Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbles nearly 9% on Monday as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 8% and South Korea trading temporarily halted amid Trump tariff concerns
Hong Kong stocks have plummeted more than 9% at open, while Singapore stocks dropped over 7%, according to reports.
Hong Kong and Chinese stocks dived on Monday as markets around the world crumbled in the face of the widening global trade war and fears it will unleash a deep recession, Reuters says.
Continue reading...US president tells reporters the levies are ‘medicine to fix something’ as Nikkei tumbles nearly 9% in early trading, worsening huge losses from last week’s announcement
Donald Trump said foreign governments would have to pay “a lot of money” to lift sweeping tariffs that he characterised as “medicine,” as markets in Asia plunged in early trading on Monday.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late on Sunday, the US president indicated he was not concerned about market losses that have already wiped out nearly $6tn in value from US stocks. “I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said.
Continue reading...US president tells reporters the levies are ‘medicine to fix something’ as Nikkei tumbles nearly 9% in early trading, worsening huge losses from last week’s announcement
Donald Trump said foreign governments would have to pay “a lot of money” to lift sweeping tariffs that he characterised as “medicine,” as markets in Asia plunged in early trading on Monday.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late on Sunday, the US president indicated he was not concerned about market losses that have already wiped out nearly $6tn in value from US stocks. “I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said.
Continue reading...Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, killed alongside two other teenagers in West Bank town as settler violence escalates
A Palestinian teenager with US citizenship was killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, with the Israeli military saying it shot a “terrorist” who was allegedly endangering civilians by hurling rocks.
The incident is the latest in a surge of violence and near-daily confrontations in the volatile West Bank, where settler violence and clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians have kept it on edge.
Continue reading...Pam Bondi, Trump loyalist and top law enforcement official, expresses skepticism about recent third-term talk
Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, has expressed skepticism about the idea of Donald Trump serving a third term in the White House, saying that when her boss’s current presidency ends on 20 January 2029, he is probably “going to be finished”.
Bondi’s comments come just a week after Trump gave his most blunt indication yet that he was seriously considering trying for a third term to follow up ones that began in 2017 and this past January – despite the clear prohibition against doing so enshrined in the US constitution.
Continue reading...Officials reportedly didn’t publicly acknowledge death until inquiries were made about woman, 52, who overstayed visa
A woman being detained in Arizona by US border patrol for overstaying her visa has died by suicide, according to Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.
The woman, a 52-year-old Chinese national, had first been picked up in California after it had been determined that she had overstayed her B1/B2 visitor visa, Jayapal said in a statement. She was later sent to the Yuma station in Arizona where she stayed until her death on 29 March.
Continue reading...Erez Reuveni no longer on Kilmar Abrego Garcia case after not ‘vigorously’ defending Trump administration
A federal justice department attorney has been placed on leave by the Trump administration for purportedly failing to defend the administration vigorously enough after it says it erroneously deported a Maryland man to El Salvador, which a US judge called a “wholly lawless” detention.
The action against justice department lawyer Erez Reuveni came after US district judge Paula Xinis had ordered that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who lived in the US legally with a work permit, be returned to Maryland despite the Trump administration’s position that it cannot return him from a sovereign nation.
Continue reading...Power and gas shut off in regions as flooding worsens, threatening waterlogged and badly damaged communities
After days of intense rain and wind killed at least 18 people in the US south and midwest, rivers rose and flooding worsened on Sunday in those regions, threatening waterlogged and badly damaged communities.
Utility companies scrambled to shut off power and gas from Texas to Ohio while cities closed roads and deployed sandbags to protect homes and businesses.
Continue reading...Commerce secretary insists on CBS that tariffs will ‘stay in place’ as treasury secretary tells NBC negotiation is possible
Senior officials within Donald Trump’s administration gave conflicting messages on Sunday about the US president’s global tariffs that have caused a meltdown in stock markets, prompted warnings of a world recession and provoked rare expressions of dissent from within his Republican party.
Cabinet members fanned out across Sunday’s political talk shows armed with talking points on Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariff on almost all US imports, with higher rates targeted at about 60 countries. If the intention was to calm nerves with a clear statement of intent, then it backfired as top officials gave starkly contrasting signals.
Continue reading...Commerce secretary insists on CBS that tariffs will ‘stay in place’ as treasury secretary tells NBC negotiation is possible
Senior officials within Donald Trump’s administration gave conflicting messages on Sunday about the US president’s global tariffs that have caused a meltdown in stock markets, prompted warnings of a world recession and provoked rare expressions of dissent from within his Republican party.
Cabinet members fanned out across Sunday’s political talk shows armed with talking points on Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariff on almost all US imports, with higher rates targeted at about 60 countries. If the intention was to calm nerves with a clear statement of intent, then it backfired as top officials gave starkly contrasting signals.
Continue reading...PM says he will use policy to shelter British businesses following the stock market turmoil prompted by Trump’s announcement
Starmer orders economic reset amid Trump’s tariff mayhem
Welcome back to our live coverage of the economic fallout from Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs last week.
Almost $5tn (£4tn) was wiped off the value of global stock markets after the US president made his shock announcement last Wednesday, which included a 10% base tariff on imports into the US from the UK.
Continue reading...Tariff discussions would make Netanyahu the first foreign leader to travel to Washington in an attempt to negotiate a better deal
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is set to travel to Washington to meet with US president Donald Trump to discuss issues including tariffs, Gaza and the “Iranian threat”, his office has confirmed.
The meeting will take place on Monday, a White House official said on the condition of anonymity.
Continue reading...Days of heavy rains have led to rapidly swelling waterways and prompted a series of flood emergencies from Texas to Ohio
Another round of torrential rain and flash flooding on Saturday hit parts of the US south and midwest already heavily waterlogged by days of severe storms that also spawned deadly tornadoes. Forecasters warned that rivers in some places would continue to rise for days.
Day after day of heavy rains have pounded the central US, rapidly swelling waterways and prompting a series of flash flood emergencies from Texas to Ohio. The National Weather Service (NWS) said dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach major flood stage, with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.
Continue reading...State department accuses east African country of ‘taking advantage of the United States’
The US is revoking the visas of all South Sudanese passport-holders and will stop any more of its citizens entering the country.
The Department of State said South Sudan was “taking advantage of the United States” by failing to comply with US efforts to return people to the east African country, adding that the measures would come into effect immediately.
Continue reading...Democratic senator calls on voters to get creative in pushing back against Trump at town hall in New Jersey
The Democratic senator Cory Booker took a version of his record-breaking Senate floor speech on the road Saturday to a town hall meeting in a New Jersey gymnasium, calling on people to find out what they can do to push back against Donald Trump’s agenda.
Booker took questions at suburban New Jersey’s Bergen Community College the same day that more than 1,200 “Hands Off” demonstrations took place around the country. The town hall event was punctuated both by celebratory shouts of “Cory, Cory” as well as at least a half-dozen interruptions by protesters.
Continue reading...Protesters gather at more than a thousand events across the US and in cities abroad, such as London, Berlin and Paris. This blog is now closed.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in central London on Saturday as part of global demonstrations against Donald Trump’s administration.
Crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square with banners that read “No to Maga hate” and “Dump Trump”. The rally is one of hundreds of so-called “Hands Off” demonstrations around the world – including in cities across the US, Paris and Berlin.
We see the foundations of our society, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, the very safety nets that people have fought for, for generations, to ensure that our country lives up to its promise, are being targeted by the billionaires and the oligarchs and the corporations.
This insidious rise of authoritarianism is fueled by corrupt billionaires and mega corporations who believe that they have the right to control every aspect of our lives, our healthcare, to our schools, to our thoughts, to our very free speech under the false banner of patriotism and freedom …
Continue reading...Texas senator’s comments another sign of Republican unease over ‘reciprocal tariffs’ and stock market plunge
Ted Cruz, the US senator from Texas, has warned that his fellow Republicans risk a “bloodbath” in the 2026 midterm elections if Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs cause a recession.
Cruz also warned that the president’s tariffs, if they stay in place for long and are met by global retaliation on American goods, could trigger a full-blown trade war that “would destroy jobs here at home, and do real damage to the US economy”.
Continue reading...Carmaker says action will allow it to consider how to mitigate cost of 25% tariff on imports
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will pause shipments of its UK-made cars to the US for a month as it considers how to mitigate the cost of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The 25% tariff imposed by the US on imported cars and light trucks took effect on 3 April.
Continue reading...‘It is up to all of us to fix this,’ former president said in speech at Hamilton College in New York
Barack Obama has called on US citizens, colleges and law firms to resist Donald Trump’s political agenda – and warned Americans to prepare to “possibly sacrifice” in support of democratic values.
“It has been easy during most of our lifetimes to say you are a progressive or say you are for social justice or say you’re for free speech and not have to pay a price for it,” Obama said during a speech at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, on Thursday.
Continue reading...Livia Tossici-Bolt says she was ‘disappointed’ to be convicted of breaching Bournemouth clinic buffer zone
A woman who was given a conditional discharge after being convicted of breaching a buffer zone outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth has claimed she was “not there to express my views”.
Livia Tossici-Bolt, an anti-abortion campaigner whose case has been cited by the US state department over “freedom of expression” concerns in the UK, told the BBC’s Today programme she was “really disappointed” with the conviction “because it’s nothing to do with protesting” and said she would “continue my fight for freedom of speech”.
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