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 nearly $2trn in value, dropping by 5%. Tech companies saw significant sell-offs: Apple and Meta’s share prices were both down 9%. On Friday Asian markets plunged further. Japan’s Topix index fell by 3.2% in early trading, to its lowest level since August.
Mr Trump said he would consider reducing tariffs if countries offered America something “phenomenal”. The president suggested he could cut tariffs on goods from China if its government allowed ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, to divest the app’s American operations. Mr Trump said his administration was “very close” to a deal to allow TikTok to avoid a ban in America.
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”.
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”.
Russia will provide weapons and training to the Alliance of Sahel States, a grouping of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The three west African countries, each ruled by juntas, signed a defence pact in 2023; they left ECOWAS, the regional bloc, this January. Russia has expanded its influence in the Sahel by sending mercenaries and other support to the juntas.
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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