China said it would introduce further tariffs of 34% on American imports as the global trade war caused by Donald Trump’s tariff announcement intensified. The Chinese measures, which come into effect on April 10th, match the additional tariffs that Mr Trump applied to Chinese imports on Wednesday. That made the total levy on China 65%. China called America’s decision “unilateral bullying”.
American markets suffered their steepest declines since March 2020 on Thursday, the first full day of trading since Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs announcement. The S&P 500 lost around $2.5trn in value. Tech companies saw significant sell-offs: Apple’s and Meta’s share prices were both down 9%. On Friday Asian markets plunged further. Japan’s Topix index fell by 3.4%, closing at its lowest level since August.
South Korea’s constitutional court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, removing him from office. The ousting means that a presidential election must be held within 60 days. Mr Yoon was impeached last year after briefly declaring martial law, which he hoped would “alert the public” to the “wickedness” of the opposition. The court said he had “violated the basic principles of a democratic state”.
The UN accused Myanmar’s junta of blocking humanitarian assistance from reaching parts of the country that it thinks support rebel groups. Aid is needed across Myanmar following last week’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake, which killed at least 3,145 people. The UN is examining whether the junta continued launching strikes against insurgents after it called a temporary ceasefire on Wednesday.
Mr Trump reportedly fired the director of America’s National Security Agency, along with several members of the National Security Council. General Tim Haugh also led US Cyber Command. The firings followed Mr Trump’s meeting with Laura Loomer, a hard-right conspiracy theorist, in which she is said to have presented the president with a list of people she deemed disloyal.
BP said that its chair, Helge Lund, would step down as the British oil major reverses a pivot towards green energy and fends off interest from activist investors. Mr Lund, who became chair in 2019, oversaw the firm’s turn towards low-carbon energy, a strategy that it later ditched owing to disappointing returns. In February the chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, set out plans for a “fundamental reset”.
Several pension funds in Australia were hit by cyber-attacks over the past week. An industry body said that though most of the attempts were thwarted, several companies were compromised. AustralianSuper, the country’s largest pension fund, confirmed that hackers had stolen the passwords of up to 600 members “in attempts to commit fraud”, but told members their savings were safe.
Figure of the day: 70%, the share of Syrians who say they are optimistic about the future. Read the full story.
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