Stockmarkets around the world plunged as concerns grew about Donald Trump’s economic agenda. In America the S&P 500 fell by 2.7% on Monday, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ dropped by 4%, as Tesla shares plunged. Cryptocurrencies collapsed as well. In Asia markets slumped during early trading on Tuesday, before moderating. Investors have been spooked by the possibility that Mr Trump’s trade wars might cause a recession.
Police in the Philippines arrested Rodrigo Duterte after he landed at Manila airport. The country’s former president is subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for potential crimes against humanity. The allegations stem from his “war on drugs” while in office in 2016-22, during which police and vigilantes acted with near impunity. The ICC estimates that 12,000-30,000 people were killed.
Marco Rubio, America’s secretary of state, said that Ukrainian territorial concessions were the “only way” to end the war with Russia. Mr Rubio’s comments came ahead of talks between American and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine has long insisted that any ceasefire agreement should not involve giving up land. Mr Rubio also suggested that America could lift the suspension of military aid to Ukraine.
CoreWeave, a cloud-computing firm, signed a deal worth nearly $12bn with OpenAI, an artificial-intelligence startup. As part of the five-year agreement, CoreWeave will provide computing power to OpenAI to run its large-language models. OpenAI is looking to diversify its infrastructure suppliers. The announcement is a boost to CoreWeave ahead of a much-anticipated IPO later this year.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s interim president, said that the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish militia that runs three provinces in the country’s north-east, had agreed to a ceasefire and to merge with state institutions. If implemented, the deal would bring border crossings, airports and oil fields in the region under the Syrian government’s control, while Syrian Kurds would be granted broader constitutional rights.
The Tesla sell-off was not Elon Musk’s only bad news for the day. His social-media site, X, was also hit by a cyber attack, which the billionaire claimed came from “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area”. Mr Musk, who purchased X in 2022, did not provide any evidence for his allegation. The attack led to several disruptions on the platform on Monday.
The Canadian province of Ontario imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to America. Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, said he was retaliating against Mr Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian imports, which the president partially paused until April. Mr Ford warned that he would “shut the electricity off completely” if America escalates. In addition to the tariffs, Mr Trump has threatened to annex Canada.
Figure of the day: 85%, the proportion of people who say they experienced an annoying co-worker last year. (The rest were presumably sole traders or liars.) Read the full story.
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