Today’s briefing:
How SA is diversifying (just in case)
Why AI is costing us more
Trump’s Blame Game
🇿🇦 SA to US: Renew the Deal, But We're Hedging Our Bets
South Africa is publicly pushing the U.S. to renew the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA), a crucial trade pact set to expire at the end of this month.
"[What] President Trump did was a wake-up call for [us]... a wake-up call in saying that we need to upgrade our relations, our trade relations, with many other countries in the world."
But behind the scenes, Pretoria is sending a clear message: we're actively diversifying.
"We want the world to buy from us, not just rocks and dust but finished products."
Why it matters: If the trade pact isn't renewed, South African exports like vehicles and vehicle parts, citrus products, and wine will be hard-hit.
The deal guarantees duty-free access for most goods, but the U.S. hasn't yet said if it will be renewed.
"Unilateral trade practices and economic coercion have a detrimental impact on many nations."
Driving the news:
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, President Cyril Ramaphosa warned that ongoing trade volatility is forcing SA to broaden its economic partnerships.
The country is deepening its outreach and seeking new markets for its manufactured goods in Asia, Latin America, and the Gulf.
📜 Ramaphosa described recent trade actions by the Trump administration as a "wake-up call" for South Africa.
The experience emphasized the urgent need for the country to de-risk its reliance on just a handful of export partners.
A steep 30% tariff imposed on SA exports already effectively nullifies Agoa's duty-free benefits.
The bottom line: While SA lobbies for a renewal, it's also building new trade bridges as a backup plan.
The U.S. holds the cards on Agoa's future, but South Africa is determined not to be left vulnerable again.
The "Workslop" Invasion 🤖
Why it matters: AI was supposed to make work easier, but a new study warns it has generated a productivity-killing problem: "workslop".
This low-quality, AI-generated content—polished-looking but substance-free reports, memos, and slides—is wasting employee time and costing companies millions.
"I had to waste more time following up on the information and checking it with my own research... Then I continued to waste my own time having to redo the work myself."
By the numbers 📉: A survey of 1,150 U.S. employees by researchers from Stanford and BetterUp Labs reveals a costly epidemic.
40% of employees report receiving workslop in the last month.
They spend an average of 1 hour and 56 minutes dealing with each instance.
This creates an invisible productivity tax of $186 per employee every month.
For a 10,000-person organization, that's over $9 million a year in lost productivity 💸.
Zoom in: The "workslop tax" is also interpersonal, eroding trust and collaboration.
When asked how it feels to get workslopped,
53% reported being annoyed,
38% confused,
and 22% offended.
Colleagues who send workslop are viewed as less creative, capable, and reliable by about half of recipients.
42% see them as less trustworthy.
One-third of recipients said they are now less likely to want to work with that person in the future.
"You can use AI to make your work better... [or] you can also use it to pretend to get 20 tasks done, and just 'Trojan horse' a bunch of work to your colleagues."
Anxieties about offloading our brains to technology are not new.
The HBR article recalls Socrates' concerns about the alphabet, fearing it would let us outsource memory instead of truly knowing things.
But unlike past tools, workslop "uniquely uses machines to offload cognitive work to another human being".
The sender saves effort, but the receiver pays the price.
The big picture: This phenomenon helps solve a major puzzle: why, despite AI use doubling since 2023, 95% of organizations see no measurable return on their AI investments.
What's next: Leaders are urged to stop the cycle by setting clear standards.
Avoid "AI everywhere" mandates that encourage thoughtless use. Instead, model purposeful and intentional AI application.
Frame AI as a tool for collaboration, not a shortcut to dodge responsibility.
Uphold the same standards of excellence for work done by human-AI teams as for work done by humans alone.
Trump's Ukraine Blame Game 🔄
President Trump's rhetorical pivot on Ukraine is being seen in Europe as a strategic trap, designed to offload responsibility for the war—and the blame for failure—onto allies.
Why it matters: It allows Trump to wash his hands of a conflict he failed to end, recasting it as Europe's problem to solve. The policy is a change in analysis, not action.
Driving the news: After months of pushing Kyiv to cede territory, Trump now declares Ukraine can "fight and win" back its land. The catch: it must be done "with the help of the EU".
Reality Check 🧐: The administration's actions don't match the president's words.
🗣️ Mixed messages: On the same day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted the war "cannot end militarily" and "will end at a negotiating table."
💸 Vanishing aid: The U.S. share of security assistance to Ukraine, once roughly 50%, has vanished.
✂️ Military cutbacks: The Pentagon has announced reductions in military training and other aid to nations bordering Russia.
🛑 Impossible demands: Trump is calling on the EU to enact tariffs on China and India and halt all Russian oil purchases—a move seen as a non-starter in Brussels.
"Russia is in no way a tiger. It's more associated with a bear. And there is no such thing as a paper bear."
What They're Saying: 🗣️
🇪🇺European officials tell the F.T. it's the "start of a blame game" by an "unreliable ally".
🇺🇦 Ukrainian President Zelensky, who has been mending ties with Trump, calls the rhetorical shift a "game changer."
🏛️ Sen. Mitch McConnell praised Trump's words but blasted his administration for "undermining" them by limiting security assistance.
☝️But a top Ukrainian official argued to the F.T. that Trump has a point: "The Europeans can do more and should do more".
The Bottom Line: The pivot is rhetorical, not material. Trump now offers Zelenskyy encouragement, but Ukraine still needs money and weapons that Europe may struggle to provide alone.