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Boeing faces new civil trial over 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash

Boeing is poised to face a jury trial from Monday over the fatal 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX plane, the first civil case related to the disaster to reach court.The Chicago trial, expected to last two weeks, was to feature two plaintiffs who lost family members in the calamity. But one of the complaints was resolved in an out-of-court settlement late Sunday, a judicial source told AFP, in line with most earlier litigants.Barring another last-minute settlement, the trial will begin Monday with the selection of an eight-person jury.”We have had some ongoing discussion that may continue throughout the day and the ensuing days,” Robert Clifford, who represents relatives of several crash victims, told the US District court on Wednesday at a pre-trial hearing.A deal could also be struck even while the trial is underway.- Canadian victim -The Boeing plane crashed on March 10, 2019, just six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on its way to Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.Relatives of 155 of the victims had sued Boeing between April 2019 and March 2021 for wrongful death, negligence and other charges.As of late last month, there were 18 complaints still open against Boeing, a source familiar with the case told AFP.Sunday’s deal meant that a further three cases had been settled since then, multiple judicial sources told AFP.This week’s Chicago litigation will now examine only the case of Canadian Darcy Belanger.Belanger, 46, who lived in Colorado, was a founding member of environmental NGO, the Parvati Foundation, and also worked in construction. He had been visiting Nairobi for a UN conference.US Judge Jorge Alonso has split the Boeing lawsuits into groups of five or six plaintiffs, annulling a potential trial if all the suits settle.In November, the aviation giant reached a last-minute agreement with the family of a woman killed in the crash.The Ethiopian Airlines disaster followed another fatal crash involving a MAX plane — that of a Lion Air jet that crashed in Indonesia in October 2018, killing all 189 people on board.Boeing also faced dozens of complaints from Lion Air family victims. Just one case remained open, as of the end of March. – Long-running case -Boeing’s settlements with civil plaintiffs have been confidential.The US manufacturer has “accepted responsibility for the MAX crashes publicly and in civil litigation because the design of the MCAS… contributed to these events,” a Boeing lawyer said during an October hearing.The MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) flight stabilizing software was implicated in both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes.The disasters led to congressional hearings, with irate lawmakers demanding answers, and to leadership shake-ups at the aviation company. The entire 737 MAX fleet was grounded for more than 20 months.Boeing later revised the MCAS program under scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which ultimately cleared the jets to resume service in November 2020. The Chicago trial comes as Boeing also faces a potential criminal trial in June in Texas over the MAX.That trial follows on from a January 2021 deferred prosecution agreement between Boeing and the US Justice Department over the two MAX crashes. In May 2024, the Justice Department notified the court that Boeing had violated terms of the accord. That came after a January 2024 incident in which an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX was forced to make an emergency landing when a panel blew out mid-flight.US District Judge Reed O’Connor last month ordered a jury trial from June 23 after earlier throwing out a proposed settlement between Boeing and the Justice Department.

Boeing faces new civil trial over 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crashMon, 07 Apr 2025 04:55:48 GMT

Boeing faces new civil trial over 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crashMon, 07 Apr 2025 04:55:48 GMT Read More »

Trump inflexible sur les droits de douane, panique sur les marchés

Les marchés en Asie-Pacifique dévissent lundi face à l’inflexibilité du président américain Donald Trump sur les droits de douane qu’il a imposés au reste du monde, laissant présager une nouvelle journée noire planétaire.Chutes en milieu de journée de 10,7% à Hong Kong, de 9,7% à Taipei, de 8,7% à Shenzhen, de 6,4% à Tokyo, de 6,3% à Shanghai, de 4,9% à Séoul ou encore de 3% à Bombay: les premières Bourses à ouvrir après l’entrée en vigueur samedi des droits de douane punitifs américains ont été prises de panique.Le mouvement est d’autant plus brutal que la Chine a répliqué et annoncé vendredi, alors que nombre de places financières asiatiques avaient déjà fermé pour le week-end, ses propres droits de douane, alimentant les risques d’escalade destructrice pour l’économie mondiale.”Il ne s’agit plus seulement d’un conflit commercial, mais d’une refonte systémique de l’ordre économique mondial” dont les règles “sont en train d’être démantelées en temps réel”, a estimé Stephen Innes, analyste chez SPI Asset Management.Au même moment, un grand nombre de pays cherchent, chacun de leur côté, à convaincre Donald Trump de les épargner.”Plus de 50 pays ont approché le gouvernement au sujet d’une réduction de leurs barrières douanières, de leurs droits de douane et l’arrêt de leur manipulation de changes”, a déclaré le ministre des Finances Scott Bessent sur la chaîne NBC.Le président républicain reproche aux partenaires économiques des Etats-Unis de les “piller”. En conséquence, il a décidé d’imposer un taux universel de 10% de taxe douanière sur tous les produits importés aux Etats-Unis, entré en vigueur samedi.Il va être relevé, dès mercredi, pour plusieurs dizaines de partenaires commerciaux majeurs, notamment l’Union européenne (20%) et la Chine (34%).”Nous avons des déficits commerciaux massifs avec la Chine, l’Union européenne et beaucoup d’autres”, a écrit dimanche Donald Trump sur son réseau Truth Social.”La seule manière de régler ce problème, ce sont les droits de douane, qui vont rapporter des dizaines de milliards de dollars aux Etats-Unis”, a-t-il ajouté. “C’est magnifique.””Nous allons voir si ce qu’ils ont à proposer est crédible”, a expliqué Scott Bessent au sujet des partenaires commerciaux des Etats-Unis, “parce qu’après, 20, 30, 40, 50 ans de mauvais comportements, on ne peut pas repartir de zéro”.Alors que la Chine a déjà riposté en annonçant des taxes supplémentaires de 34% sur les importations américaines, les dirigeants européens ont eux multiplié les contacts au cours du week-end avant une réunion lundi à Luxembourg des ministres du Commerce extérieur de l’UE pour préparer “la réponse européenne aux Etats-Unis”. “Le monde tel qu’on le connaissait a disparu”, a résumé le Premier ministre britannique Keir Starmer au sujet de cette remise en cause de l’ordre mondial du commerce.- “Traitement pour se soigner” -Interrogé sur la réaction violente des Bourses, Donald Trump a fait valoir dimanche, à bord de l’avion présidentiel Air Force One, qu’il “(fallait) parfois prendre un traitement pour se soigner”.Dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi, les contrats à terme, produits financiers utilisés pour prédire l’orientation des marchés, laissaient présager d’une nouvelle chute de Wall Street lundi, après deux premiers plongeons jeudi et vendredi.”On ne peut perdre de l’argent que si on vend. Et actuellement, la stratégie intelligente c’est de ne pas paniquer”, a lancé sur Fox News Peter Navarro, conseiller au commerce du milliardaire républicain.Le Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahu doit rencontrer lundi M. Trump à Washington pour évoquer entre autres la nouvelle taxe douanière de 17% que les Etats-Unis prévoient d’infliger à Israël.De son côté, le plus haut dirigeant vietnamien, le secrétaire général du parti communiste To Lam, a demandé un délai d'”au moins 45 jours” avant l’entrée en vigueur de droits de douane de 46% sur la production vietnamienne exportée aux Etats-Unis.Ce report laisserait le temps, selon lui, aux deux pays de “parvenir à un accord le plus rapidement possible”.”Ce n’est pas le genre de chose que vous pouvez négocier en quelques jours ou quelques semaines”, a prévenu pour sa part Scott Bessent, laissant entendre que ces taxes pourraient rester en vigueur plusieurs mois au moins.Les pays qui ont proposé d’ouvrir des discussions “le font parce qu’ils comprennent qu’ils vont subir une bonne partie de ces droits de douane”, a jugé le principal conseiller économique de la Maison Blanche, Kevin Hassett.Il s’opposait ainsi à la thèse selon laquelle ces nouvelles taxes allaient surtout pénaliser l’économie américaine, même s’il a concédé qu’il pourrait “y avoir des hausses de prix”. “Je ne pense pas qu’on va voir un effet majeur sur les consommateurs aux Etats-Unis”, a-t-il insisté.La plupart des économistes s’attendent pourtant à ce que les nouveaux droits sur les produits importés aux Etats-Unis provoquent une accélération de l’inflation et freinent la consommation.

Trump inflexible sur les droits de douane, panique sur les marchés

‘Fear and anxiety’: Bangkok residents seek quake-proof homes

Equities savaged as China retaliation to Trump tariffs fans trade war

Asian equities collapsed on a black Monday for markets after China hammered the United States with its own hefty tariffs, ramping up a trade war many fear could spark a recession.Trading floors were overcome by a wave of selling as investors fled to the hills on the worst day for equities since the pandemic, with Hong Kong shedding 10 percent, Tokyo briefly diving eight percent and Taipei more than nine percent.Futures for Wall Street’s markets were also taking another drubbing, while concerns about the impact on demand also saw commodities slump.Donald Trump sparked a market meltdown last week when he unveiled sweeping tariffs against US trading partners for what he says was years of being ripped off and claimed that governments were lining up to cut deals with Washington.But after Asian markets closed on Friday, China said it would impose retaliatory levies of 34 percent on all US goods from April 10. It also imposed export controls on seven rare earth elements, including gadolinium — commonly used in MRIs — and yttrium, utilised in consumer electronics.Hopes that the US president would rethink his policy in light of the turmoil were dashed Sunday when he said he would not make a deal with other countries unless trade deficits were solved.He denied that he was intentionally engineering a selloff and insisted he could not foresee market reactions.”Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said of the ructions that have wiped trillions of dollars off company valuations.- No sector spared -The selling in Asia was across the board, with no sector unharmed by the savage selling — tech firms, car makers, banks, casinos and energy firms all felt the pain as investors abandoned riskier assets.Among the biggest losers, Chinese ecommerce titans Alibaba tanked more than 14 percent and rival JD.com shed 13 percent, while Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank dived more than 10 percent and Sony gave up 9.6 percent.Shanghai shed more than six percent and Singapore eight percent, while Seoul gave up more than five percent triggering a so-called sidecar mechanism — for the first time in eight months — that briefly halted some trading. Sydney, Wellington, Manila and Mumbai were also deep in the red. Steve Cochrane, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Moody’s Analytics, said: “We could see a recession happen very quickly in the US, and it could last through the year or so, it could be rather lengthy. “And if there’s a recession in the US, of course, China will feel it as well because demand for its goods will be hit even harder. Harder than they would have been hit just because of the tariffs.”Concerns about demand saw oil prices sink more than three percent Monday, having dropped around seven percent Friday. Both main contracts are now sitting at their lowest levels since 2021. Copper — a vital component for energy storage, electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines — also extended losses.”The market is in free-fall mode again, punching through floors,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management. “Trump’s team isn’t blinking. The tariffs are being treated as a victory lap, not a bargaining chip.”The losses followed another day of carnage on Wall Street on Friday, where all three main indexes fell almost six percent.That came after Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell said US tariffs will likely cause inflation to rise and growth to slow and warned of an “elevated” risk of higher unemployment.The measures by Trump are likely to give US central bankers a headache as they try to balance the need for interest rate cuts to support the economy with the need to keep a lid on prices.His comments came after Trump had insisted “my policies will never change” and urged the Fed to cut rates.”Powell’s hands are tied,” said Innes. “He’s acknowledged the obvious — that tariffs are inflationary and recessionary — but he’s not signalling a rescue. “And that’s the problem. This time, the Fed’s inflation mandate is forcing it to keep the safety net rolled up while asset prices get torched.”Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said: “Traders are nervously watching the two biggest economies going toe to toe on tariffs and are fearing that both could receive knockout blows from a prolonged economic fight.”Neither the US nor China are backing down when it comes to slapping new tariffs on each other and in this escalatory environment it’s not surprising to see that risk assets are being avoided like the plague.”- Key figures around 0400 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 6.2 percent at 31,699.95 Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 10.7 percent at 20,405.96 (break)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 6.3 percent at 3,130.17 (break)West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.7 percent at $60.31 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.7 percent at $63.84 per barrelDollar/yen: DOWN at 146.33 yen from 146.98 yen on FridayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0950 from $1.0962Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2889 from $1.2893Euro/pound: DOWN at 84.96 pence from 85.01 penceNew York – Dow: DOWN 5.5 percent at 38,314.86 (close) London – FTSE 100: DOWN 5.0 percent at 8,054.98 (close)

Equities savaged as China retaliation to Trump tariffs fans trade war

Inde: la Bourse chute de 3% à l’ouverture

Market panic deepens as China retaliates against Trump tariffs

Panic selling gripped global markets on Monday, as US President Donald Trump refused to budge on his swingeing tariffs despite China retaliating and global recession warnings growing louder.Countries across the world have been scrambling to blunt the edge of the new US tariffs, but Beijing signalled it was taking the levies head on, escalating the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.Trump doubled down on his demand to slash deficits with the US’ trading partners, saying he would not cut any deals unless that was resolved.”Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump said on Sunday.He told reporters aboard Air Force One that world leaders are “dying to make a deal.”Trump announced last week a baseline 10-percent import tariff on goods coming into the United States and higher rates for many countries including allies the European Union, Japan and Taiwan.Most countries have stopped short of retaliating but China announced on Friday — after Asian markets closed — retaliatory tariffs of 34 percent on all US goods from April 10. “(This) is blunt-force economic warfare,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.”The market’s telling you in plain language: global demand is vanishing, and a global recession is on the cards and coming on fast,” Innes said.Trillions of dollars have been wiped off stocks worldwide, and on Monday Asian equities took an even heavier hammering as investors moved to safer assets.In Japan the Nikkei was off an eye-watering 6.5 percent, falling almost eight percent in early trade. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng plunged almost 10 percent and the Shanghai Composite more than four percent. Taiwan’s main index — like in Hong Kong and Shanghai closed on Friday — plummeted almost 10 percent and Singapore 8.5 percent.Futures contracts for the New York Stock Exchange’s main boards were sharply down Sunday, suggesting more pain for battered Wall Street stocks when markets open Monday.US oil dropped below $60 a barrel for the first time since April 2021 on worries of a global recession.- ‘Deals and alliances’ -Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel — which has been hit with 17 percent tariffs, despite being one of Washington’s closest allies — was due Monday to become the first leader to meet Trump since last week’s announcement.Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned in a newspaper op-ed that “the world as we knew it has gone,” saying the status quo would increasingly hinge on “deals and alliances.”Trump’s staggered deadlines have left space for some countries to negotiate, even as he insisted he would stand firm and his administration warned against any retaliation.”More than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation,” Kevin Hassett, head of the White House National Economic Council, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday, citing the US Trade Representative.Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse that counted the US as its biggest export market in the first quarter, has already reached out and requested a delay of at least 45 days to thumping 46 percent tariffs imposed by Trump.- ‘Bad actors’ -Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also told NBC’s Meet the Press that 50 countries had reached out.But as for whether Trump will negotiate with them, “I think that’s a decision for President Trump,” Bessent said. “At this moment he’s created maximum leverage for himself… I think we’re going to have to see what the countries offer, and whether it’s believable,” Bessent said. Other countries have been “bad actors for a long time, and it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks,” he claimed.Peter Navarro, Trump’s tariff guru, has pushed back against the mounting nervousness and insisted to investors that “you can’t lose money unless you sell,” promising “the biggest boom in the stock market we’ve ever seen.”Russia has not been targeted by the latest raft of tariffs, and Hassett cited talks with Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine as the reason for their omission from the hit list.On Wednesday a White House official suggested the reason for Russia’s omission was because trade was negligible thanks to sanctions.Trump has long insisted that countries around the world that sell products to the United States are in fact ripping Americans off, and he sees tariffs as a means to right that wrong.”Some day people will realize that Tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing!” Trump wrote on Truth social Sunday.But many economists have warned that tariffs are passed on to US consumers and that they could see price rises at home.”I don’t think that you’re going to see a big effect on the consumer in the US,” Hassett said.