News

Beijing's calculated and selective targeting of US goods may be an opening move ahead of talks.

Retaliatory tariffs described as ‘political theatre’ as Beijing thought to want to avoid escalating trade war
Minutes after Donald Trump’s tariffs on China came into force on Tuesday, China’s government announced its own retaliatory tariffs.
The Chinese tariffs focus on a range of sectors – big tech, energy, cars, farming, and fashion – but with some specific targets. China’s finance ministry said it would impose levies of 15% for US coal and liquid natural gas and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and large displacement vehicles and pickup trucks. Some high-profile US companies were also put under investigation or blacklisted.

The American government has levied tariffs on China for years, but President Donald Trump’s recent announcement of an additional 10 percent tariff on all Chinese imports has motivated the country to ...

President Xi Jinping has made no secret of his ambition for China to lead an alternate world order.

In this unsettling world order, polite, middle-size democracies are easy prey for bullies. It is time to reassert European power
Squeezed between and Russian and Chinese autocracy, Europe’s democracies stand out like a relic from a bygone age. The euphoria and sheepish groupthink on display at Donald Trump’s inauguration last month may well herald either a new or a hubristic bubble bound to burst. It is possible that China will succeed in reshaping the world in its image, or it may succumb to and . Europe is not alone in being at a historic crossroads, but it is exclusively mired in , despondency and self-doubt.
In 1492, as Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas and Spain embarked on its own siglo de oro, or golden age, Spanish troops were readying to take over large parts of Italy. Europe’s highest concentration of wealth was to be found in cities such as Florence, Milan and Venice. Cities of beauty and civility, industry and trade; cities, above all, so mesmerised by their particular identities that they refused to form a unitary state. The eventual result was the partition of the Italian peninsula. There was no space for rival city states in a world of nations.
Lorenzo Marsili is a philosopher, activist, author and director of the Berggruen Institute Europe

Concerns about inflation from U.S. tariffs isn't over yet. Europe is bracing for a potential trade showdown with the U.S., as an American tariff on Chinese imports takes effect today.

News comes after US secretary of state visited Panama to pressure the country over its ties with Beijing
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has welcomed Panama’s decision to let its participation in China’s global infrastructure plan expire, calling the move “a great step forward” for its ties with the United States.
Any move by Panama to distance itself from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (BRI) represents a win for Washington, which has argued that Beijing uses the scheme for “debt trap diplomacy” to cement its global influence.

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on US politics, see full coverage .
South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected Donald Trump’s claim that the country is confiscating land.
AFP reports that Ramaphosa said he was ready to explain his government’s land reform policy to his US counterpart.

Satellite images reveal the construction of a massive Chinese laboratory dedicated to laser fusion. Located in Mianyang, this site could have major implications for energy production while ...

The president’s tariff measures included a big change to trade rules that could increase costs for many purchases from sites like Amazon, Shein and Temu.

Amid warnings of price increases, Canada moved quickly to retaliate, China said it had planned countermeasures and Mexico said it would soon unveil its response.

"Eventually you cross that threshold of copying, and you're innovating, and then you're leading," Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick said.