34 h. ago Trump news at a glance: Trump pulls back on global tariffs but slaps China with 125%

Move comes after stock market turmoil; Ice chief says deportations should run ‘like Amazon Prime’ – key US politics stories from 10 April at a glanceDonald Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries except China, whose tariffs he raised to 125% on Wednesday.After insisting for days that he would hold firm on his aggressive trade strategy, Trump announced that all countries that had not retaliated against US tariffs would receive a reprieve – and only face a blanket US tariff of 10% – until July. Continue reading...

Politics

58 h. ago As Trump ignites tariff war, a US city is embracing Canadians with all its heart

An estimated 300,000 Canadians visit Palm Springs each year and Trump’s levies threaten tourism in the regionWorried that Donald Trump’s policies are scaring away Canadians, a key segment of their tourist industry, a California resort city has put up “Palm Springs Loves Canada” signs across its downtown.“It was a gesture to let our Canadian visitors know that what happens in Washington DC, is not the way that Palm Springs is looking at Canada,” Ron deHarte, the city’s mayor, said of the signs, which were installed on Friday. Continue reading...

Politics

62 h. ago Trump reportedly to cut grant for key US steel project in Vance’s home town

Outcry as CNN reports president to stop funds for program that would have created jobs in Middletown, OhioDespite promises to bolster the US manufacturing industry, the Trump administration is reportedly planning to cut a key program that invests in some of the biggest manufacturing industries in the US, including in JD Vance’s home town of Middletown, Ohio.Donald Trump is looking to slash a $500m grant from the Biden administration that was slated for Cleveland-Cliffs, a steel manufacturing giant in America’s rust belt, according to reporting from CNN. The grant was intended to help the company upgrade its ageing blast furnaces, so they would be powered by hydrogen, natural gas and electricity instead of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Continue reading...

Politics

68 h. ago 10 key points as Keir Starmer faces tense grilling over Trump, welfare and Gaza

Keir Starmer faced awkward moments as he was pressed by senior MPs at a wide-ranging Liaison Committee session on subjects including tariffs, benefits and votes for 16 year olds

Politics

3 d. ago Trump news at a glance: Wild swings on global markets as Trump threatens further China tariffs

Extreme volatility has plagued global stock markets, with Donald Trump defying stark warnings about economic damage – key US politics stories from 7 April Global stock markets fell catastrophically on Monday following President Trump’s tariff rollout.Despite the economic turmoil, the US president doubled down on his plan, threatening to impose an additional 50% tariff on imports from China on Wednesday, unless the country rescinds its retaliatory tariffs on the United States by Tuesday. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Starmer vows not to raise key taxes despite hit from Trump’s tariffs

Prime minister says he will ‘seize the opportunity’ to make the economy more secure

Politics

3 d. ago Here’s one key thing you should know about Trump’s shock to the world economy: it could work | James Meadway

It’s hard to say if the president truly knows what he’s doing. But there is a precedent for the US causing short-term chaos and reaping long-term gainIt’s less than a week since Donald Trump’s sensational announcement that he was unilaterally ending the world’s trading system with the imposition of a 10% minimum tariff for trading with the US – and a very much higher rate for those countries unfortunate enough to have the US as a major export partner. Long-term allies such as Japan and South Korea have been hammered with tariffs of around 25%, while export-dependent poorer countries such as Vietnam, which sells about a third of its exports to the US, have been hit with tariffs in excess of 45%. A further round of global debt crises is possible as heavily indebted countries face the sudden loss of export earnings.Global stock markets have tumbled as panicked investors dump shares, and political condemnation has been near-universal. China has already retaliated with 34% tariffs, threa...

Politics

6 d. ago Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ could mean recession in the US and pain worldwide | Steven Greenhouse

The US president’s tariffs are vengeful and impetuous – and will have immense costs with no clear goalWith the huge and painful tariffs that Donald Trump announced on Thursday, “Tariff Man” is acting like a paranoid 12-year-old bully who is convinced that everyone has wronged him, and he wants revenge. But the president’s instrument of revenge – massive tariffs – is going to do serious damage to the US and global economies. Stock market investors are convinced that’s the case, with Wall Street and world stock markets losing trillions of dollars in value in recent days as a result of Trump’s obsession.The president has escalated his risky, vengeful trade war even though the US economy was in strong shape when he took office – the jobless rate was just 4.1%, inflation was below 3% and US economic growth was the strongest in the industrial world, with its stock market at record levels. So it’s unclear whether the US economy needed the shock treatment that Trump is inflicting. The price...

Politics

6 d. ago Trump administration ends key grant program that helps communities prepare for disasters

The Trump administration is ending a key program used by communities to pay for projects designed to help them prepare for natural disasters like flooding and fires

Politics

7 d. ago Are Trump’s tariffs for real or an AI hallucination? I’m afraid the answer is both | Marina Hyde

Amid claims that a chatbot helped shape the key calculations, the president is now off playing golf. He’ll find the world economy in a bunkerThere’s a scene in the very first episode of Yellowstone where the casino-owning Native American chief explains the basic financial logic of all casinos to an uncomfortable politician: “The gamblers’ money is like a river – flowing one way. Our way.” Oh no, hang on, wait Not all casinos. In fact, it could be that when all is said and done, the historians looking for that one key fact to illustrate the eventual legacy of Donald Trump will not go with his two stunning presidential election wins. Instead, they’ll point out that in the 90s, he literally managed to bankrupt casinos. To repeat: this is a man who somehow contrived to bankrupt multiple casinos. Is he the guy to reshape the entire global economic order of the past century? Let’s find out! Either way, only 45 months of his presidency left to go.Anyway: tariffs. Rather than using actual t...

Politics

7 d. ago Sweeping Trump tariffs shock global economy, drawing threats and calls for talks

Tariff hikes announced by U.S. President Donald Trump have provoked dismay, threats of countermeasures and calls for further negotiations to make trade rules fairer

Events

8 d. ago Trump tariffs 'will impact key Scottish industries', says Kate Forbes

The Deputy First Minister said there was “no doubt this will have an impact on some of our key industries”.

Politics

8 d. ago Trump news at a glance: sweeping tariffs announced; Musk could be nearing end of role

Trump announces ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on largest US trading partners; Elon Musk may leave government role at end of 130-day cap. Here’s your roundup of key US politics stories from 2 April 2025Donald 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. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago ‘Loser’: Musk endures wave of gloating on X after liberal judge wins Wisconsin race

Democrats seize on result as a referendum on Musk and an emphatic repudiation of Trump’s richest supporter and allyDemocrats were tasting unfamiliar triumphalism on Wednesday after the election for a vacant Wisconsin supreme court seat turned into an emphatic repudiation of Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s richest supporter and key ally.Musk endured a wave of gloating on X, his own the social media platform, after Brad Schimel, a Trump-endorsed judge that he spent $25m supporting lost by 10 percentage points to Susan Crawford, whose victory sustained a four-three liberal majority on the court. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Clean energy spending boosts GOP districts. But lawmakers are keeping quiet as Trump targets incentives

We asked 18 Republicans whose districts benefit most from Biden’s IRA climate law if they back Trump’s demandsBillions of dollars in clean energy spending and jobs have overwhelmingly flowed to parts of the US represented by Republican lawmakers. But these members of Congress are still largely reticent to break with Donald Trump’s demands to kill off key incentives for renewables, even as their districts bask in the rewards.The president has called for the dismantling of the Inflation Reduction Act – a sweeping bill passed by Democrats that has helped turbocharge investments in wind, solar, nuclear, batteries and electric vehicle manufacturing in the US – calling it a “giant scam”. Trump froze funding allocated under the act and has vowed to claw back grants aimed at reducing planet-heating pollution. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Revenge review: a luridly fascinating smorgasbord of Trump’s score settling

Pursuit of enemies has quickly emerged as a key theme of Trump 2.0 and Alex Isenstadt is happy to dish the dirtAlex Isenstadt is a senior political reporter at Axios and an alumnus of Politico. For a decade, he has covered Donald Trump and the Republicans. In March 2015, an Isenstadt dispatch blared: “GOP hopefuls rush toward starting gates.” The story made no mention of the man who would win the 2016 election, lose in 2020, then win again in ’24.But like all political reporters, Isenstadt has now mentioned Donald Trump plenty.Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power is published in the US by Hachette Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Keir Starmer urged to get tough with Trump as US tariff threat looms

PM told to be as robust as Canada with the US president as the UK stages last-ditch talks to strike trade dealKeir Starmer should fight back strongly against Donald Trump if he imposes punitive tariffs on British exports, senior UK and EU diplomats said on Saturday night, amid heightened fears that the US president could trigger a global trade war with devastating effects on the UK economy.British government officials in London and Washington are working frantically this weekend to try to persuade Trump not to slap duties on more key UK industries on what he is calling “liberation day” on Wednesday. The US president has already announced plans for 25% levies on imports of cars, steel and aluminium to the US. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Trump news at a glance: Vance stakes US claim for Greenland as new coalition insists it ‘belongs to us’

Vice-president and US delegation visit amid growing tension and Trump targets Smithsonian Institution – key US politics stories from 28 March 2025 JD Vance told troops in Greenland that the US has to gain control of the Arctic island to stop the threat of China and Russia as he doubled down on his criticism of Denmark, which he said has “not done a good job”.As the US vice-president toured Pituffik space base, Donald Trump reiterated his previous claims that the US needs Greenland for “world peace”. “I think Greenland understands that the United States should own it,” the US president said at a press conference at the White House on Friday. “And if Denmark and the EU don’t understand it, we have to explain it to them.” Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Trump news at a glance: Vance stakes US claim for Greenland as island’s new coalition insists it ‘belongs to us’

Vice-president and US delegation visit amid growing tension and Trump targets Smithsonian Institution – key US politics stories from 28 March 2025 JD Vance told troops in Greenland that the US has to gain control of the Arctic island to stop the threat of China and Russia as he doubled down on his criticism of Denmark, which he said has “not done a good job”.As the US vice-president toured Pituffik space base, Donald Trump reiterated his previous claims that the US needs Greenland for “world peace”. “I think Greenland understands that the United States should own it,” the US president said at a press conference at the White House on Friday. “And if Denmark and the EU don’t understand it, we have to explain it to them.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Elon Musk reveals plans to 'ditch Trump' and quit Washington D.C. after DOGE purge

Elon Musk has been a key figure of Donald Trump's second presidency and has been leading the Department of Government Efficiency in purging federal departments of so-called 'waste'

Politics