AFP USA

The US Supreme Court on Monday paused a lower court order demanding that the Trump administration repatriate a Salvadoran migrant who was wrongfully deported last month.Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, who was living in the eastern state of Maryland, was among more than 200 people sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador last month as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.US District Judge Paula Xinis ordered Friday that Abrego Garcia be returned to the United States by 11:59 pm on Monday after Justice Department lawyers admitted he was deported due to an “administrative error.”A federal appeals court unanimously upheld the decision with Judge Harvie Wilkinson, an appointee of former Republican president Ronald Reagan, writing: “There is no question that the government screwed up here.”The facts of this case thus present the potential for a disturbing loophole: namely that the government could whisk individuals to foreign prisons in violation of court orders and then contend… it is no longer their custodian, and there is nothing that can be done,” he said.”It takes no small amount of imagination to understand that this is a path of perfect lawlessness, one that courts cannot condone,” Wilkinson said.The Trump administration appealed to the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which issued a stay of the district judge’s repatriation order pending further consideration of the case.Chief Justice John Roberts asked attorneys for Abrego Garcia to submit arguments by 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Tuesday.The Trump administration, in asking the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s order, called it “unprecedented and indefensible” and a “demand that the United States let a member of a foreign terrorist organization into America tonight.”The White House has insisted that Abrego Garcia, who is married to a US citizen, is a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 — though Judge Xinis dismissed this claim as lacking evidence.- Alien Enemies Act -Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in El Salvador.The Trump administration conceded again in its Supreme Court application that Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador was an error, but added he could still be removed “anywhere else in the world.”Three planeloads of undocumented migrants were flown from the United States to El Salvador on March 15.The Trump administration has alleged that most of the deportees belonged to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, but some attorneys have said their clients were not gang members, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely because of their tattoos.Trump invoked the little-known 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify their summary removal.Another district judge, James Boasberg, has barred the Trump administration from carrying out further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, which has only been used previously during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.The Trump administration has appealed Boasberg’s order to the Supreme Court, asking it to allow deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act to resume.In its appeal to the Supreme Court, which includes three justices nominated by Trump, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said the case is a key test of presidential authority over the courts.”This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country” — the president or judges, Harris said. “The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President.”

Boeing has reached a last-minute settlement to avoid a civil trial that was due to start Monday over the fatal 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX plane, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said.The Chicago trial was to feature two plaintiffs who lost family members in the calamity, but both cases were settled on Sunday evening, the Clifford law firm told AFP.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 four cases had been settled since then, multiple judicial sources told AFP.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.”We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302,” Boeing said.”We made an upfront commitment to fully and fairly compensate the families and accepted legal responsibility for the accidents. We will continue to work to fairly resolve the claims of the family members.”US Judge Jorge Alonso has split the Boeing lawsuits into groups of five or six plaintiffs, only annulling a potential trial if all the suits settle.Alonso plans at least two more rounds of trials in 2025, to begin on July 14 and November 3.In November, the aviation giant reached a last-minute agreement with the family of a woman killed in the crash.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 latest settlements come 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.

The Trump administration made a last-ditch appeal Monday to the Supreme Court hoping to overturn a US federal judge’s order to repatriate a Salvadoran migrant who was mistakenly deported last month.Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, who was living in the eastern state of Maryland, was among more than 200 people sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.US District Judge Paula Xinis ordered Friday that Abrego Garcia be returned to the United States by 11:59 pm on Monday after Justice Department lawyers admitted he was deported due to an “administrative error.”A federal appeals court upheld the decision, with Judge Harvie Wilkinson writing: “There is no question that the government screwed up here.”The Trump administration on Monday took its case to the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, labeling the repatriation order “unprecedented and indefensible.”In a filing to the high court, it slammed the ruling as a “demand that the United States let a member of a foreign terrorist organization into America tonight.”The White House has insisted that Abrego Garcia, who is married to a US citizen, is a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 — though Judge Xinis dismissed this claim as lacking evidence.Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in El Salvador.The Trump administration conceded again in its Supreme Court application that Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador was an error, but added he could still be removed “anywhere else in the world.”Three planeloads of undocumented migrants were flown from the United States to El Salvador on March 15.The Trump administration alleged that most of the deportees were part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, but some attorneys have said that their clients were not members, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely because of their tattoos.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, becoming the first foreign leader to personally plead for a reprieve from stinging US tariffs that have shaken the world.Netanyahu and Trump are also set to discuss Gaza, where a short-lived US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas has collapsed, and growing tensions with Iran.Trump greeted Netanyahu outside the West Wing and pumped his fist, before the two leaders — both wearing dark suits, red ties and white shirts — went inside for a meeting in the Oval Office.A planned press conference between the two leaders was canceled at short notice without explanation in an unusual move. During his last visit, Netanyahu and Trump both spoke to reporters in the Oval and then held a press conference.The Israeli premier’s visit is his second to Trump since the US president returned to power and comes at short notice — just days after Trump slapped a 17 percent tariff on Israel in his “Liberation Day” announcement last week. Trump refused to exempt the top beneficiary of US military aid from his global tariff salvo as he said Washington had a significant trade deficit with Israel.Netanyahu said on his way to Washington on Sunday that they would discuss “the hostages, achieving victory in Gaza, and of course the tariff regime that has also been imposed on Israel.””I’m the first international leader, the first foreign leader who will meet with President Trump on a matter so crucial to Israel’s economy,” he said in a video statement.”There is a long line of leaders who want to do this. I believe this reflects the special personal relationship and the unique bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time.”Netanyahu met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday night soon after his arrival, according to his office.The Israeli premier also met Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday.Trump told reporters on Sunday that “We’re going to talk about trade, and we’re going to talk about the obvious subject.””There’s a lot of things going on with the Middle East right now that have to be silenced,” he added.- Attack on paramedics -Israel’s war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack, and the fate of the Israeli and US hostages still held in Gaza will be a major subject of discussion.Israel resumed intense strikes on Gaza on March 18, and the weeks-long ceasefire with Hamas that the United States, Egypt and Qatar had brokered collapsed.Trump has so far backed Israel to the hilt, accusing Hamas of failing to release the hostages.The United States has also brushed off an incident in which 15 medics and rescuers were killed by Israeli forces last month in Gaza, sparking international condemnation.Israel’s army chief on Monday ordered a “deeper” investigation into the attack.France’s President Emmanuel Macron said Monday he had organized a call to Trump with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan during a visit to Cairo, with the leaders also calling for an immediate return to the truce.The leaders also insisted that the Palestinian Authority alone must be in charge of the post-war governance of the Gaza Strip — rejecting Trump’s plan for the US to “own” the enclave after the war.On Iran, Trump has been pressing for “direct talks” with Tehran on a new deal to curb the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai said Tehran’s proposal for indirect negotiations was “generous, responsible and wise.”There has been widespread speculation that Israel, possibly with US help, might attack Iranian facilities if no agreement is reached.Netanyahu arrived direct from a visit to Hungary where Prime Minister Viktor Orban pulled his country out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) because the court issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader over the Gaza war.Both leaders also spoke by phone with Trump on Thursday.

With markets nosediving over Donald Trump’s trade war, the protectionist US president is hearing the first rumblings of discontent among his normally steadfast backers in Congress and big business.The Republican leader has roiled Wall Street and the global economy with a radical plan announced last week to zero out trade deficits with every other nation by imposing sweeping, indiscriminate import tariffs. Lawmakers beset by constituents worried about investments and pensions have begun adding their voices to a growing clamor for Congress to reassert its power over the nation’s purse strings and rein in the White House.The seeds of a rebellion sprouted in an unlikely corner as Senator Ted Cruz — a staunch Trump loyalist — warned of a jobs crunch and rising inflation that would threaten the Republican hold on Congress.”If we go into a recession, particularly a bad recession, 2026, in all likelihood politically, would be a bloodbath,” he said on his Verdict podcast.Unlike previous economic convulsions, the current crisis is entirely self-inflicted.Trump claims he is merely correcting decades of supposed international trade abuses that have harmed the US economy, and boasts of the vast revenues he sees his tariffs generating. Barring any last-minute reversal, his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs — broad levies on all imports rather than sector-specific measures — kick in Wednesday, with retaliatory tariffs from China expected a day later.- ‘Economic nuclear winter’ -The president shrugged off the markets carnage, spending the weekend fundraising and golfing.”The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid!” he posted on Truth Social Monday, urging Americans to buckle up. But Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund investor and one of Trump’s most prominent cheerleaders, warned at the weekend that the United States was “heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter.”And Elon Musk surprised Trump’s inner circle by slamming protectionist White House aide Peter Navarro and posting a video of revered late free market economist Milton Friedman extolling the virtues of international trade. The top Trump advisor and world’s richest man, who runs multiple global companies including Tesla and SpaceX, said Saturday he would like to see a “zero-tariff” relationship between the United States and Europe.JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon — a titan of global finance — defended the US right to address global trade abuses in his annual letter Monday.But he added that Trump’s tariffs would fuel inflation and slow growth.Trump critics complain that the messaging from the White House has been confused, leaving lawmakers guessing whether the point is to spark a manufacturing boom or simply to address unfair trade.Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said at the weekend that the tariffs would generate millions of domestic manufacturing jobs, implying that there was no room for negotiation.But National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett suggested that the point was to address economic injustice — telling Fox News more than 50 countries were keen to reset their trade relationships with Washington.- ‘Tariffs are taxes’ -While Democrats have been hammering Trump over trade, the usually pliant Republican members of Congress have begun to join the chorus of opprobrium, calling for a better explanation of the strategy.Four Republican senators have joined Democrats to push for a resolution ending Trump’s tariffs against Canada.”Tariffs are taxes and Americans are paying the price,” said the most outspoken of the rebels, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, who called on his colleagues to reassert their constitutional authority to regulate foreign trade.Democrat Maria Cantwell and Republican Chuck Grassley are pushing another bill to require congressional approval of tariffs within 60 days. Republican Don Bacon is spearheading a similar effort in the House, although there appears — for now, at least — little chance of success for any effort to constrain Trump in the lower chamber.Speaker Mike Johnson — who decides which bills get to the floor for a vote — is urging Republicans to trust in Trump.”These tariffs restore fair and reciprocal trade and level the playing field for American workers and innovators,” he posted on X.    “The President understands that FREE trade ONLY works when it’s FAIR!”

US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened new tariffs of 50 percent on China, ratcheting up a trade war even as a dramatic selloff in global markets gathered pace.Trump upended the world economy last week with sweeping tariffs that have raised fears of an international recession and triggered criticism even from within his own Republican Party.In response to Trump’s tariffs, Beijing — Washington’s major economic rival — unveiled its own 34 percent duties on US goods to come into effect on Thursday.The US president on Monday chastised China for not heeding “my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate.”He said on social media that if China did not immediately back down “the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th.”With the incoming 34 percent rate and new 50 percent threat, the total additional tariffs this year could hit 104 percent, the White House told AFP.Stock markets and oil prices collapsed further, as trading floors across the world were overcome by waves of selling after last week’s sharp losses.Wall Street was wracked by volatility, bouncing into positive territory on hopes of a 90-day pause in tariffs, only to sink lower when those were dashed by the White House.Hong Kong collapsed by 13.2 percent Monday, its worst day in nearly three decades.Trillions of dollars have been wiped off combined stock market valuations in recent sessions. Tokyo closed down by almost eight percent. Frankfurt fell as much as 10 percent in early trading before paring back losses.- ‘Don’t be weak’ -“Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid!” Trump urged Americans minutes before Wall Street opened.”Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”Trump scrapped any meetings with China over its retaliation, but said the United States was ready to open talks with all countries willing to negotiate.A 10 percent “baseline” tariff on US imports from around the world took effect Saturday but a slew of countries will be hit by higher duties from Wednesday, with levies of 34 percent for Chinese goods and 20 percent for EU products.Chinese vice commerce minister Ling Ji said its tit-for-tat duties “are aimed at bringing the United States back onto the right track of the multilateral trade system.””The root cause of the tariff issue lies in the United States,” Ling told representatives of US companies on Sunday.EU trade ministers gathered in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss the bloc’s response, with Germany and France having advocated a tax targeting US tech giants.”We must not exclude any option on goods, on services,” said French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin.The 27-nation bloc should “open the European toolbox, which is very comprehensive and can also be extremely aggressive,” he said.But signs of divergence emerged from Ireland, whose low corporate tax rate has attracted US tech and pharmaceutical companies.Targeting services “would be an extraordinary escalation,” said Irish Trade Minister Simon Harris.- Inflation? Recession? -Bitcoin tumbled, while the dollar rebounded after sharp losses last week.The 78-year-old Republican believes that the tariffs will revive America’s lost manufacturing base by forcing foreign companies to relocate to US soil, rather than making goods abroad.But most economists question his theory and say his tariff figures on importing countries are arbitrary.JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned the tariffs “will likely increase inflation,” in a letter to shareholders.”Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth,” he said.”The market’s telling you in plain language: global demand is vanishing, and a global recession is on the cards and coming on fast,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.US Senator Ted Cruz — a staunch Trump loyalist — warned of a jobs crunch and rising inflation that would threaten the Republican hold on Congress.Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel — hit with 17 percent tariffs, despite being one of Washington’s closest allies — was due on Monday to become the first leader to meet Trump since last week’s announcement.

Clem Burke, the longtime drummer for the pioneering New Wave band Blondie, has died, the band announced Monday. He was 70 years old.The band said Burke died after a “private battle with cancer.””Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie,” read the statement on Instagram. “His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable.”A native of New Jersey, Burke appeared on all of Blondie’s albums, joining in 1975 shortly after Debbie Harry and Chris Stein founded the band behind seminal hits like “Heart of Glass.”Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside his bandmates in 2006.He worked with many other storied artists throughout his career, including Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Joan Jett, the Ramones and Eurythmics.”Clem’s influence extended far beyond Blondie,” read the band’s statement. “His influence and contributions have spanned decades and genres, leaving an indelible mark on every project he was a part of.””Godspeed, Dr. Burke.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, becoming the first foreign leader to personally plead for a reprieve from stinging US tariffs that have shaken the world.Netanyahu, holding talks with Trump for the second time since the US president returned to power in January, will also seek further backing on Iran and Gaza where a short-lived US-brokered truce has collapsed.”We’re going to talk about trade, and we’re going to talk about the obvious subject,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday as he returned from a golfing weekend in Florida.”There’s a lot of things going on with the Middle East right now that have to be silenced.”Netanyahu met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday night soon after his arrival, according to his office.The Israeli premier also met Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday.Arriving in Washington direct from a visit to Hungary, Netanyahu’s chief objective was to try to persuade Trump to reverse the decision, or at the very least to reduce the 17 percent levy set to be imposed on Israeli imports before it takes effect.Before leaving Budapest, Netanyahu had said his discussions would cover a range of issues, including “the tariff regime that has also been imposed on Israel.””I’m the first international leader, the first foreign leader who will meet with President Trump on a matter so crucial to Israel’s economy,” he said in a statement.”I believe this reflects the special personal relationship and the unique bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time.”In Budapest, Netanyahu met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who pulled his country out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) because it has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader.Both leaders also spoke by phone with Trump on Thursday.- ‘Urgency’ -Analysts said Netanyahu would seek to secure an exemption from the tariffs for Israel.”The urgency (of the visit) makes sense in terms of stopping it before it gets institutionalized,” said Jonathan Rynhold, head of political studies at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv.Such an exemption would not only benefit Trump’s closest Middle East ally but also “please Republicans in Congress, whose voters care about Israel, but are unwilling to confront Trump on this at this point,” he said.Israel had attempted to dodge the new tariffs by moving preemptively a day before Trump’s announcement and lifting all remaining Israeli duties on the one percent of US goods still affected by them.But Trump did not exempt Israel from his global salvo, saying the United States had a significant trade deficit with the country, the top beneficiary of US military aid.Netanyahu will also discuss the war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack, the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, and the “growing threat from Iran,” his office said.Israel resumed intense strikes on Gaza on March 18, and the weeks-long ceasefire with Hamas that the United States, Egypt and Qatar had brokered collapsed.Efforts to restore the truce have failed, with nearly 1,400 people killed in renewed Israeli air and ground operations, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.Palestinian militants in Gaza are still holding 58 hostages, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.On Iran, Trump has been pressing for “direct talks” with Tehran on a new deal to curb the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai said Tehran’s proposal for indirect negotiations was “generous, responsible and wise.”There has been widespread speculation that Israel, possibly with US help, might attack Iranian facilities if no agreement is reached.

US President Donald Trump cautioned against “stupid” panic on Monday as a global stock market rout deepened after Beijing retaliated against his tariffs offensive.Shares in New York joined the slump, with all three major US indices falling more than three percent in early trading.European equities were deep in the red but Asia fared worse, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index crashing 13.2 percent, its biggest drop since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 falling an eye-watering 7.8 percent.A 10-percent “baseline” tariff on imports from around the world took effect Saturday but a slew of countries will be hit by higher duties from Wednesday, with levies of 34 percent for Chinese goods and 20 percent for EU products.Minutes before the markets opened in New York, Trump posted that his tariff reforms were “a chance to do something that should have been done decades ago.””Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid!… Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!” he urged.Beijing announced last week its own 34-percent tariff on US goods, which will come into effect on Thursday.The move pushed Trump to chastise China for not heeding “my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate” as he called Beijing “the biggest abuser of them all” on tariffs.But Chinese vice commerce minister Ling Ji said the tit-for-tat duties “are aimed at bringing the United States back onto the right track of the multilateral trade system.””The root cause of the tariff issue lies in the United States,” Ling told representatives of US companies on Sunday.EU trade ministers gathered in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss the bloc’s response, with Germany and France having advocated a tax targeting US tech giants.”We must not exclude any option on goods, on services,” said French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin.- ‘Aggressive’ options -The 27-nation bloc should “open the European toolbox, which is very comprehensive and can also be extremely aggressive,” he said.German Economy Minister Robert Habeck likewise said Europe should be prepared to use its trade “bazooka” — a new anti-coercion mechanism allowing it to punish any country using economic threats to exert pressure on the EU.But signs of divergence emerged from Ireland, whose low corporate tax rate has attracted US tech and pharmaceutical companies.Targeting services “would be an extraordinary escalation,” said Irish Trade Minister Simon Harris.Trump on Sunday had doubled down, saying “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”He told reporters aboard Air Force One that world leaders were “dying to make a deal.”Trillions of dollars have been wiped off stocks worldwide since Trump announced the tariffs last week, and the losses deepened on Monday.JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned the tariffs “will likely increase inflation,” in a letter to shareholders Monday.”Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth,” he said.Taipei recorded its heaviest loss on record as it sank 9.7 percent.The Stoxx Europe 600 index was down five percent in early afternoon deals, with more than 1.5 trillion euros of market capitalization going up in smoke over just a few days.The main US oil contract dropped below $60 a barrel for the first time since April 2021 on worries of a global recession.- Global demand ‘vanishing’ -“The market’s telling you in plain language: global demand is vanishing, and a global recession is on the cards and coming on fast,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.US officials said more than 50 countries have reached out to Trump to negotiate.Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday he had held a call with Trump in which they agreed to more talks on the tariffs.Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel — hit with 17 percent tariffs, despite being one of Washington’s closest allies — was due on Monday to become the first leader to meet Trump since last week’s announcement.Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse with a big trade surplus with the United States, has already reached out and requested a delay of at least 45 days to thumping 46-percent tariffs.

A global stock market rout deepened on Monday and fears of recession rose after China retaliated against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and Europe calibrated its response to the escalating trade war.European equities were deep in the red but Asia fared worse, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index crashing 13.2 percent, its biggest drop since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 falling an eye-watering 7.8 percent.A 10-percent “baseline” tariff on imports from around the world took effect on Saturday but a slew of countries will be hit by higher duties from Wednesday, with levies of 34 percent for Chinese goods and 20 percent for EU products.While other countries weigh their options, Beijing announced last week its own 34-percent tariff on US goods, which will come into effect on Thursday.The tit-for-tat duties “are aimed at bringing the United States back onto the right track of the multilateral trade system”, Chinese vice commerce minister Ling Ji said.”The root cause of the tariff issue lies in the United States,” Ling told representatives of US companies on Sunday, according to his ministry.EU trade ministers gathered in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss the bloc’s response, with Germany and France having advocated a tax targeting US tech giants.”We must not exclude any option on goods, on services,” said French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin.The 27-nation bloc should “open the European toolbox, which is very comprehensive and can also be extremely aggressive”, he said.German Economy Minister Robert Habeck likewise said Europe should be prepared to use its trade “bazooka” — a new anti-coercion mechanism allowing it to punish any country using economic threats to exert pressure on the EU.But signs of divergence already emerged, with Ireland, whose low corporate tax rate has attracted US tech and pharmaceutical companies, warning against that course of action.Targeting services “would be an extraordinary escalation at a time when we must be working for de-escalation”, said Irish Trade Minister Simon Harris.EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said Europe was facing a “paradigm shift of the global trading system”.- Recession fears -Trump on Sunday doubled down on his demand to slash deficits with trading partners, saying he would not cut any deals unless that was resolved.”Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” said Trump, whose administration has shrugged off the market panic.He told reporters aboard Air Force One that world leaders were “dying to make a deal”.Trillions of dollars have been wiped off stocks worldwide since Trump announced the tariffs last week, and the losses deepened on Monday.Taipei recorded its heaviest loss on record as it sank 9.7 percent.In Europe, Frankfurt’s DAX sank as much as 10 percent in early deals but the German index pared back losses and was down just under four percent shortly after midday, with similar losses in Paris and London.US markets were expected to open deep in the red later on Monday.The main US oil contract dropped below $60 a barrel for the first time since April 2021 on worries of a global recession.”The market’s telling you in plain language: global demand is vanishing, and a global recession is on the cards and coming on fast,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.- Status quo ‘gone’ -US officials said more than 50 countries have reached out to Trump to negotiate.Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, whose country faces a 24-percent levy, said Tokyo would present Trump with a “package” of measures to win relief from US tariffs ahead of a mooted call between the leaders.Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel — hit with 17 percent tariffs, despite being one of Washington’s closest allies — was due on Monday to become the first leader to meet Trump since last week’s announcement.British 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”.Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse with a big trade surplus with the United States, has already reached out and requested a delay of at least 45 days to thumping 46-percent tariffs.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC’s Meet the Press that Trump has “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 said.