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      Global economy will ‘massively suffer’ from Donald Trump tariffs, Ursula von der Leyen warns – Europe live

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      European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned this morning that the global economy “will massively suffer” as a result of tariffs imposed by US president Donald Trump last night, as she said the EU was “prepared to respond.”Despite Trump’s direct attack on “pathetic” EU as he imposed 20% tariffs on the bloc, von der Leyen still expressed hopes that the relationship could “move from confrontation to negotiation,” as she warned “there seems to be no order in disorder.”But it wasn’t immediately obvious that there was any genuine prospect of that happening.Instead the EU and the individual member states are now scrambling to consider how to manage the situation.French president Emmanuel Macron has called an emergency meeting with sectors affected by Trump’s tariffs this afternoon.German economic daily Handelsblatt published new estimates this morning that the US tariffs – including 25% on car imports – could cost German carmakers BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen as much as €11 bn given Germany is the largest EU car exporter to the US. For perspective, it’s just under a third of the total value of German automotive exports to the US at €36.8 bn.But the worry is not only about the immediate impact, but the more long term consequences of last night’s decision.Addressing Europeans directly, von der Leyen said “I know that many of you feel let down by our oldest ally,” as she stressed the need to think about what’s next.Or as Moritz Schularick, president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, put it to Handelsblatt:
      “There is this memorable picture of a stick that you can bend and that comes back again and again. But at some point, if you bend too much, the stick breaks.
      I believe that in terms of trust in the United States, something has broken down in recent weeks that will not come back so quickly.”
      It’s Thursday, 3 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.Good morning. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a lively one.Rutte opens with expressing condolences about the death of four US soldiers during a Nato training in Lithuania.He then highlights the new US administration’s desire to “break the deadlock” on Ukraine with Russia, and he pointedly says that European allies step up their spending in response to demands from president Trump.Rubio thanks for his condolences and stresses that the troops’ participation in training shows that the “US is in Nato, … as active as it has ever been,” as he criticised “this hysteria and hyperbole” about the US and Nato.The United States President Trump’s made clear he supports Nato. We’re going to remain in Nato. He’s made it clear,” he says.But he adds that the US wants Nato “to be stronger, more viable” and “invest more in national security.”“[Trump] is not against Nato. He is against a Nato that does not have the capabilities that it needs to fulfil the obligations that the treaty imposes upon each and every member state,” he says.He adds that “no one expects that you’re going to be able to do this in one year or two, but the pathway has to be real.”No questions after their statements, so that’s it.Meanwhile in Brussels, US state secretary Marco Rubio is taking part in today’s Nato ministerial meeting.He is appearing at a press conference together the alliance’s secretary general Mark Rutte now.You can follow it below and I will bring you the key lines here.Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has cancelled all her appointments on Thursday as she wants to focus on the response to Trump’s tariffs, her office said.La Repubblica reported that she had been expected to attend events in Calabria, but decided to stay in Rome instead.Earlier today, I brought you her initial response to Trump’s announcement from last night, as she opposed the decision and vowed to “do everything we can to work towards an agreement with the United States, with the aim of avoiding a trade war that would inevitably weaken the West in favor of other global players.”Meloni was the only sitting European leader to attend Trump’s inauguration in January.Elsewhere, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Hungary today to meet with the country’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, and that’s despite, as AP notes, a warrant for his arrest issued by the world’s top war crimes court.Instead, Netanyahu was welcomed with military honours at the beginning of his four-day trip, and the two leaders will speak together at a press conference in Budapest later this morning.The international criminal court in The Hague, the Netherlands, issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest last year over his government’s actions in the Gaza Strip. Hungary criticised it at the time as “outrageously impudent” and “cynical.”A senior aide to Orbán said today that Hungary would now move to withdraw from the court, “in accordance with the constitutional and international legal framework.”While that’s a more radical move, a number of other countries previously indicated they would allow Netanyahu to visit without arresting him, including Germany and Poland, while France claimed he had “immunity” from the court’s order.I will keep an eye on this story for you and bring you the latest.The tariff issue has put Spain’s far-right Vox party – devoted fans of Trump and his radical agenda – in something of a bind.But, reacting to news of the 20% tariffs on EU products, the party’s leader, Santiago Abascal, has chosen to blame … the EU and his political opponents in Spain.His recent post on X has more than a whiff of diversionary tactics to it. In it, he accuses Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People’s party (PP) of failing to defend the interests of the Spanish people.“The People’s party and the Socialists are dragging us into a suicidal trade war,” he wrote.“Our economy competes on unequal terms because of the ideological bureaucracy of the two-party system. And the only solution they offer is further submission to China, continued wars, and censorship of anyone who speaks out. We must expel this corrupt caste that has only brought ruin and loss of freedoms. And we will do it.”The Spanish Wine Federation (FEV) has described Trump’s imposition of a 20% tariff on EU products as a “significant blow to Spanish wineries”, for whom the US is the second largest export destination, and the No 1 export destination when it comes to sparkling wines.“The tariffs announced by the US are completely unjustified in the specific case of wine, considering that the current tariff gap between the tariffs applied by the EU and the US is minimal,” the FEV’s director general, José Luis Benítez, said on Thursday.Benítez warned that the measure would harm not only Spanish wine-makers but also US consumers, “who consume more wine than they produce”.He also pointed out that the newly announced tariffs would be particularly damaging to small and medium-sized producers, which make up 99% of Spain’s wineries, as they have less capacity to diversify their exports and are more dependent on the main export markets.The US market represents approximately 13% of Spain’s total foreign sales. In 2024, 97m litres of wine were exported for a value of around €390m.German chancellor Olaf Scholz said Trump’s decision was “fundamentally wrong” and undermined the free trade globally, as he warned that all countries “will suffer from these ill-considered decisions.”He said it amounted to “an attack on a trade system that has created prosperity all round the world, itself an American achievement.”Using similar language, German economy minister Robert Habeck said these were “the most disruptive tariff increases in 90 years,” as he warned of potentially “dramatic” effects of the US president’s decisions.Speaking at a press conference in Berlin, Habeck said it was “economically wrong” to say that the existing trading arrangements were “of detriment to the US,” as he called to reject this logic and urged nations in favour of free trade to form a united front in response.Habeck warned that the consequences of these decisions will affect the next federal government and have ramifications “far beyond Germany and beyond Europe.”]The minister also spoke about countermeasures being prepared in response. He said he was not in a position to show them or announce details yet – although he briefly waves the documents at reporters – but he insisted that “good work has been done there” to prepare for this moment.He added that he hoped Trump would buckle under pressure, but “the logical consequence is that he has to feel the pressure” from Germany, Europe and other like-minded countries.Greek finance minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said that the fresh tariffs imposed by the US government on world trade were a historic shift towards protectionism and a deviation from how the European Union sees economic and social progress, Reuters reported.“As a country, we are in favour of free trade,” Pierrakakis said in a statement. “We hope that this chapter will last as little as possible.”French prime minister François Bayrou told reporters that Donald Trump’s tariffs marked “a catastrophe” for the global economy, and posed “an immense difficulty” for Europe.Speaking on the margins of a meeting in the French Senate, he also said the move will be “a catastrophe for the US and for US citizens.”In comments reported by BFMTV and Le Figaro, Bayrou criticised the US for turning on its allies, as he warned about “serious times” facing Europe and the West.The EU will respond in a “legitimate, proportionate and decisive way” to Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, but its strongest weapon is still “a last resort”, the head of the European parliament’s international trade committee has said.Bernd Lange, a German Social Democrat, said the EU was discussing the use of the anti-coercion instrument, which EU insiders almost inevitably describe as “the big bazooka”.The anti-coercion legislation, which entered into force in 2023, gives the EU wide leeway to impose commerce and investment sanctions against a foreign government deemed to be using trade in an attempt to browbeat countries into changing unrelated policies. The law allows the EU to use ten different kinds of retaliation against a coercive government, notably targeting services. Possible measures could include taxing tech companies, revoking banking licenses and intellectual property rights, blocking companies from public procurementIt was agreed not long after China had imposed trade restrictions on Lithuania over the Baltic state’s friendly policy towards Taiwan.Lange, who helped negotiate the law, said the EU was discussing use of this instrument – “this is of course the bazooka, the strongest measure we could take” – but it would only be used as a last resort.“This is not our first step. Using the ACI, this would really be hard escalation and therefore a last resort, but we have it.”Having renamed Trump’s so-called “liberation day”, as “inflation day”, the MEP said that the EU could target US tech giants in retaliation for tariffs, which is possible even without the anti-coercion law. “Of course if we are really on an escalation ladder, then of course we will have a look to the tech giants as well – I would say this is not the first choice.”The MEP, who travels to Washington next week, still hopes the EU can negotiate its way out of tariffs, but is not optimistic. He described the structure of the US government as “totally unclear” and that only the president and his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, controlled trade, rather than senior officials, such as the US Trade Representative, adding: “That is really a mess.”The EU has some options when considering its response to overnight announcements, including retaliating with tariffs on US goods and services and forming closer ties with other countries.The bloc has already rejected one possible option: fold your cards. But vowing retaliation is only the start.The questions are about what response the EU will have, how quickly it can be marshalled and whether divisions between member states will undermine the tough talk.The EU response will depend on how tightly its 27 member states line up behind a common strategy in a trade war that could trigger economic turmoil and job losses in Europe. An early indication should come on Monday when EU trade ministers meet to discuss the retaliation planned for this month and other measures.Nerves are building. France is worried about the fallout on its wines and spirits industry; Dublin fears an exodus of US multinationals headquartered in Ireland; and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has said the bloc should not act on impulse while the national industry group Confindustria has called for negotiations with the White House.Forging a common line will be critical to new forms of trade retaliation: for example, only a weighted majority of EU countries can decide whether the bloc is facing coercion from the US. That would be an outcome almost no one imagined a decade ago.The German Federation of Business, BDI, has denounced Trump’s tariffs as an “unprecedented attack” on global trade.In a statement issued this morning, it warned that “the European economy must not become a plaything of geopolitical interests” and called for a united response to the 20% tax the 27 countries now face.
      “The announced tariffs are an unprecedented attack on the international trading system, free trade, and global supply chains. The rationale for this protectionist escalation is incomprehensible. It threatens our export-oriented companies and jeopardizes prosperity, stability, jobs, innovation, and investment worldwide.
      The European Union can only act as a united front. This applies to the 27 member states as well as across sectors. The EU has its own instruments for an effective counter-reaction, which it can use decisively. We support the Commission’s strategy of remaining willing to negotiate, aware of Europe’s strengths, and responding flexibly to potential offers.
      German industry has always relied on fair competition, open markets, and cooperative relations with the United States. The EU must now strengthen its alliances with other major trading partners and should coordinate its response with them. A coordinated response is also necessary to counter diversion effects in international trade.”
      Elsewhere, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen continues her three-day trip to Greenland amid escalating tensions with the US over the future status of the island.Arriving yesterday, she said “it is clear that with the pressure put on Greenland by the Americans, in terms of sovereignty, borders and the future, we need to stay united.”“I have but one wish and that is to do all that I can to take care of this marvellous country and to support it at a difficult time,” Frederiksen said.She had a dinner with the new Greenlandic prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, last night, and today gets on with a full programme of meetings likely to touch on the future shape of Danish-Greenlandic relations and economic cooperation.Frederiksen also met with the outgoing prime minister Múte B. Egede who will remain a prominent figure in the new government formed after last month’s snap elections in Greenland.The talks will be a first test for Nielsen’s new administration on whether it can formulate new demands to Copenhagen and get things done in the face of US interest in the island.Frederiksen’s visit comes just days after a highly controversial trip by US vice-president JD Vance, who came over to the US Pituffik Space Base only to directly criticise Denmark for “not doing a good job at keeping Greenland safe,” and accusing it of “underinvesting in the people of Greenland and … in the security architecture” of the island.Earlier this week, Washington Post reported that the Trump administration was studying the potential costs involved should the US succeed in its plans of taking control over Greenland, including whether it could put together a more attractive financial package to compete with Denmark.The paper said that officials were also looking at what revenue to the US Treasury could be gained from the island’s natural resources.I will keep an eye on what comes out of Frederiksen’s meetings.European stock markets are now open and they’re reacting exactly as you would expect them to.The pan-European Stoxx 600 index has fallen 1.5% at the start of trading, to its lowest level in over two months.Germany’s DAX fell almost 2.5% at the start of tading in Frankfurt, while in Paris the CAC 40 is down 2.2% and Spain’s IBEX lost 1.5%.You can follow all the latest business reaction here:Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre expressed alarm over “bad news” on US tariffs warning they were “very serious,” with Norway hit by a 15% levy on its goods imported to the US.But Støre told public broadcaster NRK that “there is an opening for negotiations here, the Americans say, and we will use that in every possible way that we can,” Reuters reported.Støre also said he would travel to Brussels on Monday to meet with senior EU officials, including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to discuss further steps.UK prime minister Keir Starmer told business chiefs that “clearly there will be an economic impact” from Donald Trump’s tariffs, as he insisted the government would react with “cool and calm heads,” PA news agency reported.He said “nothing is off the table” when it comes to the UK response.Starmer said the government will now focus on making decisions “guided only by our national interest” and on “putting money in the pockets of working people,” as he stressed “one of the great strengths of this nation is our ability to keep a cool head.”Here are some further quotes from Starmer, via PA:
      “Today marks a new stage in our preparation. We have a range of levers at our disposal and we will continue our work with businesses across the country to discuss their assessment of the options.”
      “Our intention remains to secure a deal, but nothing is off the table.”
      “We must rise to this challenge and that is why I’ve instructed my team to move further and faster on the changes I believe will make our economy stronger and more resilient.”
      “Because this Government will do everything necessary to defend the UK’s national interest, everything necessary to provide the foundation of security that working people need to get on with their lives.”
      “That is how we have acted and how we will continue to act: with pragmatism, cool and calm heads, focused on our national security.”
      Our political editor, Pippa Crerar, noted that Downing Street, which had been expecting a 20% rate to be imposed on the UK, expressed relief to have escaped the higher rate with lower, 10% tariffs.Keir Starmer’s more conciliatory approach to the Trump administration appeared to have paid off, she said.European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned of “dire consequences” for millions of people, as she said tariffs would “hurt consumers around the world.”She said there was “no clear path through the complexity and chaos that is being created as all US trading partners are hit,” but she insisted the EU’s unity “is our strength” and the bloc would be prepared to respond with calibrated countermeasures.Outgoing German economy minister Robert Habeck stressed the need for a united EU response, saying the bloc should leverage the fact it has the largest single market in the world.“Europe’s strength is our strength,” he said, adding he hoped for “a negotiated solution.”Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni called the introduction of US tariffs “wrong” as she vowed to “do everything we can to work towards an agreement with the United States, with the aim of avoiding a trade war that would inevitably weaken the West in favor of other global players.”“In any case, as always, we will act in the interest of Italy and its economy, also by discussing with other European partners,” she added.Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson said he “deeply regreted” the US decision, saying “we don’t want growing trade barriers” as he lauded the benefits of free trade.But he said the government was ready to respond and work with the EU to “take every opportunity to reverse these developments.”“We want to find our way back to the path of trade and cooperation together with the US,” he stressed.Irish prime minister Micheál Martin said that tariffs “benefit no one,” as he warned they are “bad for the world economy, they hurt people [and] businesses.”“My priority, and that of the government, is to protect Irish jobs and the Irish economy, and we will work with our companies … to navigate the period ahead,” he said.He said he would work with EU partners to “get on a negotiation with the US to limit the damage.”Martin also highlighted “the added value and the strength that Ireland has given to so many US companies” based there.Polish prime minister Donald Tusk posted a brief update on social media, saying: “Friendship means partnership. Partnership means really and truly reciprocal tariffs. Adequate decisions are needed.”Finnish prime minister Petteri Orpo said the tariff decisions were “concerning,” as he warned “there are no winners in a trade war.”“Businesses, consumers, and economic growth suffer. The EU is ready to respond and negotiate. We support this effort. Finland is prepared as part of the Union,” he said.European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned this morning that the global economy “will massively suffer” as a result of tariffs imposed by US president Donald Trump last night, as she said the EU was “prepared to respond.”Despite Trump’s direct attack on “pathetic” EU as he imposed 20% tariffs on the bloc, von der Leyen still expressed hopes that the relationship could “move from confrontation to negotiation,” as she warned “there seems to be no order in disorder.”But it wasn’t immediately obvious that there was any genuine prospect of that happening.Instead the EU and the individual member states are now scrambling to consider how to manage the situation.French president Emmanuel Macron has called an emergency meeting with sectors affected by Trump’s tariffs this afternoon.German economic daily Handelsblatt published new estimates this morning that the US tariffs – including 25% on car imports – could cost German carmakers BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen as much as €11 bn given Germany is the largest EU car exporter to the US. For perspective, it’s just under a third of the total value of German automotive exports to the US at €36.8 bn.But the worry is not only about the immediate impact, but the more long term consequences of last night’s decision.Addressing Europeans directly, von der Leyen said “I know that many of you feel let down by our oldest ally,” as she stressed the need to think about what’s next.Or as Moritz Schularick, president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, put it to Handelsblatt:
      “There is this memorable picture of a stick that you can bend and that comes back again and again. But at some point, if you bend too much, the stick breaks.
      I believe that in terms of trust in the United States, something has broken down in recent weeks that will not come back so quickly.”
      It’s Thursday, 3 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.Good morning. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a lively one. More

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      in US Politics

      Asian countries riven by war and disaster face some of steepest Trump tariffs

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      Developing nations in south-east Asia, including wartorn and earthquake-hit Myanmar, and several African nations are among the trading partners facing the highest tariffs set by Donald Trump.Upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war, the US president announced a raft of tariffs on Wednesday that he said were designed to stop the US economy from being “cheated”.“This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history,” said Trump on Wednesday. “It’s our declaration of economic independence.”He hailed the moment as “liberation day”, but the tariffs are likely to be met with loud protests from some of the world’s weakest economies. One expert said Trump was likely to be targeting countries that received investment from China, regardless of the situation in that country. Chinese manufacturers have previously relocated to countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia not only due to lower operating costs, but also to avoid tariffs.The tariffs come as many countries in south-east Asia are already grappling with the fallout from the cuts to USAID, which provides humanitarian assistance to a region vulnerable to natural disasters and support for pro-democracy activists battling repressive regimes.Cambodia, a developing economy where 17.8% of the population live below the poverty line, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is the worst-hit country in the region with a tariff rate of 49%. More than half of the country’s factories are reportedly Chinese-owned, with the countries exports dominated by garments and footwear.Next worse-hit is the landlocked south-east Asian nation of Laos, a country heavily bombed by the US during the cold war, with 48%. According to the ADB, Laos has a poverty rate of 18.3%.Not far behind is Vietnam with 46% and Myanmar, a nation reeling from a devastating earthquake on Friday, and years of civil war following a 2021 military coup, with 44%.Indonesia, the biggest economy in south-east Asia, faces a 32% tariff rate, while Thailand, the second-largest, has been hit with a rate of 36%.Major US rival and trading partner China has been hit with a 34% reciprocal tariff, on top of the 20% levy already imposed.Dr Siwage Dharma Negara, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said the tariffs on south-east Asian nations were intended to hurt China.“The administration thinks that by targeting these countries they can target Chinese investment in countries like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia. By targeting their products maybe it will affect Chinese exports and the economy,” he said.“The real target is China but the real impact on those countries will be quite significant because this investment creates jobs and export revenue.”Tariffs on countries such as Indonesia, he said, would be counterproductive for the US, and the detail of how they would be applied remained unclear.“Some garments and footwear [companies] are American brands like Nike, or Adidas, US companies that have factories in Indonesia. Will they face the same tariffs as well?” he said.Stephen Olson, a former US trade negotiator, said countries in south-east Asia would be forced to reconsider their relationships with Washington. “A closer tilt towards China could be the result. It’s hard to have constructive, productive relations with a country that has just dropped a ton of bricks on your head,” said Olson, a visiting senior fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.“The world’s largest importer has now essentially hung a sign on its border saying ‘closed for business’,” he added. “We are now faced with two plausible scenarios: Either the impacted trade partners hold firm and retaliate in the hope that Trump will be forced to back down, or they look to cut deals with Trump in order to avoid the tariffs. It is unlikely that either scenario will end well.”Other nations among the hardest hit are several nations in Africa, including Lesotho – a country that Trump claimed “nobody has ever heard of” – with 50%, Madagascar with 47% and Botswana with 37%. Lesotho, a small mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa, has the second-highest level of HIV infection of the world, with almost one in four adults HIV-positive.In south Asia, Sri Lanka is facing a 44% tariff. In Europe, Serbia faces a 37% rate.In addition to the reciprocal tariffs on a few dozen countries, Trump will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported goods. That tariff will go into effect on 5 April, while the reciprocal tariffs will begin on 9 April.The US president has justified the changes by saying they are retribution for countries that have long “cheated” America, and the levies will bring jobs back to the US.But economists have warned the sweeping changes will raise costs, threaten jobs, slow growth and isolate the US from a system of global trade it pioneered, and furthered over several decades.“This is how you sabotage the world’s economic engine while claiming to supercharge it,” said Nigel Green, the CEO of global financial advisory deVere Group.“The reality is stark: these tariffs will push prices higher on thousands of everyday goods – from phones to food – and that will fuel inflation at a time when it is already uncomfortably persistent.” More

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      in US Politics

      Trump goes full gameshow host to push his tariff plan – and nobody’s a winner

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      It was Jeopardy!, or The Price Is Right, come to Washington.On an unseasonably chilly day in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump stood with a giant chart listing which reciprocal tariffs he would impose on China, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other hapless contestants.The winner?Trump, of course, the maestro of fake populism, watched by a crowd that included men in hard hats and fluorescent construction worker vests.The losers?Everybody else.Sensing a bad headline, Trump hadn’t wanted his “liberation day” to coincide with April Fools’ Day, so he waited until 2 April to enter his fool’s paradise. It turned out to be liberation for his decades-old grievances about the US getting ripped off as Trump stuck two fingers up at the world.“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far – both friend and foe alike,” the president said against a backdrop of nine giant US flags on the White House colonnade. “Foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream.”He nodded to American steelworkers, car-workers, farmers and craftspeople in the audience. These blue-collar workers have been central to Trump’s political rise. Their industrial towns in the midwest and elsewhere were hollowed out by the trade policies of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, which sent thousands of jobs abroad where labour was cheaper.Trump couldn’t quite bring himself to say that “liberation day” represents a final repudiation of Reagan, still a god in Republican circles. But he did drive a stake through the heart of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta, describing it as “the worst trade deal ever made”.In 2016’s great revolt against globalization, the forgotten workers could have voted for the leftwing populism of Bernie Sanders, but he lost the Democratic party nomination to Hillary Clinton.Instead, enough went for Trump to make him president, believing his promises that he alone could fix it, end American carnage and get the factories throbbing again. As it turned out, he delivered a $1.5tn bill that slashed taxes for corporations and the wealthy.Many workers duly switched back to the Democrats, with Joe Biden in 2020. He did pour money into manufacturing – for example, with the Chips and Science Act, a bipartisan bill investing $52bn to revitalize the semiconductor industry.Yet in 2024 the pendulum swung again.Somehow a Manhattan billionaire with a criminal record again persuaded blue-collar workers that he was on their side. He claimed he could wave tariffs (taxes on foreign imports), which he has described as the most beautiful word in the English language, like a magic wand.In reality, experts say, it will result in higher prices and slower growth. The Ontario premier Doug Ford called this not liberation day but termination day because of all the jobs that will be lost. Trump playing with tariffs is like a child playing with matches.As he prepared to sign an executive order imposing reciprocal tariffs on about 60 countries, he mused that it was payback time: “Reciprocal: that means they do it to us and we do it to them. Very simple. Can’t get any simpler than that. This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It’s our declaration of economic independence.”It was a strange message to hear from the leader of the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world as he slapped tariffs on the likes of Ethiopia, Haiti and Lesotho.“For years, hardworking American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense. But now it’s our turn to prosper … Today we’re standing up for the American worker and we are finally putting America first,” he said.View image in fullscreenEven then, Trump claimed he was being kind by not going “full reciprocal”. He summoned his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, to bring the chart to the podium and, as if it were a gameshow, began running through the scores on the doors:“China, first row. China, 67%. That’s tariffs charged to the USA, including currency manipulation and trade barriers. So 67%, so we’re going to be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34%. I think in other words, they charge us, we charge them, we charge them less. So how can anybody be upset?“European Union, they’re very tough – very, very tough traders. You know, you think of the European Union, very friendly. They rip us off. It’s so sad to say, it’s so pathetic. Thirty-nine percent. We’re going to charge them 20%, so we’re charging them essentially half.“Vietnam: great negotiators, great people, they like me. I like them. The problem is they charge us 90%. We’re going to charge them 46% tariff.”And so on to Taiwan, Japan (“very, very tough, great people”), Switzerland, Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia: “United Kingdom, 10%, and we’ll go 10%, so we’ll do the same thing.”Once he’d gone through the figures, Trump rambled, as he tends to do, as if at a campaign rally: “The price of eggs dropped now 59%, and they’re going down more, and the availability is fantastic. They were saying that for Easter, please don’t use eggs. Could you use plastic eggs? I said, we don’t want to do that.”And: “It’s such an old-fashioned term but a beautiful term: groceries. It sort of says a bag with different things in it. Groceries went through the roof and I campaigned on that. I talked about the word ‘groceries’ for a lot, and energy costs now are down. Groceries are down.”In other words, everything is going great despite Signalgate, despite disappointing election results on Tuesday, despite a falling stock market and sapping consumer confidence. Now, a global trade war, too. The US is about to discover the one thing more dangerous than a politician who believes in nothing is a politician who believes in something stupid. More

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      in US Politics

      Donald Trump builds a wall made of tariffs, enclosing the whole US

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      Donald Trump is finally making good on his campaign promises to “build that wall” – but instead of steel fencing along the Mexican border, it will be constructed from tariffs, and will enclose the entire United States.In his pugnacious and typically rambling speech on the White House lawn on Wednesday, Trump set out plans for across-the-board import taxes, ranging from 10% to more than 40%.The president promised “liberation”, yet the immediate impact is more likely to be rising prices for US shoppers and corrosive uncertainty for firms, exacerbating an economic slowdown that may already be under way.Outside the wall, countries will be affected according to how dependent their economies are on exports to the US – and how exposed they are to the global trading system. For some, it is likely to be devastating.The UK will be relieved to be slapped with “only” the 10% minimum, after Keir Starmer’s charm offensive, and the EU may have feared worse than 20%. But for some countries Trump outlined much higher rates: 46% for Vietnam, 49% for Cambodia and 29% for Pakistan, for example.The precise effects of sweeping tariffs on this historic scale are very hard to predict. One factor is how rival economies will respond – with retaliatory tariffs tending to make a bad situation worse, though they may make short-term political sense (see Mark Carney’s poll ratings in Canada).Another question is whether the dollar may appreciate, somewhat softening the blow for US importers. That may limit the pass-through to prices, which would otherwise be expected to rise as the cost of importing products and materials increases.The main challenge in assessing the exact impact of the plans, though, is that Trump’s statement did not mark the end of the period of profound economic uncertainty that began when he arrived in the White House – quite the opposite.Instead, he has fired the starting gun on a new and inherently unpredictable scramble, in which governments will fire back with their own punitive tariffs – at the same time as negotiating hard to try to secure exemptions.As in the UK, where ministers hope to secure an “economic agreement”, which appears to involve sweeteners for US big tech and lower tariffs on food imports, these talks are likely to have economic consequences of their own.And it remains unclear, to say the least, how amenable Trump is likely to be to persuasion. On one hand, he appears to enjoy the theatre of using tariffs to exact policy concessions, which he can then portray as a winning deal.Trump-watchers have also sometimes argued that a dramatic slide in stock prices might lead the president to pull back from the harshest version of the policy.His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, insisted on Tuesday that “Wall Street will be just fine” as a result of the tariff package.But in other moments, Trump has appeared to suggest a bit of market turbulence might be part of the plan.“There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big,” he said in a recent Fox News interview – in which he also declined to rule out a recession.There is also the small matter of the revenues the administration hopes to raise from tariffs, which it wants to use to fund tax cuts.White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has suggested the levies could raise an extraordinary $600bn (£460bn) a year: hardly consistent with offering carve-outs to every major economy that comes knocking.Caving in would also undermine another of Trump’s sometimes-contradictory aims: persuading firms to create new manufacturing jobs, inside the shelter of the tariff wall.As bewildered trade experts repeatedly said in the run-up to what Trump has called “liberation day”, and are likely to continue to say after Trump’s outing in the Rose Garden, guessing what happens next is all but impossible.All this makes for an alarming level of uncertainty – and what economists are very clear about is that consumers and businesses hate that.Consumer confidence measures in the US have already been sliding sharply. Alongside weeks of headlines about the ambiguous tariff plans, the tens of thousands of abrupt government job losses made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) seem unlikely to have helped the mood.And in boardrooms, baffled executives may be extremely reluctant to press ahead with significant investments – bringing manufacturing back into the US as Trump hopes, for example – when it is unclear how long the tariffs will endure.Whatever the medium-term prospects of “jobs and factories” coming “roaring back” to the US, as Trump predicted, for now what some had already dubbed a “Trumpcession” appears significantly more likely to happen, than the “golden age” he has promised. More

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      Trump announces sweeping new tariffs, upending decades of US trade policy

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      Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of its largest trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed “liberation day”.Trump said he will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods in addition to “reciprocal tariffs” on a few dozen countries, charging additional duties onto countries that Trump claims have “cheated” America.The 10% universal tariff will go into effect on 5 April while the reciprocal tariffs will begin on 9 April.“This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history,” Trump said, in a long-winded speech on the White House lawn. For decades America had been “looted, pillaged and raped” by its trading partners, he said. “In many cases, the friend is worse than the foe.”Over the past few months, Trump has rattled global stock markets, alarmed corporate executives and economists, and triggered heated rows with the US’s largest trading partners by announcing and delaying plans to impose tariffs on foreign imports several times since taking office.But for the start of what appears to be a dramatic shift in American trade policy, one that could cause ricochets in the global economy, Trump tried to sell the tariffs with a celebratory tone.Nine giant US flags flanked Trump onstage in the Rose Garden, as the president spoke in front of his cabinet and a crowd of union workers wearing hard hats and fluorescent construction worker vests. Before Trump came onstage, a marine band played celebratory music to excite the crowd.At one point, Trump paused his speech to throw a Maga hat into the crowd. In the next breath, he announced the 10% universal baseline tariff.In the middle of his hour-long speech, the president displayed a chart that showed the “unfair” fees that countries placed on the US, alongside the new “USA Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs”. China charged the US 67% in “unfair” fees, and said the US would now levy a 34% fee. The EU charges 39% on imports, according to the White House, and will now be levied at 20%. Trump said the UK would be charged 10% – the baseline tariff – equal to the Trump administration’s calculations of the UK’s fees on US imports.Special exceptions were made for Canada and Mexico, though the countries were previously targets of proposed broad tariffs. The White House said that goods covered by an existing trade deal with Canada and Mexico will continue to see no tariffs.Trump said the tariff calculations also include “currency manipulation and trade barriers”, though the White House has not elaborated on how it calculated the new tariffs.It appears Trump has zeroed in on the industry-specific tariffs the countries have placed on American exports. In his speech, Trump criticized policies like the EU’s ban on imported chicken, Canadian tariffs on dairy and Japan’s levies on rice.Trump said the US would charge half of the fees he feels trading partners unfairly impose on the US because the US people are “very kind”. The countries have “placed massive tariffs on [US] products and created non-monetary tariffs to decimate our industries”, Trump said, calling them “common sense reciprocal tariffs”.“Reciprocal: that means they do it to us and we do it to them. Very simple, can’t get any more simple than that,” he said. “This indeed will be the golden age of America,” he said.Trump was ultimately following through with a promise he made during the election: on the campaign trail, Trump floated the idea of a 10% universal tariff on all imported goods.The new tariffs come on top of a lineup of levies that Trump has already implemented: an additional 20% tariff on all Chinese imports and a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports. There is also a 10% tariff on energy imports from Canada.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump also announced in March a 25% tariff on all imported vehicles and, eventually, imported auto parts, which will start going into effect on Thursday.“These tariffs are going to give us growth like you’ve never seen before, and it’ll be something very special to watch,” Trump said.Trump has made clear the goals he wants to accomplish through his tariffs: bring manufacturing back to the US; respond to unfair trade policies from other countries; increase tax revenue; and incentivize crackdowns on migration and drug trafficking. But the implementation of his tariffs has so far have been haphazard, with multiple rollbacks and delays, and vague promises that have yet to come to fruitionBut the threats have soured US relations with its largest trading partners. Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has called them “unjustified” and pledged to retaliate. The European Union has said it has a “strong plan” to retaliate. Other retaliatory tariffs could eventually lead to higher prices that would hurt American exporters.The US stock market closed slightly up on Wednesday, ahead of Trump’s announcement, with a slight boost from news that Elon Musk may step away from his role in the White House soon to focus on his businesses.Even with the slight upswing, two of the three major stock exchanges saw their worst quarter in over two years after Monday marked the end of the first quarter.In March, consumer confidence plunged to its lowest level in over four years. Polls have shown that tariffs are unpopular with Americans, including Republicans. Only 28% of people in a poll from Marquette Law School released Wednesday said that tariffs help the economy.The uncertainty around Trump’s tariff policies have increased the likelihood of a recession, according to recent forecasts from economists at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and other banks. More

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      Trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariffs: what’s at stake for UK and EU?

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      The EU and the UK are bracing for a damaging trade war with the US, as Donald Trump is expected to implement his threat to impose tariffs on imports from Europe.For weeks, he has named 2 April “liberation day”, with the unveiling of a tariff plan to reverse what he called “unfair practices that have been ripping off our country for decades”.What tariffs are expected?A 20% blanket tariff on nearly all imports to the US has been drafted by Trump’s aides.However, EU and UK leaders are concerned about the possibility of sectoral tariffs, as well as permanent levies he may impose to counter Europe’s VAT rates, which he considers a de facto tax.Trump, who once challenged the then German chancellor Angela Merkel for not ensuring there were more Chevrolets in Munich, has already announced tariffs on cars starting on 3 April.Will the UK be spared?The relative warmth Trump showed Keir Starmer in the Oval Office last month is unlikely to protect the UK, with tariffs expected on “all countries”. However, the UK has been racing to agree a deal, with the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, suggesting that if any country can secure a carve-out, Britain could.On Tuesday, Starmer said businesses did not want a tit-for-tat war. Instead of a “kneejerk” reaction, he would respond in a “calm and collected” manner.He hoped a trade deal, something that eluded a succession of UK governments over decades, would “mitigate” the impact of tariffs. The UK was this time seeking a much narrower “economic prosperity deal” rather than a more comprehensive “free trade agreement”.Although this would be far less expansive in scope, the hope is that it should be quicker to agree.Does Trump really hate Europe?European leaders were alarmed by the attacks on Europe by the vice-president, JD Vance, but Trump has been notably less visceral, confining his interests to defence and the trade imbalance.He has complained that the US was “ripped off by every country in the world” and that he was “not happy with the EU” as a place to do business. His exclusion of the EU in talks over Ukraine has ruptured the higher-level geopolitical transatlantic relationship.How will the EU react?Strongly. The EU has already announced a string of tariffs it plans to introduce on US imports targeting steel and aluminium in kind, as well as textiles, leather goods, home appliances, house tools, plastics and wood.Sources say it is also considering nuclear options, including tariffs on revenues generated in the EU by big tech firms and social media.This could be seen as highly provocative and would put Trump’s allies, such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, in the crosshairs. It would also test the unity of the EU, with Ireland expected to argue against more punitive measures because of the dominance of the US tech sector in Dublin.The EU’s preference is to negotiate so it has decided to delay countermeasures to open a space for talks. Maroš Šefčovič, the European commissioner for trade and economic security, has already met the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and, although Šefčovič reportedly came home last week “empty handed”, he is operating the Brexit playbook, hoping to build a personal relationship that will provide credit in the bank when they get down to talks.Why not enter immediate negotiations?One EU official said there was no point negotiating with the US at this stage, saying it would be like arguing over rotten fish.“It is not very productive to now start negotiating about removing the tariffs,” the official said. “You put a stinking fish on the table, and then you start negotiating to remove that stinking fish, and then you say: ‘Wow, we have a great result: there’s no stinking fish on the table.’ That is not a very productive conversation.”Trade experts also say negotiations with the US would involve agreeing a strategy between 27 different member states, which could be tricky given the potential for splits between countries, as EU states negotiate trade deals as a unified bloc.What is Trump’s game plan?Trump has been obsessed with tariffs since the 1980s, when he railed against the Japanese buying up real restate in the US, an open economy, but with US investors unable to reciprocate in Tokyo.His goal is to reindustrialise the US and to repatriate jobs and taxes he thinks US companies should be paying at home rather than abroad. While currently at a 21% corporate tax rate, the US for a long time operated at a 35% corporate tax rate, pushing some of its biggest companies to push for lower taxes.To revive local industry, Trump wants to shorten the supply chain and make sure more components are manufactured locally.What does the data on trade show?The US is the largest importer of goods in the world, buying $3tn-worth of products in 2023. Its largest trade deficit is with China, from where it imports $279bn more than it exports, followed by the EU at $208bn.EU-US trade is worth €1.6tn but only three countries – Ireland, Germany and Italy – enjoy a surplus in goods trade.Germany’s trade surplus in goods was €57bn in 2023, according to official US data. In 2023, Germany sold €144bn-worth of goods to the US, of which €22bn was on cars. By contrast, the US sold €87bn-worth of goods to Germany, including €8.25bn-worth of cars.Ireland has the second-largest trade imbalance, a surplus of €50bn largely caused by the export of pharmaceuticals to the US from large US multinationals. But it has been consistently singled out by Trump and is seen as highly exposed.Italyhas a trade surplus of €41bn, selling about €65bn-worth of goods to the US. Packaged medicines and cars account for about €5bn and €4.66bn of all exports respectively.The UK has a more balanced relationship with the US. The US is Britain’s largest single-export market, worth £60.4bn in goods in 2023, accounting for 15.3% of the global total. The UK imported £57.9bn in goods from the US.How is business reacting?The US markets are spooked, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing March trade with their worst quarter performance since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.The EU is presenting itself as a safe haven. “I do think investors at the moment are re-evaluating the EU and investing in the European Union. I think there’s a growing appreciation of the value of predictability and order on the global stage,” said Paschal Donohoe, Ireland’s finance minister.So far this year, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index has gained 6.4%, while the US S&P 500 index has lost 5% and had its worst quarter since 2022. More

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      in US Politics

      Wednesday briefing: What the latest wave of tariffs mean for the US, UK, Europe – and you

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      Good morning. According to Donald Trump, it’s “liberation day”: the advent of a new trade order in which Americans reap the benefit of massive tariffs on imports, and the rest of the world picks up the tab.Unsurprisingly, the United States’ trading partners tend to take a very different view. And they are doing everything they can to avoid being passive targets for the White House’s carnivorous vision of American exceptionalism.Trump will announce his plans at 4pm Eastern Time (9pm UK) in the White House’s Rose Garden – but it is still not clear whether a flat rate will be applied globally, or if the charge will vary by country instead. Even at the last minute, countries including the UK are hoping that they might win exceptions; political leaders, and financial markets, are on edge.For today’s newsletter, Guardian correspondents explain what the tariffs mean around the world – and when you can expect to feel the impact in your pocket. Here are the headlines.Five big stories

      Israel-Gaza war | Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced a major expansion of the military operation in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel. Follow the latest here.

      Israel-Gaza war | Some of the bodies of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, killed by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave in Gaza, were found with their hands or legs tied and had gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to two eyewitnesses. The accounts add to evidence pointing to a potentially serious war crime on 23 March.

      UK news | More than 20 women have contacted police to say they fear they may have been attacked by the serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, with detectives fearing there may be even more victims to come. Zou, 28, was convicted last month of raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2024.

      US politics | Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has broken the record for longest speech ever by a lone senator by spending 25 hours and five minutes inveighing against Donald Trump in the chamber. Booker’s speech was intended to highlight the “grave and urgent” danger that Trump poses to democracy.

      Cinema | Val Kilmer, the actor best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors, has died at the age of 65. His daughter Mercedes told the New York Times that the cause of death was pneumonia.
      In depth: Concessions, retaliation, ‘friendshoring’ – and a new mood of volatilityView image in fullscreenOn Monday, Donald Trump told reporters that he had “settled” on a tariff plan – but according to CNN, White House officials were still presenting him with options on Tuesday. And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that he was “always up” for a phone call or negotiation with foreign leaders hoping to plead their case.That suggests the satisfaction Trump takes in the power he is able to exert through the United States’ economic might. And whereas in his first term he appeared sensitive to the markets giving his economic policies the thumbs down, he seems genuinely more bullish this time around. Even on the question of whether consumers will pay more, he has so far stuck to the line that the cost will be worth it in the end.“I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars,” he said of tariffs on foreign cars on Sunday. And last month, of the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, he said: “We may have, short term, a little pain. People understand that.”Here’s what that stance means around the world.UK | What is Downing Street’s strategy?View image in fullscreenLast night, Pippa Crerar, Heather Stewart and Richard Partington reported that the UK is ready to offer a significant reduction in its digital services tax, a 2% levy on UK revenues that applies to big American tech firms including Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, eBay, and Apple.But while business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has insisted that the UK is in “the best possible position of any country to reach an agreement”, Downing Street acknowledges that it is unlikely to get a deal before tariffs come in on a global scale.“They’ve been aiming at an exemption ever since Trump was inaugurated,” Pippa, the Guardian’s political editor, said – one key reason that Peter Mandelson, a trade expert, was appointed as US ambassador. “Trump has talked about ‘being nice’ to countries that ‘haven’t made a fortune’ out of the US – they hope that’s aimed at us.”“They remain hopeful he’ll row back quickly because they say a trade deal is ready to go,” she added. “Despite what they say, the trade deal is as much or more about avoiding tariffs as having a brilliant economic relationship. So it’s a defensive move.”As well as the digital services tax, Trump appears to view VAT as unfair. “I just don’t see how they could change that,” Pippa said. “It’s paid by all companies, not just US ones. And there’s some anger within Labour that the US is trying to interfere with domestic taxation systems.”That speaks to some of the risks of caving to Trump’s demands. “They’re always thinking of the politics of it,” Pippa said. “But they believe that it’s worth a few bad headlines back home about sucking up to Trump to avoid the potential damage of a full blown trade war with the US which could cost our economy billions.”Markets | What kind of impact are we seeing?“We’ve had plenty of volatility already this year, partly because many analysts were complacent about how disruptive Trump would be,” said Graeme Wearden, who runs the Guardian’s daily business liveblog.“Several Wall Street firms have already cut their end-of-year forecasts for the US stock market in recent weeks, which shows that some of the recent drama is being priced in. But, having seen the US president announce tariffs against Mexico and Canada, and then delay them, investors probably won’t assume the Rose Garden announcement will be the end of the story.”MCSI’s index of global stocks showed a 4.5% fall in March, the biggest decline since September 2022. But that impact has not been evenly distributed. “There’s been a clear rotation out of US stocks this year, and into Europe,” Graeme said. “While the S&P 500 index of US shares is down 4.5% during 2025, the pan-European Stoxx 600 has jumped 6%.” The FTSE 100 has enjoyed its best quarter since 2022 as traders have looked for alternatives to US firms.If you’re looking for other signs that this is a nervous moment, the Cboe Volatility Index (Wall Street’s “fear gauge”), has climbed by a third in the last week – and is up 50% on a year ago. That is “a sign that investors expect volatile times”, Graeme said. But he added: “It was three times higher during the 2008 financial crisis, showing that a) investors aren’t in a full-blown panic, and b) there’s room for more volatility.”World | How are other countries responding?The UK is not the only country to seek carve-outs from Trump’s threatened universal tariffs: Japan, for example, has tried to persuade the US its manufacturers should be exempted from the 25% car tariff, and South Korea has sought an exemption from steel and aluminium exports.But the wider pattern is of major economic counterparts seeking to respond in kind. “Certainly the EU is expected to retaliate, and we’ve already seen Canada, for instance, hit back,” said economics editor Heather Stewart. “They’re most likely to try and pick up on specific products that hit the US without screwing up their own supply chains too much … Retaliation will tend to make the economic impact of tariffs worse; but politically, it’s understandable that countries want to look tough.”The other major plank of the global response has been an acceleration in moves towards “friendshoring” – the strategy of reorienting trade policies towards trusted allies with a more reliable approach. China, Japan and South Korea are holding talks over a new free trade deal, for example.“It was already happening to some extent,” Heather said, partly because of “renewed awareness of extended supply chains that came with Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But I would definitely expect more deals that exclude the US.”Cost of living | When am I going to start feeling the impact?It’s still too early for the specific costs attached to tariffs to be felt in a major way by consumers – but “the price impact could already be beginning”, economics correspondent Richard Partington said. “Some economists reckon firms will raise their prices under the cover of tariffs, with the assumption that consumers think prices will rise – even if tariffs on those goods are never actually introduced.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWhile that is hard to quantify, there is evidence from the US during Trump’s first term – when the cost of clothes dryers went up because of a tariff on imported washing machines – that it is a plausible path. Something similar might happen in the UK on goods sold from the US using components sourced from overseas, Richard said – but it’s also possible that “trade reallocation”, where countries send exports that might have gone to the US to other trading partners, could lead to price cuts.Consumers will be affected in other ways that are less direct – but no less real. There has been a marked impact on consumer confidence surveys, Richard said, and businesses are holding back on their spending plans. “The potential UK impact has been best spelled out so far by the OBR,” Richard said. “In the worst case scenario of global trade disputes escalating to include 20 percentage point rises in tariffs between the USA and the rest of the world, this could reduce UK GDP by a peak of 1%.”That would wipe out all of Rachel Reeves’ storied fiscal headroom by the fifth year of forecasts, making tax rises in the autumn inevitable. Uncertainty is another intangible but consequential factor, he added – “like a slow puncture on the global and UK economy”. You can keep juddering on – but it’s anybody’s guess when you’ll suddenly veer off the road.What else we’ve been readingView image in fullscreen

      The daily deluge of news has made many people turn off their televisions, unsubscribe from papers and avoid news websites. This phenomenon of news avoidance is growing across the board. Michael Savage takes a look at how newsrooms are responding. Nimo

      Oliver Wainwright’s writing on architecture is always compulsively enjoyable, and his review of a new student complex in Oxford meets those expectations. With “rhubarb and custard-coloured stonework” and a “bulbous roof of polygonal scales”, the overall effect is a “hallucinatory sense that you might have been swallowed into the belly of a cuddly toy”. Archie

      Reviewing culture has had an outsized influence on my decision-making: less than a 4.5 out of 5 rating and I likely won’t go to a restaurant or buy a product. But how helpful is it really? Chloë Hamilton asks what this level of “mutual surveillance” is doing to our lives. Nimo

      On the one hand, Daniel Lavelle has two degrees and two books to his name; on the other, he left education at 14 and started working life in a cotton mill. So where does he fit into Britain’s suffocating class system? His attempt to make sense of it all has the vital quality of thinking out loud, but no straightforward answers. Archie

      I recently started Benjamín Labatut’s novel The Maniac and I have never felt so engrossed in a book that focusses so closely on mathematics and physics. In this disquieting book that spans a century, Labatut examines the dark foundations of our modern world and the extraordinary and troubled minds behind it. Nimo
      SportView image in fullscreenFootball | Bukayo Saka scored the decisive goal in Arenal’s 2-1 win against Fulham seven minutes after coming off the bench on his return from injury. In the night’s other Premier League matches, Nottingham Forest beat Manchester United 1-0 and Wolves beat West Ham 1-0.Cricket | Charlotte Edwards has been named as the new England women’s head coach. The former England captain put her hat in the ring in February, when changes were expected after a disastrous tour of Australia last winter in which England lost the Ashes by 16 points to nil.Rugby | There remains a “high degree of uncertainty” over whether tens of millions of pounds paid to rugby union clubs and other sports teams during the Covid-19 pandemic will ever be repaid, a House of Commons committee has warned. The committee said that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been “overly optimistic” about loans worth £474m.The front pagesView image in fullscreen“PM offers US tech firms tax cut in return for lower Trump tariffs” says the Guardian’s splash headline, while the Telegraph’s version is “Starmer’s 11th-hour bid to halt trade war”. It’s “Trump trade madness” and “CARnage” on the front of the Mirror while the Times has “Firms told to brace for impact of Trump tariffs”. The Daily Mail finds reason to be cheerful: “Trump’s tariffs threaten crisis for Reeves” and the Express runs with “Don’t provoke new trade war that ‘makes UK poorer’,” saying Kemi Badenoch doesn’t want Starmer to retaliate. In the i they’ve gone with “UK told to ‘prepare for the worst’ as Trump begins his global trade war”. In times like these, trust the Financial Times with your money: “Investors flock to gold as fears mount on eve of Trump tariff announcement”. “Student rapist: 23 more victims” is the top story in the Metro.Today in FocusView image in fullscreenCould Marine Le Pen’s guilty verdict help fuel the far right?The parliamentary leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, has been banned from public office for five years for embezzlement, ruining her chance of a presidential run. Angelique Chrisafis reportsCartoon of the day | Pete SongiView image in fullscreenThe UpsideA bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all badView image in fullscreenJoy Ebaide, a Nigerian solo traveller, has embarked on many journeys across Africa, which all came with their own challenges. A heart-stopping encounter with a black mamba while riding her motorbike in Tanzania was terrifying, but it did not put her off travelling. Instead, it fuelled her desire to keep exploring. Ebaide embarked on a five-month solo journey from Mombasa to Lagos in 2024, riding a Tekken 250cc motorbike across Africa’s rugged terrains. Her travels, shared on social media, not only highlight the fun experiences but also shed light on the challenges faced by those with “weaker” passports.Ebaide is not alone in her pursuit of adventure despite these obstacles. Alma Asinobi, after facing visa refusals, set out to break a world record for visiting all seven continents. “The trip itself is a victory. Because historically, travelling as a black woman has an additional layer of complexity … I just want more women to know that you can do things, and it’s OK whether it works or not: just do things,” she says.Bored at work?And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.

      Quick crossword

      Cryptic crossword

      Wordiply More

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      Large majority of Europeans support retaliatory tariffs against US, poll finds

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      A large majority of western Europeans support retaliatory tariffs against the US, a survey has shown, if Donald Trump introduces sweeping import duties for major trading partners as expected this week.The US president appears likely to unleash a range of tariffs, varying from country to country, on Wednesday, which he has called Liberation Day. He also said last week that a 25% levy on cars shipped to the US would come into force the next day.Many European firms are likely to be hit hard. Some, including Germany’s car manufacturers and France’s luxury goods firms and wine, champagne and spirits makers, rely on exports to the US for up to 20% of their income.The EU has already pledged a “timely, robust and calibrated” response to Washington’s plans, which experts predict are likely to depress output, drive up prices and fuel a trade war. Global markets and the dollar fell on Monday after Trump crushed hopes that what he calls “reciprocal tariffs” – arguing that trading partners are cheating the US – would only target countries with the largest trade imbalances.A YouGov survey carried out in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK found that if the US tariffs went ahead, large majorities – ranging from 79% of respondents in Denmark to 56% in Italy – favoured retaliatory levies on US imports.In both Germany, where carmakers such as Porsche, BMW and Mercedes face a significant blow to their profits, and France, where US sales of wines and spirits are worth nearly €4bn (£3.4bn) a year, 68% of respondents backed retaliation.Respondents in all seven countries favoured a tit-for-tat response despite the damage they expected US tariffs to do to their national economies, with 75% of Germans saying they expected “a lot” or “a fair amount” of impact.That assessment was shared by 71% of respondents in Spain, 70% in France and Italy, 62% in Sweden, 60% in the UK and half of Danes questioned in the survey, which was carried out in the second and third weeks of March.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionOf the six EU countries polled, majorities of between 60% in Denmark and 76% in Spain thought US tariffs would have a significant impact on the bloc’s wider economy. That was the sentiment of 74% of German and 68% of French respondents.Trump, who was elected partly on a promise to restore US industry, has repeatedly complained that the EU has been “very unfair to us” when it comes to trade. He also said in February that the 27-nation bloc had been “formed to screw the United States”.Pluralities or majorities in all six EU countries surveyed, ranging from 67% in Denmark and 53% in Germany to 41% in France and 40% in Italy, said they did not agree with him, compared with only 7% to 18% who thought he was correct. More