good," he added.
Experts say the federal government would have to overcome enormous hurdles to turn Alcatraz back into a prison.
The president blamed foreign-made movies for the American film industry's "very fast death".
Pence defied calls by Donald Trump to overturn the result of the 2020 election, and was shunned by Republicans as a result.
President Trump says the famous island prison off San Francisco is to be reopened to house "ruthless and violent" offenders.
The US president also described election winner Anthony Albanese as "a friend of mine".
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Al Mayadeen reports ■ SYRIA: IDF planes deliver humanitarian aid to Druze residents of southern Syria ■ YEMEN: Houthis say U.S
attacking for first time since Ben-Gurion Airport missile
ISRAEL: Official: Netanyahu said Gaza plan involves 'occupation of territory and sustained Israeli presence' ■ GAZA: Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 15
The Israel Defense Forces carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon's Beqaa area
Its buildings dominate the craggy landscape of Alcatraz Island
which lies about 1.5 miles north of San Francisco's famed Fisherman's Wharf
Alcatraz once housed dangerous criminals such as the infamous mobster Al Capone
under an incarceration strategy that sought to concentrate difficult prisoners in one facility
segregating them from less dangerous inmates in the prison system
Trump's message suggests he wants to restore Alcatraz to its original dual purpose. The twin goals for building the original prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons
were "to deal with the most incorrigible inmates in Federal prisons
and to show the law-abiding public that the Federal Government was serious" about stopping rampant crime in the 1920s and 1930s."
AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!" the president said on Truth Social
"The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law
Trump did not provide details about a timeline for reopening the prison
the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service referred NPR to the president's statement
Asked on Monday about his idea to reopen Alcatraz
"I guess I was supposed to be a movie maker," noting the prison's long history
adding that no one ever successfully escaped from the prison
Enacting Trump's proposal would come with a steep price tag
both for constructing and operating a new prison facility on an island whose most plentiful natural resource is sandstone
Alcatraz was shuttered "because the institution was too expensive to continue operating," according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons
It said operating the island prison was nearly three times more expensive than any other federal prison at the time
"This isolation meant that everything (food
fuel...) had to be brought to Alcatraz by boat," the bureau says
so nearly one million gallons of water had to be barged to the island each week."
If the Trump administration tries to rebuild a prison on the island
historian Jolene Babyak says it will need to solve long-running infrastructure challenges
"My reaction was two words: water and sewage," she says
"Those are two reasons why it would be impractical" to restore the facility as a working prison
"All of the sewage in those days was dumped in the bay," she says of the years when hundreds of inmates and staff lived on the island
It was depicted as being full of the country's worst criminals
offering harsh conditions and virtually no hope of escape
averaging 260 to 275 inmates — less than 1% of the total federal prison population at the time
And while it was designed around strict rules
the penitentiary's reputation was more nuanced
"Many prisoners actually considered the living conditions (for instance
always one man to a cell) at Alcatraz to be better than other Federal prisons
and several inmates actually requested a transfer to Alcatraz," the bureau states
The prison's staff lived on the island with their families, and children were ferried to San Francisco on school days, according to the National Park Service
who grew up to become a historian studying the island prison where she once lived due to her father's work as an administrator there
Everybody bragged about it," she tells NPR
noting that an early warden at the prison had prioritized using the promise of good food as a way to motivate inmates to follow the rules
The penitentiary did hold infamous criminals such as Capone; George "Machine Gun" Kelly; and Alvin Karpis and Arthur "Doc" Barker
But while some inmates were sent to Alcatraz because they were considered dangerous and/or escape risks
others spent shorter stints at the highly structured prison
"Once prison officials felt a man no longer posed a threat and could follow the rules (usually after an average of five years on Alcatraz)," the prisons bureau says
"he could then be transferred back to another Federal prison to finish his sentence and be released."
Kennedy closed the federal penitentiary in 1963
Alcatraz is currently a museum administered by the National Park Service
as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area since 1972
the NPS says it "represents the federal government's response to post-Prohibition
Both the institution and the men confined within its walls reflect our society during this era."
The original impetus for creating the Alcatraz prison, the park service says
government's desire to create a "high-profile prison that represented the Justice Department's response to fears around public safety and organized crime."
Alcatraz "served as an experiment" in handling problematic inmates
"The model they developed on Alcatraz would later serve as a blueprint for the high security federal prison located in Marion
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has unveiled a string of high-profile initiatives that he says will protect public safety and also crack down on unlawful immigration. They include deporting immigrants — and potentially
citizens — to a maximum security prison in El Salvador
Alcatraz was initially viewed as a defense outpost in San Francisco Bay when it was brought under federal control by President Millard Fillmore in 1850
Groups housed there include: captured Confederates in the 1860s; members of the Hopi Tribe in the 1890s; and prisoners from the 1898 Spanish-American War
In the early 1900s, it became the site of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks for the U.S. Army. In 1933, "the island was transferred to the U.S. Department of Justice for use by the Federal Bureau of Prisons," according to the Bureau of Prisons
Alcatraz Island is now a popular National Park Service site that's been open to the public since 1973
NPR's Scott Neuman contributed to this report
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AZ — Police say three people are dead and five others are injured after a shooting at a restaurant in Glendale Sunday evening
Glendale police say the shooting occurred during a concert and car show at El Camaron Gigante near 59th and Glendale avenues around 7:45 p.m
A fight reportedly broke out between at least two groups of people inside the venue
where shots were then fired in the parking lot
Police say there were multiple shooters involved
Police say the 17-year-old and 21-year-old victims were brothers
including two women and two men between the ages of 20 and 23
Police say the teenager suffered the most serious injuries but is expected to recover
Those who were injured were either shot or struck by shrapnel
According to the latest information from police on Monday morning
the incident was "isolated" and everyone involved is believed to have known each other
Police described the scene Sunday night as "very active," but say they believe the area is safe for the public
Police said 200-300 people were at the event at the time of the shooting
and the restaurant was also open for business at the same time as the concert and car show
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Glendale police at 480-948-6377
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