World News

Summary

Russia was excluded from Trump’s sweeping tariff list due to existing U.S. sanctions that limit trade, White House officials claimed.

Despite lower trade volumes, countries like Syria were still included, prompting skepticism.

Trump has prioritized ending the war in Ukraine and threatened 50% tariffs on nations buying Russian oil. Russian state media framed the omission as sanctions-based, not favoritism, with some mocking Trump’s harsher stance on allies.

Ukraine, meanwhile, faces a 10% tariff despite the country’s strategic partnership with the U.S.

This is some serious unprecedented bullshit. Especially when their charge was money laundering. Basically he is making money laundering legal. Go ahead and break the law. Trump will pardon you...

>Everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies fell. Even gold, which has hit records recently as investors sought something safer to own, pulled lower. Some of the worst hits walloped smaller U.S. companies, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks dropped 5.9% to pull it more than 20% below its record. > >Wall Street had long assumed Trump would use tariffs merely as a tool for negotiations with other countries, rather than as a long-term policy. But Wednesday’s announcement may suggest Trump sees tariffs more as helping to solve an ideological goal than just an opening bet in a poker game. Trump on Wednesday talked about wresting manufacturing jobs back to the United States, a process that could take years. > >If Trump follows through on his tariffs, stock prices may need to fall much more than 10% from their all-time high in order to reflect the recession that could follow, along with the hit to profits that U.S. companies could take. The S&P 500 is now down roughly 11% from its record set in February. > >“Markets may actually be underreacting, especially if these rates turn out to be final, given the potential knock-on effects to global consumption and trade,” said Sean Sun, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, though he sees Trump’s announcement on Wednesday as more of an opening move than an endpoint for policy.

As world leaders reacted to the US president’s “liberation day” tariff policies demolishing the international trading order, about $2.5tn (£1.9tn) was wiped off Wall Street and share prices in other financial centres across the globe.

World leaders from Brussels to Beijing rounded on Trump. China condemned “unilateral bullying” practices and the EU said it was drawing up countermeasures.

While Trump timed his Wednesday evening Rose Garden address to avoid live tickers of crashing stock markets, that fate arrived when Asian exchanges opened hours later.

Meta faces a $2.4bn (£1.8bn) lawsuit accusing the Facebook owner of inflaming violence in Ethiopia after the Kenyan high court said a legal case against the US tech group could go ahead.

The case brought by two Ethiopian nationals calls on Facebook to alter its algorithm to stop promoting hateful material and incitement to violence, as well as hiring more content moderators in Africa. It is also seeking a $2.4bn “restitution fund” for victims of hate and violence incited on Facebook.

Summary

European leaders condemned Trump’s new tariffs as “brutal” and “fundamentally wrong,” urging negotiations to avoid a trade war.

French President Emmanuel Macron suggested suspending new investments in the U.S. and hinted at targeting U.S. tech firms.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the tariffs “a major blow” and pledged countermeasures. The 20% U.S. tariff affects 70% of EU exports, potentially costing €80bn.

Leaders across the EU warned of economic damage and signaled readiness to retaliate.

Germany has recently taken a chilling new step, signalling its willingness to use political views as grounds to curb migration. Authorities are now moving to deport foreign nationals for participating in pro-Palestine actions. As I reported this week in the Intercept, four people in Berlin – three EU citizens and one US citizen – are set to be deported over their involvement in demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza. None of the four have been convicted of a crime, and yet the authorities are seeking to simply throw them out of the country.

The accusations against them include aggravated breach of the peace and obstruction of a police arrest. Reports from last year suggest that one of the actions they were alleged to have been involved in included breaking into a university building and threatening people with objects that could have been used as potential weapons.

But the deportation orders go further. They cite a broader list of alleged behaviours: chanting slogans such as “Free Gaza” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, joining road blockades (a tactic frequently used by climate activists), and calling a police officer a “fascist”. Read closely, the real charge appears to be something more basic: protest itself.

> French President Emmanuel Macron called on Thursday for European companies to suspend planned investment in the United States

It was the middle of the night when Zarin Gul realised that her daughter Nasrin had to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Her daughter’s husband was away working in Iran and the two women were alone with Nasrin’s seven children when Nasrin, heavily pregnant with her eighth child, began experiencing severe pains.

“I begged them, telling them my daughter was dying. I pleaded for their permission,” says Gul. “But they still refused. In desperation, I lied and said the rickshaw driver was my nephew and our guardian. Only then did they let us pass.”

By the time they reached the hospital it was too late. Nasrin’s baby had already died in her womb, and her uterus had ruptured. The doctors said Nasrin needed to be transferred to another hospital and so Gul helped her daughter into another rickshaw and they set off again, towards a government hospital an hour away. On their way they were stopped at two more Taliban checkpoints, each time detained for long periods because they were travelling alone.

They did finally reach the hospital, but Nasrin had not survived the journey. “The doctors told us that due to excessive bleeding and the ruptured uterus, both the baby and the mother had died,” says Gul. “We buried them side by side.”

The murders sparked protests in Messina, Rome and other Italian cities, including Bologna, on Wednesday night. Further events are planned on Thursday.

In March, Giorgia Meloni’s government approved a draft law which for the first time introduced a legal definition of femicide in criminal law, punishing it with life in prison while increasing sentences for crimes including stalking, sexual violence and “revenge porn”.

The law followed the strong public reaction to the killing of Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old student who was murdered by her former boyfriend, Filippo Turetta, in November 2023. Turetta was sentenced to life in prison in December.

• Yoon ousted for violating constitutional powers, sparking political crisis
  • Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to serve as acting president until election
  • Yoon also faces criminal trial for insurrection charges

SEOUL, April 4 (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was ousted by the Constitutional Court on Friday, which upheld parliament's impeachment motion over his short-lived imposition of martial law last year that sparked the country's worst political crisis in decades.With Yoon's ouster, a presidential election is required to take place within 60 days, according to the country's constitution.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will continue to serve as acting president until the new president is inaugurated.

Summary

Trump’s tariff formula, based on trade deficits divided by export values, has imposed disproportionately high tariffs on poor nations, with Madagascar facing 47%, Lesotho 50%, and Cambodia 49%.

Critics say the method unfairly punishes countries that import little from the U.S. and lacks credible economic basis.

Rich countries like EU members are also affected, with a 20% tariff branded a "colossal inaccuracy."

Economists and trade experts question whether this mechanical approach leaves room for negotiation, warning it strains alliances and undermines global trade norms.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s senate on Thursday rejected the two Supreme Court candidates that President Javier Milei nominated by decree earlier this year, dealing a major blow to the libertarian leader.

The congressional defeat could complicate the implementation of Milei’s radical state overhaul of Argentina, as analysts say the president had hoped to fill the Supreme Court vacancies with appointees who would rule favorably on challenges to his economic reforms.

Milei in February bypassed Congress to appoint two controversial Supreme Court candidates, invoking a clause in Argentina’s constitution that he said empowered him to fill the vacant seats during the legislature’s summer recess.

Politicians sharply criticized the move as an overreach of executive power, saying that a president has extremely limited authority to make judicial appointments during a congressional break.

“It’s a serious institutional conflict that the executive branch has initiated against the legislative and judicial branches,” said Sen. Anabel Fernández Sagasti from Unión por la Patria party, the hardline opposition bloc. “What we are discussing is an institutional assault.”

Both of Milei’s candidates — federal judge Ariel Lijo and conservative law professor Manuel García-Mansilla — had failed last year to secure the two-thirds majority required to confirm the candidates in the senate, where the president’s libertarian coalition holds just seven of the 72 seats.

Milei resorted to presidential decree to fill the two vacant seats on the five-judge court, testing the boundaries of his executive power as he has repeatedly done over the past year to overcome his minority in Congress.

Summary

The EU plans to fine Elon Musk’s X over $1 billion for violating the Digital Services Act by failing to control disinformation and illicit content.

This would mark the first major penalty under the new law and could trigger a legal clash with Musk, who vowed to fight in court.

Regulators say the fine aims to deter other platforms. Tensions with the U.S. are rising, as X also faces a broader investigation.

>An Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in Gaza City has killed at least 27 people, rescuers said, and hundreds of thousands in the Rafah area are fleeing in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war amid Israel’s newly announced campaign to “divide up” the Gaza Strip.

>Three missiles hit Dar al-Arqam school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon, the civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said, killing several children and wounding 100 people.

>Another 20 people were killed in a dawn airstrike on the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, bringing the total number of casualties reported by the local health ministry to 97 in the past 24 hours.

On 23 March contact was lost with a team of Palestinian rescue workers and medics in southern Gaza. A week later their bodies were recovered from a mass grave

> The Constitutional Court of Korea ruled on April 4, 2025, to uphold the impeachment of South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, and remove him from office for imposing martial law on December 3, 2024.

> A new corruption allegation is rocking Israeli politics intertwining allegations of bribery, media manipulation, and high-level government interference. > > Qatargate, as it has been dubbed, centres on a claim that senior advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received illicit funds from Qatar through intermediaries, allegedly in exchange for promoting pro-Qatar messaging. > > The investigation has already led to the arrest of two of Netanyahu’and the prime minister himself has been questioned. > > At the same time, Netanyahu’s controversial attempt to replace Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar—who is overseeing the investigation—has raised suspicions that the Prime Minister is trying to obstruct justice.

Forward: ‘Qatargate’ and the web of huge scandals rocking Israel, explained.

https://archive.ph/xt6hq

• China’s finance ministry on Friday said it will impose a 34% tariff on all goods imported from the U.S. starting on April 10.
• The ministry criticized Washington’s decision to impose 34% of additional reciprocal levies on China — bringing total U.S. tariffs against the country to 54% — as “inconsistent with international trade rules.”
• U.S. stock futures and European markets fell sharply on news of the reciprocal tariffs.

https://archive.ph/ZmcZJ

In the upheaval of President Donald Trump’s blanket tariffs, China is seeking common cause with jilted partners of the United States as it tries to extend its influence and take center stage in a new trade order — rebuilt without Washington.

https://archive.ph/vWW6X

Summary

Donald Trump warned the UK must accept chlorinated US chicken imports if it wants relief from new 10% tariffs on British exports.

The U.K. has long reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining high food standards, with polling showing 80% of Britons oppose a ch imports.

Critics argue chlorinated chicken stems from poorer production hygiene, with studies showing high bacteria rates in US chicken.

Farming advocates warn a US trade deal with lower standards would be "devastating for British farming."

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/60263799

> Europe's most famous technology law, the GDPR, is next on the hit list as the European Union pushes ahead with its regulatory killing spree to slash laws it reckons are weighing down its businesses. > > The European Commission plans to present a proposal to cut back the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short, in the next couple of weeks. Slashing regulation is a key focus for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as part of an attempt to make businesses in Europe more competitive with rivals in the United States, China and elsewhere.

Summary

South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol for his unconstitutional martial law declaration in December, formally removing him from office.

Acting President Han Duck-soo will serve until new elections within 60 days.

The court ruled Yoon gravely violated democratic principles by using military force to obstruct parliament.

Yoon now faces criminal trial for insurrection. His removal sparked both celebrations and unrest, with 14,000 police deployed in Seoul. A Gallup Korea poll showed 60% supported his permanent removal.

Off the coast of Nigeria, one of the world’s largest oil production ships, called the Bonga, was taking oil from a field on the ocean floor and transferring it to a tanker ship. Such transfers are routine in the offshore oil industry, but something went wrong on the Bonga, owned by energy giant Shell.

A major leak began in one of the lines that connected the two vessels. Over the next three hours, the crew detected that more oil was being pumped from the ship than the tanker was receiving. Another hour passed before an oily sheen was spotted on the water. An hour after that, the crew member in charge of the fueling shut off the flow.

By then, about 40,000 barrels of oil had escaped into the Atlantic Ocean, according to an English High Court evaluation, making the December 2011 incident one of Nigeria’s worst spills in a decade. At the height of the spill, an oil slick spread over 685 square miles (1,776 square kilometers), twice the size of New York City. Nigerian regulators later fined the subsidiary Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) $3.6 billion, an amount being appealed today.

> France this week warned that failure to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran could lead to war, further raising tensions in an already volatile region.

Summary

Donald Trump condemned France’s conviction of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, calling her four-year sentence and five-year political ban a “witch hunt” and likening it to his own legal battles.

Le Pen was found guilty of embezzling EU funds and plans to appeal.

Trump claimed the charges were politically motivated, calling them a “bookkeeping error” and urging France to “FREE MARINE LE PEN!”

He and allies like Elon Musk argue left-wing governments use the legal system to silence opponents. Le Pen’s National Rally party was fined $2 million.

• Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco)