Author: ALJAZEERA

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the imports of steel and aluminium by the United States are sending shockwaves through global markets and escalating tensions with key trading partners, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union. Some countries are fighting back with retaliatory tariffs, others are seeking exemptions, and a few are trying to negotiate their way out of the 25 percent tariffs. So, who is escalating the trade war, who is trying to avoid it, and what does this mean for the industries that rely on these metals? Who supplies steel and aluminium to the US? Canada, Brazil, and Mexico…

Is Elon Musk planning to use artificial intelligence to run the US government? That seems to be his plan, but experts say it is a “very bad idea”. Musk has fired tens of thousands of federal government employees through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and he reportedly requires the remaining workers to send the department a weekly email featuring five bullet points describing what they accomplished that week. Since that will no doubt flood DOGE with hundreds of thousands of these types of emails, Musk is relying on artificial intelligence to process responses and help determine who should remain…

Benchmark S&P 500 falls 1.39 percent, dragging index more than 10 percent below its February peak.The United States’ stock market has taken another tumble following US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on wine and other alcoholic products from the European Union. The benchmark S&P 500 fell 1.39 percent on Thursday, dragging the index into a correction – Wall Street lingo for a decline of 10 percent or more from the peak. Corrections are not unusual in the US stock market, which has consistently recovered from losses over its history, though they can be unsettling for investors in…

Officials say US military’s Southern Command exploring multiple options, from working with Panama to military action.The Pentagon is reportedly exploring military options for the Panama Canal to ensure ongoing US access to the strategically important waterway, following a request from the White House. The Reuters news agency reported on Thursday that a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a document, described as an interim national security guidance by the new Trump administration, called on US forces to look at military options to safeguard access to the Panama Canal. Responding to reports of possible US military action, Panama’s…

The US stock market has had a bumpy ride since United States President Donald Trump’s election in November. After hitting record highs in the aftermath of Trump’s victory, US stocks have shed trillions of dollars amid his dizzying back-and-forth announcements on tariffs and growing fears of a recession. While Trump has played down the turbulence as a temporary “period of transition” on the road to a stronger economy, supporters and critics of the US president alike have speculated without evidence that he may be trying to crash the stock market on purpose. What is happening with the US stock market?…

British chancellor to meet regulators on Monday to announce ‘action plan’ for cutting red tape.The United Kingdom’s Labour Party government is set to announce a “radical shake-up” of bureaucracy aimed at cutting administrative costs for businesses by a quarter. British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is set to meet with regulators on Monday to announce the “action plan” for cutting red tape, His Majesty’s Treasury said in a statement on Sunday. Under the plan, the government will cut the number of regulators, streamline the implementation of environmental regulations for major projects, and slash “costly red tape”, including hundreds of…

Belgian authorities announce arrests of several people in connection with alleged bribery within the parliament.Police have arrested several people as part of a corruption probe targeting the European Parliament and Chinese tech company Huawei, Belgian authorities have said. The suspects, who are alleged to have been involved in “active corruption” within the European Parliament to benefit Huawei, were arrested following searches at 21 premises in Belgium and Portugal, Belgium’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Thursday. “The corruption is said to have been practised regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day, under the guise…

Weakness in sentiment reflects a deterioration in expectations for the future across multiple facets of the economy, including personal finances, employment, inflation.Consumer sentiment in the United States has plunged to a nearly two-and-a-half-year low, and inflation expectations have soared amid worries that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which have ignited a trade war, would boost prices and undercut the economy. The deterioration in sentiment in March and inflation expectations reported by the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers on Friday were across political party affiliations with consumers saying “frequent gyrations in economic policies make it very difficult for consumers to…

Tech giant says it expects new feature to be ‘less biased’ than previous third-party fact-checking program.Meta has said that its “Community Notes” feature intended to replace third-party fact checkers will use the open-source algorithm developed by Elon Musk’s X. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the moderation shake-up in January amid a flurry of moves by Big Tech to ingratiate itself with United States President Donald Trump’s administration. The move followed years of accusations by conservatives that fact-checking efforts often labelled legitimate viewpoints as misinformation for political or ideological reasons. While Meta’s announcement was welcomed by Trump and many conservatives,…

BoC also said it would ‘proceed carefully with any further changes’ to rates given inflationary pressures from tariffs.The Bank of Canada has trimmed its key policy rate by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent and raised concerns about inflationary pressures and weaker growth stemming from trade uncertainty and President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The bank on Wednesday also said it would “proceed carefully with any further changes” to rates given the need to assess both the upward pressures on inflation from higher costs and the downward pressures from weaker demand. The bank’s stance, which some economists said could be a signal…