Author: staff
Automakers and independent analyses have indicated that the tariffs could raise prices, reduce sales and make US production less competitive worldwide. Trump portrayed the changes as a bridge toward automakers moving more production into the United States.“We just wanted to help them during this little transition, short term,” Trump told reporters. “We didn’t want to penalize them. ”Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who spoke earlier at a White House briefing on Tuesday, said the goal was to enable automakers to create more domestic manufacturing jobs.“President Trump has had meetings with both domestic and foreign auto producers, and he’s committed to bringing…
In the context of escalating trade tensions and mounting hybrid threats, the EU will soon release its International Digital Strategy for Europe. “Tech competitiveness is an economic and security imperative for all aspiring to durable wealth and stability,” says a draft version dated April 9. Yet when it comes to dominant players such as the U.S., “decoupling is unrealistic and cooperation will remain significant across the technological value chain,” the draft says. It cites China as well as Japan, South Korea and India as countries with which collaboration will also be essential. The pitch for strategic tech alliances with like-minded…
The almost-2,000-year-old institution is currently searching for a new spiritual leader after the death of Pope Francis this month. When asked who should replace Francis, Trump said “I have no preference,” but added: “I must say, we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who’s very good, so we’ll see what happens.” The cardinal of New York, Timothy Dolan, is not believed to be among the frontrunners to succeed Francis. There has never been a pope from the U.S.
Spain’s national transmission system operator has not found signs that a cyberattack was at the root of the massive power blackout in Spain and Portugal on Monday. “With the analyses we have been able to carry out so far, we can rule out a cybersecurity incident in the electricity grid facilities at the Red Eléctrica control center,” Red Eléctrica’s head of system operation services Eduardo Prieto said at a press conference on Tuesday. Prieto said the conclusions were preliminary, but said that so far, the operator had “been able to conclude that there has not been any type of intrusion…
BRUXELLES — Les gouvernements européens envisagent de rassurer l’administration Trump en modifiant les règles de l’UE sur l’imposition des multinationales pour exempter les Etats-Unis d’une disposition clé de l’accord mondial historique. Dans le cadre de ce dernier, négocié au sein de l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE), près de 140 pays se sont entendus en 2021 pour fixer un taux d’imposition minimum de 15% pour les multinationales dont le chiffre d’affaires est d’au moins 750 millions d’euros par an. Cet accord est considéré comme une étape essentielle dans la lutte contre l’évasion fiscale. A ce jour, une quarantaine…
The second-biggest delegation, the Poles, recently warned they will not continue to play ball if that means losing the socialists and liberals, the EPP’s centrist allies. The party leadership has argued they will not sacrifice their policy objectives for the sake of appeasing the socialists — and if the far-right vote in favor of EPP’s proposals, so be it. A similar argument was made in the presidency’s congress declaration, which insists the party should be pragmatic on who it works with to deliver “balanced” solutions and argues the EPP “is the bridge builder” among political families, according to a…
Trump’s tariffs — 10 percent on most countries, 145 percent on China and 25 percent on steel, aluminum and cars — roiled global markets when he announced them at the start of the month. The World Trade Organization forecasts that global trade will shrink by as much as 1.5 percent if Trump reinstates his higher “reciprocal” tariffs — pegged for the EU at 20 percent — that he earlier suspended for 90 days. Though she did not name the U.S. president, von der Leyen criticized strongmen around the world in remarks that could easily have been directed at Trump’s aggressive diplomatic style or, in the same…
In 2024, print remained the preferred format for readers who shop online, according to the latest Eurostat figures. Around 14.7% of EU residents bought printed books, magazines or newspapers online in the three months before the Eurostat survey. This represents more than double the rate of those who downloaded e-books or audiobooks. The highest shares of residents buying printed books, magazines or newspapers online were reported in Ireland at 28.3%, the Netherlands at 23.5%, and Luxembourg at 22.7%. By contrast, the lowest shares were reported in Cyprus at 2.0%, Latvia at 3.8% and Romania at 5.3%. For e-books and audiobooks, the highest shares were recorded in Ireland at 22.3%,…
The World Food Programme (WFP) and other United Nations agencies will have to slash jobs because of funding cuts, mainly from the United States, officials have said, warning the reductions will severely affect aid programmes worldwide.That’s according to internal memos obtained by the Associated Press and verified by two UN officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel decisions.Other bodies like UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, and OCHA, the humanitarian agency, have also announced or plan to announce cuts that would impact around 20% of staff and overall budgets.The cuts to the UN agencies underscore the impact of…
KAZANLAK, Bulgaria — The EU needs to boost defense production as Washington threatens to phase out its presence in Europe, European Council head António Costa told POLITICO. “We certainly need to produce more European [weapons] to be more autonomous,” Costa said. “The United States took the decision and we should respect that [their] focus is more in other regions of the world than in Europe.” The president of the European Council made the remarks during a Monday visit to the Arsenal arms factory in central Bulgaria — the largest employer in the country with more than 10,500 workers.