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US President Donald Trump planted a new sapling on Tuesday to replace a nearly 200-year-old tree at the White House — dubbing it a “MAGAnolia” after his “Make America Great Again” slogan.The historic “Jackson Magnolia”, believed to have been planted by president Andrew Jackson in the 19th century, was chopped down for safety reasons on Monday.The tree had shaded the White House’s South Portico for the majority of US presidencies. But it had been in bad shape since a small plane landed on the South Lawn and crashed into it in 1994, killing the pilot.The White House said in a post on X that Trump had “planted a new MAGAnolia sapling at the White House — a direct descendant of the historic “Jackson Magnolia.”‘Reporters were not given access to the planting ceremony but the White House posted a video on social media of Trump digging into the ground with a gold-plated shovel and posing with a gardener.The new, 12-year-old sapling is descended from the original tree which, according to tradition, Jackson planted to honor his wife, who died just before his swearing-in in 1829.The old tree was itself purportedly a sapling brought from his home in Tennessee.The tree was the oldest on the White House grounds, according to the National Park Service, which notes that starting in the 1870s most presidents began planting their own commemorative trees.”The bad news is that everything must come to an end,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in March as he announced that the tree would have to be chopped down.He said the magnolia was “in terrible condition, a very dangerous safety hazard, at the White House Entrance, no less, and must now be removed.”Trump added that some of its wood would be preserved “and may be used for other high and noble purposes.”A report by arborists said the tree could cause  harm because of a “risk of structural failure.”The White House gardens already made headlines this year when Trump said he was planning to pave over the grass of the famed Rose Garden, to give it the patio-like feel of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

A lawyer for Britain’s Prince Harry on Tuesday slammed an “unjustified” decision to downgrade his police protection, telling a London court the prince had recently faced threats from paparazzi and even Al-Qaeda.Following Harry’s split with the royal family in 2020 and move to America with his wife Meghan, the government decided his security during visits to Britain would be decided on a case-by-case basis.King Charles III’s youngest son made a rare visit to London for the latest stage of the long-running legal saga, watching his appeal unfold from inside the Royal Courts of Justice.Dressed in a dark suit with a blue patterned tie, he looked on in the courtroom, occasionally whispering to his solicitor and wrote in a notebook.After Harry, 40, stopped being considered a working royal in 2020, the government decided he would not receive the “same degree” of publicly funded protection when in Britain.The prince took legal action against the interior ministry in 2021, and after his initial case was rejected last year, he brought a challenge before the Court of Appeal.Lawyer Shaheed Fatima told the court the prince had been “singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment.”In a written submission, his lawyers highlighted threats made against the prince.”Al-Qaeda recently called for (Harry) to be murdered,” and he and Meghan were “involved in a dangerous car pursuit with paparazzi in New York City” in May 2023, the submission said, without providing full details.Harry was widely criticised when in his autobiography “Spare” he claimed to have killed 25 people in Afghanistan, sparking ire from the Taliban.Harry has long been haunted by the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a high-speed car crash in Paris in 1997 as she tried to escape paparazzi photographers.Harry and Meghan have started a new life in California and are now largely estranged from the royal family. But the prince has said security concerns have hampered his ability to visit Britain, and his trips have usually been fleeting. In a written submission, Harry’s lawyers said the prince and Meghan “felt forced to step back” from frontline royal duties because “they considered they were not being protected by the institution”. – Failure to assess risk -The prince’s legal battle centres on the February 2020 decision to downgrade his security, made by the interior ministry and a committee that deals with the protection of royals and public figures.In early 2024, the High Court ruled against Harry’s case, saying the government had acted lawfully. The prince’s initial bid to appeal was refused in April last year and he was ordered to pay about £1,000,000 ($1.27 million) in legal costs, according to The Times newspaper. However, the following month, a judge said Harry could challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal.On Tuesday, Harry’s lawyer argued the committee had failed to carry out an assessment of the risks to the prince and that the High Court had been wrong to overlook this.As a lawyer representing the interior ministry set out the government’s case, the prince shook his head.James Eadie said the basis for Harry’s security arrangements had been adjusted due to “his change of status and because he was now going to live abroad for the majority of his time.”In its written submission, the government insisted Harry’s security “would be considered depending on the circumstances.”The two-day hearing is to end on Wednesday with some parts held in private due to security concerns. A decision is expected in writing at a later date.

Stock markets regained some ground Tuesday, even as trade tensions between the United States and China were strained by turmoil over President Donald Trump’s tariffs offensive.Trump rocked the world economy last week when he held up a chart in the White House garden showing the tariffs being levied on each country.The move triggered a dramatic global market sell-off and fears of a widespread recession as he repeatedly doubled down on his aggressive trade policy.Steep tariffs come into effect against goods from a raft of nations on Wednesday, with Chinese products facing a stunning 104 percent levy after Beijing announced retaliatory measures, provoking a furious US reaction.China blasted what it called US blackmail and vowed to “fight it to the end,” a commerce ministry spokesperson said.The US president insisted that the ball was in China’s court because Beijing “wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started.””We are waiting for their call. It will happen!” he wrote on social media Tuesday.- China ‘confident’ -In the war of words, China also condemned remarks by Vice President JD Vance in which he said the United States had for too long borrowed money from “Chinese peasants.”The European Union sought to cool tensions, with the bloc’s chief Ursula von der Leyen warning against worsening the trade conflict in a call with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.She stressed stability for the world’s economy as well as “the need to avoid further escalation,” according to a readout from EU officials.The Chinese premier told von der Leyen that the world’s number two economy could weather the economic storm.”China can fully hedge against adverse external effects, and is fully confident of maintaining sustained and healthy economic development,” he said.The EU — which Trump has criticized bitterly over its tariff regime — may unveil its response next week to the 20 percent levies it is facing under Trump.French President Emmanuel Macron called on the defiant US president to reconsider, adding if the EU was forced to respond “so be it.””France and Europe never wanted chaos,” he said.In retaliation for levies introduced in mid-March on steel and aluminum, the EU plans tariffs of up to 25 percent on US goods ranging from soybeans to motorcycles and make-up, according to a document seen by AFP.- Deals to be cut -Underlining Trump’s willingness to negotiate, White House advisor Kevin Hassett told Fox News that the administration would prioritize allies like Japan and Korea among the dozens of nations wanting to cut deals.Wall Street stocks rose Tuesday, as Trump reported a “great call” with South Korea’s leader.Europe’s main indices finished with gains of more than two percent, while Asia’s leading indices also rose after suffering heavy falls Monday.”Investors took advantage of lower valuations and grew more optimistic about US tariff negotiations,” said IG analyst Axel Rudolph.Trump believes the tariffs will revive America’s lost manufacturing base by forcing foreign companies to relocate to the United States, rather than making goods abroad.But many business experts and economists question that, and say his tariffs are arbitrary.In a sign of friction, key Trump ally Elon Musk described senior White House trade advisor Peter Navarro as “dumber than a sack of bricks.”Musk has signaled his opposition to the tariffs, and he hit out after Navarro described his Tesla company as “a car assembler” that wants cheap foreign parts.The US president has ruled out any pause in his aggressive stance, despite retaliatory action from China and signs of criticism from within his Republican Party.”Nearly 50 countries have approached me personally to discuss the president’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity,” Trump’s top trade official told the Senate. Several countries — including Argentina, Vietnam and Israel — had offered to reduce their tariffs, Jamieson Greer said.burs-bgs/des

Billionaire Elon Musk blasted President Donald Trump’s senior trade advisor Peter Navarro as “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” on Tuesday in a growing rift over the US tariff policy that has rocked the world.The extraordinary public spat came after Navarro described the Tesla boss and so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief as “not a car manufacturer” but “a car assembler” who relies on imported parts.Musk, the world’s richest person, has previously signaled his opposition to the president’s new import tariffs that have roiled markets.”Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk posted on his X social network, under a clip of Navarro saying Tesla imported batteries, electronics and tires, and that Musk “wants the cheap foreign parts.”Musk doubled down in a series of other messages, saying that “Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”Musk also dubbed him “Peter Retarrdo” and said Navarro “should ask the fake expert he invented, Ron Vara” — referring to a fictional pundit Navarro quoted in a series of books and a policy memo, using an anagram of his own name.The South African-born tycoon recently backed the idea of a free-trade zone between North America and Europe — a wish at odds with Trump’s flagship tariffs.The US president has ruled out any pause in his aggressive stance despite retaliatory action from China and signs of criticism from within his normally loyal Republican Party.- ‘Car assembler’ -But there have also been conflicting messages from within the White House itself. A long-time China hawk, Navarro has been one of the most hardline voices on tariffs, and targeted Musk himself in an interview with CNBC.”When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House, and the American people understand, that Elon’s a car manufacturer. But he’s not a car manufacturer — he’s a car assembler in many cases,” Navarro said.”If you go to his Texas plant… the batteries come from Japan and from China, the electronics come from Taiwan.”The row came a day after Navarro insisted in an opinion piece in the Financial Times that the tariffs were “not a negotiation” — only for Trump to admit later that he was in fact open to some negotiations.The spat is all the more unusual because of the mesh of loyalties involved.Trump has strongly defended Musk after a series of vandalism attacks and protests against Tesla over DOGE’s cost-cutting drive — even turning the White House into a pop-up showroom for the electric vehicles in a show of support.Navarro, however, has proven his loyalty to Trump by serving a four-month jail sentence for contempt after refusing to testify to Congress on the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.

The top US trade official on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on nearly every other nation, telling US senators that with dozens of countries seeking a deal the strategy was “already bearing fruit.”Jamieson Greer’s appearance in Congress came with Republicans ringing alarm bells over Trump’s escalating trade war and Wall Street clamoring for clarity on the president’s plans after a historic market sell-off.”Nearly 50 countries have approached me personally to discuss the president’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity,” he told the Senate Finance Committee, a figure that other administration officials have also cited. Several countries — including Argentina, Vietnam and Israel — had offered to reduce their tariffs, Greer said, while auto manufacturers were canceling layoffs and companies had announced $4 trillion in new investment in the United States.The annual hearings on the president’s trade policies are often staid affairs.But they have generated more interest this year after Trump last week announced a baseline tariff of 10 percent and extra levies of up to 50 percent on countries selling more to Americans than they buy in return.Greer said the country had shed five million manufacturing jobs and 90,000 factories in the last 30 years, since a trilateral free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada was enacted.”We must move away from an economy based solely on the financial sector and government spending, and we must become an economy based on producing real goods and services,” he added.Senior Republican lawmakers have pledged to allow Trump time to see how his tariff gambit plays out, but are desperate to see progress on trade negotiations they believe will calm markets. Wall Street stocks surged higher early Tuesday after a three-day rout as global markets rallied in hopes of trade agreements.- ‘No clear message’ -But rank-and-file lawmakers remain jittery about the effect of the tariffs and have been demanding briefings on the strategy, with some even seeking to remove Trump’s authority to raise import levies.Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is leading a bipartisan effort to require congressional approval of tariffs within 60 days, although it is not expected to get a floor vote.Four Republican senators voted with Democrats last week to pass a symbolic resolution to undo Trump’s tariff on Canada that does not have the force of law.Trump himself ruled out any pause in his aggressive new global trade policy on Monday, and threatened to slap an additional 50 percent tariff on China over its retaliation.He also dismissed the possibility of a trade deal with the European Union and called his critics on trade “weak and stupid” while pledging to veto Grassley’s bill.The top Democrat on the finance committee, Ron Wyden, assailed the White House for having “no clear message” about how Trump determined his tariffs and how long he plans to keep them up. He suggested Trump was deliberately tanking the economy to bring down interest rates, making borrowing cheaper for the rich.Greer never had much hope of persuading Democrats over Trump’s trade policies, but his overtures did not appear to reassure skeptics on the Republican side either.”Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” asked North Carolina free trade advocate Thom Tillis.Greer’s appearance was the first of two annual hearings on the president’s trade policies. He will be grilled by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday. 

A 48-year-old man is to be executed by lethal injection in the southern US state of Florida on Tuesday for the 2000 murder of a newspaper employee who was abducted while on her lunch break.Michael Tanzi is scheduled to be put to death at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) at the Florida State Prison in Raiford for the murder of Janet Acosta, 49.Tanzi would be the third Death Row inmate to be executed in Florida this year and the 11th in the United States.Tanzi confessed to the murder of Acosta, an employee of the Miami Herald newspaper, and was sentenced to death in 2003.He kidnapped Acosta while she was eating lunch in her van, forced her to withdraw money from ATM machines and sexually assaulted her before strangling her and dumping her body.He also confessed — but was never charged — with the murder of another woman, and a police detective described Tanzi to the Miami Herald as a “fledgling serial killer.”Tanzi’s lawyers have tried to halt his execution arguing that there could be problems with the lethal injection because he is “morbidly obese,” but their appeals have been rejected.His execution is one of two scheduled to be carried out in the United States this week.Mikal Mahdi, 42, is to be executed by firing squad in South Carolina on Friday for the 2004 murder of an off-duty police officer.Mahdi would be the second person executed by firing squad in South Carolina this year.The vast majority of US executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 have been performed using lethal injection.There were 25 executions in the United States last year.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last week that federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, charged with the December 4 murder in New York of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Prince Harry’s lawyer outlined in court threats made against him, including calls for his murder, as King Charles’s youngest son Tuesday appealed against an “unjustified” decision to restrict his police protection in the UK.Harry, who has been angered by the government’s decision, watched proceedings unfold from inside London’s Royal Courts of Justice during a rare visit to London.Following Harry’s dramatic split with the royal family in 2020 and subsequent move to North America with his wife Meghan, they are no longer considered as working royals.The British government said he would therefore no longer be given the “same degree” of publicly funded protection when in the UK, but solely on a case-by-case basis.The 40-year-old prince took legal action against the interior ministry and, after his initial case was rejected last year, has now brought the challenge before the Court of Appeal in central London.In a written submission, the prince’s lawyers warned of threats made against the royal’s security.”Al-Qaeda recently called for (Harry) to be murdered,” and he and Meghan were “involved in a dangerous car pursuit with paparazzi in New York City” in May 2023, the submission said.And his lawyer Shaheed Fatima said the prince “does not accept that ‘bespoke’ means ‘better’.””In fact, in his submission, it means that he has been singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment.”- ‘Forced to step back’ -The Duke of Sussex and his American wife Meghan Markle are now largely estranged from the royal family, having started a new life in California.But King Charles III’s younger son has said security concerns have hampered his ability to visit home and he has only rarely returned to the UK for short visits.In a written submission to the appeals court, Harry’s lawyers said the prince and Meghan “felt forced to step back” from frontline royal duties because “they considered they were not being protected by the institution”. Harry was widely criticised when in his autobiography “Spare” he claimed to have killed 25 people in Afghanistan, sparking ire from the Taliban.Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a high-speed car crash in Paris in 1997 as she tried to escape paparazzi photographers.The prince’s legal battle centres on a February 2020 decision to downgrade his security, made by the UK’s interior ministry and a committee that deals with the protection of royals and public figures.The High Court ruled in February 2024 against Harry’s case, saying the government had acted lawfully. The prince’s initial bid to appeal was refused in April 2024 and he was ordered to pay about £1,000,000 ($1.27 million) in legal costs, according to The Times newspaper. However, the following month, a judge said Harry could in fact challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal.Fatima argued the committee had failed to carry out an assessment of the risks posed to Harry and the High Court had been wrong to overlook that.- ‘Right to safety’ -“This appeal concerns the most fundamental right — to safety and security of person,” Fatima said on Tuesday.Harry, dressed in a dark suit with blue patterned tie, looked on in the courtroom, occasionally whispering into the ear of another member of his legal team, or writing in a notebook.In its submission to the court, the government insisted Harry’s security “would be considered depending on the circumstances” given his change of position.The hearing is expected to finish on Wednesday, with some parts to be held in private due to security concerns.A decision in writing is expected at a later date.Harry, who has pursued several legal suits against British UK tabloid dailies, is also embroiled in a separate row over a charity he co-founded in southern Africa. A bitter boardroom battle has seen the prince resign as patron of the Sentebale charity.Its chair, Sophie Chandauka, has accused him of “bullying” and being involved in a “cover up”.Harry has in turn hit out at what he called “blatant lies” and the UK-based charity watchdog has launched an investigation.

Global temperatures hovered at historic highs in March, the EU agency that monitors climate change said on Tuesday, prolonging an unprecedented heat streak that has pushed the bounds of scientific explanation. In Europe, it was the hottest March ever recorded by a significant margin, said the Copernicus Climate Change Service. That drove rainfall extremes across a continent warming faster than any other, as planet-heating fossil fuel emissions keep rising.The world meanwhile saw the second-hottest March in the Copernicus dataset, sustaining a near-unbroken spell of record or near-record-breaking temperatures that has persisted since July 2023.Since then, virtually every month has been at least 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than it was before the industrial revolution, when humans began burning massive amounts of coal, oil and gas.March was 1.6C above pre-industrial times, extending an anomaly so unusual that scientists are still trying to fully explain it.”That we’re still at 1.6C above preindustrial is indeed remarkable,” said Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London. “We’re very firmly in the grip of human-caused climate change,” she told AFP.Scientists had predicted the extreme run of global temperatures would subside after a warming El Nino event peaked in early 2024, but they have stubbornly lingered well into 2025. “We are still experiencing extremely high temperatures worldwide. This is an exceptional situation,” Robert Vautard, a leading scientist with the United Nations’ climate expert panel IPCC, told AFP. – ‘Climate breakdown’ – Scientists warn that every fraction of a degree of global warming increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts.Climate change is not just about rising temperatures but the knock-on effect of all that extra heat being trapped in the atmosphere and seas by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.Warmer seas mean higher evaporation and greater moisture in the atmosphere, causing heavier deluges and feeding energy into storms.This also affects global rainfall patterns.March in Europe was 0.26C above the previous hottest record for the month set in 2014, Copernicus said.Some parts of the continent experienced the “driest March on record and others their wettest” for about half a century, said Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs the Copernicus climate monitor. Bill McGuire, a climate scientist from University College London, said the contrasting extremes “shows clearly how a destabilised climate means more and bigger weather extremes”.”As climate breakdown progresses, more broken records are only to be expected,” he told AFP.Concerns over the global economy were dominating headlines at a time when India was enduring scorching heat and Australia was swamped by floods, said Helen Clarkson, CEO of Climate Group.”The threat to the planet is existential, but our attention is elsewhere,” Clarkson said.- Puzzling heat -The global heat surge pushed 2023 and then 2024 to be the hottest years on record.Last year was also the first full calendar year to exceed 1.5C — the safer warming limit agreed by most nations under the Paris climate accord.This single year breach does not represent a permanent crossing of the 1.5C threshold, which is measured over decades. But scientists warn the goal is slipping out of reach.If the 30-year trend leading up to then continued, the world would hit 1.5C by June 2030.Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming.But they are less certain about what else might have contributed to this record heat spike.Vautard said there were “phenomena that remain to be explained,” but the exceptional temperatures still fell within the upper range of scientific projections of climate change.Experts think changes in global cloud patterns, airborne pollution and Earth’s ability to store carbon in natural sinks like forests and oceans could be among factors contributing to the planet overheating.Scientists say the current period is likely to be the warmest the Earth has been for the last 125,000 years.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a top US admiral assigned to NATO, the Pentagon announced Tuesday, saying her removal was due to a loss of confidence in her ability to lead.Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield is the latest in a string of senior officers — including multiple women — to be dismissed by Donald Trump’s administration, part of a rare major shakeup of top US military leadership that began shortly after the president returned to office in January.The various firings have led to accusations that Trump and his administration are seeking to politicize the traditionally apolitical US military and ensure it is led by people who are personally loyal to the president.Hegseth removed Chatfield “from her position as US representative to NATO’s military committee due to a loss of confidence in her ability to lead,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, without providing further details.Chatfield is a helicopter pilot by training who previously deployed to the Pacific and Gulf in support of carrier strike group and amphibious ready group operations, according to her NATO biography.She was also a senior military assistant to the supreme allied commander for Europe, served as the deputy US military representative to NATO’s military committee, and taught political science at the US Air Force Academy, among other positions.Democratic lawmakers slammed her removal, with Representative Adam Smith saying “our country is less safe because of President Trump’s actions,” while Senator Jack Reed said the move was “unjustified” and “disgraceful.”- Other top officers sacked -“The silence from my Republican colleagues is deeply troubling. In less than three months, President Trump has fired 10 generals and admirals without explanation, including our most experienced combat leaders,” Reed said.Chatfield’s dismissal comes shortly after Trump fired General Timothy Haugh, the head of the highly sensitive US National Security Agency, and his deputy Wendy Noble at the apparent urging of far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.He also dismissed officials from the National Security Council (NSC) last week.The New York Times reported Thursday that — after meeting with Loomer the previous day — Trump fired six people from the NSC, including three senior officials on the body that advises the president on top foreign policy matters from Ukraine to Gaza.In February, Trump abruptly fired the top US military officer, general Charles “CQ” Brown, without explanation, less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Hegseth also announced the removal of admiral Lisa Franchetti — the first woman to lead the Navy — as well as the vice chief of staff of the Air Force and three top military lawyers.And in January, admiral Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead one of the six US military services, was removed as the head of the Coast Guard, with an official citing alleged “leadership deficiencies.”The Pentagon has also taken aim at pro-diversity efforts — and reportedly officials who supported them — with the purge of such content sweeping up articles on the African American Tuskegee Airmen and veteran Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in Major League Baseball in the modern era.

Stock markets regained some ground on Tuesday, even as trade tensions between the United States and China escalated sharply after days of turmoil over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs offensive.Trump has upended the world economy with sweeping tariffs that have raised the spectre of an international recession, but has ruled out any pause in his aggressive trade policy despite a dramatic market sell-off.Steep tariffs come into effect against goods from a raft of nations on Wednesday, with Chinese products facing a 34-percent levy that Beijing will counter with a similar duty on Thursday.Trump has warned he would impose additional levies of 50 percent if Beijing refused to stop pushing back against his tariffs.”I have great respect for China but they can not do this,” Trump said at the White House.China swiftly hit back, blasting what it called “blackmailing” by the United States and vowing “countermeasures” if Washington imposes more tariffs.”If the US insists on going its own way, China will fight it to the end,” a spokesperson for Beijing’s commerce ministry said on Tuesday.- ‘Ignorant, impolite’ -In a mounting war of words, China’s foreign ministry also condemned “ignorant and impolite” remarks by US Vice President JD Vance in which he complained the United States had for too long borrowed money from “Chinese peasants”.The ministry said that “pressure, threats and blackmail are not the right way to deal with China”.The European Union sought to cool tensions, with the bloc’s chief Ursula von der Leyen warning against worsening the trade conflict in a call with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.She stressed the “vital importance of stability” for the world’s economy as well as “the need to avoid further escalation,” according to a readout from EU officials.The Chinese premier told von der Leyen that the world’s number two economy has the “tools” necessary to weather economic headwinds.”China can fully hedge against adverse external effects, and is fully confident of maintaining sustained and healthy economic development,” he said, according to state news agency Xinhua. The EU said Tuesday that it expects to present as soon as next week its response to the 20-percent levies it is facing under Trump’s latest tariff wave, with Germany and France advocating a tax targeting US tech giants.But Brussels has also proposed an exemption from tariffs on industrial products, including cars, which Trump said was not enough to resolve the US trade deficit with the EU.”The European Union has been very, very bad to us,” Trump said.In retaliation for US levies introduced in mid-March on steel and aluminium, the EU plans tariffs of up to 25 percent on US goods ranging from soybeans to motorcycles and make-up, according to a document seen by AFP.But US bourbon was spared after Trump threatened to hit European wine and spirits with massive retaliatory duties.A 10 percent “baseline” tariff on US imports from around the world took effect Saturday.Trump’s tariffs have roiled global markets, with trillions of dollars wiped off combined stock market valuations in recent sessions.But Wall Street stocks surged at the open Tuesday, with all three major US indices up more than three percent as Trump reported a “great call” with South Korea’s leader while US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Japan had sought quick negotiations. Europe’s main stock markets were up around three percent in afternoon trade while Asia’s leading indices also rose after suffering particularly heavy falls on Monday. Trump believes the tariffs will revive America’s lost manufacturing base by forcing foreign companies to relocate to the United States, rather than making goods abroad.But most economists question that and say his tariffs are arbitrary.Despite the turmoil, Trump said Monday he was “not looking” at any pause in tariff implementation.He also scrapped any meetings with China but said Washington was ready for talks with any country willing to negotiate. More than 50 nations have sought reach out to the US leader, according to the White House. While meeting Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first leader to lobby Trump in person over the levies, Trump said: “There can be permanent tariffs, and there can also be negotiations, because there are things that we need beyond tariffs.”burs-sr/lth