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👋 হ্যালো*
Welcome to Thursday, where Donald Trump’s new wave of tariffs sends the world markets into a tailspin, the death toll in last week’s earthquake in southeast Asia tops 3,000, and today’s quiz question is about fruit flies. Meanwhile, Madrid-based La Marea investigates the shady surrogacy agency Gestlife and the complex network of companies behind it.
[*Hyalo, Bengali - Bangladesh and India]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
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French weekly La Tribune headlines Donald Trump's “poker move” as the U.S. president launched his all-out trade assault on Wednesday, announcing heavy tariffs, particularly against China (34%) and the European Union (20%) starting on April 9. A minimum tariff of 10% will be imposed on all products entering the country from April 5. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she “deeply” regretted this “heavy blow” to the global economy, and that it was “not too late” to negotiate. China’s Ministry of Commerce has called on Washington to “immediately reverse” the tariff hike that is “jeopardizing global economic development.”
Check how newspapers around the world covered the watershed moment in global trade, thanks to our international front page collection.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• World reels from Trump’s sweeping global tariffs. The European Union and China vowed retaliation after U.S. President Donald Trump announced far-reaching new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners on Wednesday. These include a 10% tariff on most goods imported to the U.S. and higher rates for countries that Trump calls the “worst offenders.” Stock markets in Beijing and Tokyo sank to multi-month lows on Thursday, while European shares also experienced a sharp drop in early trading. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the global economy would “suffer from these decisions that haven’t been thought through” while China’s Foreign Ministry responded “that there are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars.”
• Hungary to withdraw from ICC as Netanyahu arrives for state visit. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government announced Hungary was withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday, hours after the arrival in Budapest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces arrest under an ICC warrant. Orban had invited Netanyahu for this week’s state visit to Hungary in November, a day after the ICC issued its arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, saying the ruling was “brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable.”
• Myanmar earthquake toll tops 3,000. The death toll from the massive earthquake that hit Myanmar nearly a week ago rose Thursday to 3,085 as global aid bodies warned that extreme heat and heavy rain could cause disease outbreaks among survivors camping in the open. With 341 people still missing, the ruling junta announced a temporary ceasefire in operations against armed opposition groups to speed up relief and reconstruction efforts until April 22. Meanwhile, its chief Min Aung Hlaing is set to travel to Bangkok for a summit that will gather leaders of the seven countries that border the Bay of Bengal, despite the fact that sanctioned leaders are typically barred from these events.
• Danish prime minister visits Greenland, promises support against U.S. pressure. Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen has begun a three-day trip in Greenland amid efforts to build trust and cooperation with Greenlandic officials at a time when the Trump administration is seeking control of the vast Arctic territory. Frederiksen, who said her country remains “Greenland’s closest partner,” had announced plans for this trip that began Wednesday after U.S. Vice President JD Vance visited a U.S. air base in Greenland last week and accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory. For more on Greenland’s economy, check this Die Zeit piece, translated by Worldcrunch.
• Thousands protest in Haiti to denounce surging gang violence. Thousands of protesters clashed with police in Port-au-Prince, as they expressed their anger against armed gangs that control nearly all of Haiti’s capital city and the government’s failure to hold them off. The clashes Wednesday mark the first major protest for the administration of Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who was appointed interim prime minister last November.
• Tesla sales plunge as Musk backlash grows. Tesla’s quarterly sales plunged 13% compared with a year ago — their lowest level in three years after a backlash against its CEO Elon Musk and rising global competition. The electric car maker’s shares tumbled on Wednesday after the release of the low sales numbers, but reversed course after Politico and ABC reported that Musk was planning to step down from his role as an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump soon. Read more in this analysis translated from German by Worldcrunch: Tesla Sales Sink In Europe — And It's Not Just A Backlash Against Elon Musk.
• News Quiz! According to a new study, what do male fruit flies do in order to make themselves more attractive to females?
A. They dance
B. They drink alcohol
C. They bzzzzz a tune
D. They fly in a heart shape
[Answer below]
🔢 BY THE NUMBERS
$449.99
Nintendo announced it will launch its Switch 2 gaming device on June 5, with the long-anticipated successor to its hit hybrid home-portable Switch retailing for $449.99 — making it the most expensive console ever sold by the Kyoto-based gaming firm. The Switch 2 offers a bigger screen, mouse controls and a chat function available via a dedicated button on the controller. A separate bundle that includes the new "Mario Kart World" game will also be available for $499.99. The first version of Switch, which put Nintendo back on top after its Wii U sold poorly, launched in March 2017 priced at $299.99.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
💥 The United States has "quietly" kept bombing Yemen, more than 50 times in two weeks. But what if Donald Trump’s real target is Iran?
— FRANCE INTER
🤰 The surrogacy agency Gestlife — which is registered in the U.S., where this activity is legal — operates from Barcelona and uses a complex network of companies to do so. An investigation into this shady business network.
— LA MAREA
🔍 On social networks, people on the extreme right use emojis to encode their ideology. Over the past eight years, two Dutch researchers have become experts in this symbolic language that operates across borders.
— DIE ZEIT
📣 VERBATIM
“We can’t live in a country where people are afraid to go into the woods.”
— Slovakia’s government has approved a plan to shoot around a quarter of the country's brown bears, after a man was believed to have been killed by one of them while walking in a forest in Central Slovakia. “We can't live in a country where people are afraid to go into the woods," said Prime Minister Robert Fico right after his cabinet decided that 350 out of an estimated population of 1,300 brown bears would be culled. This new plan was condemned by conservationists, who said the decision was in violation of international obligations, and could be illegal. Bears have become a political issue in Slovakia after a rising number of encounters, including fatal attacks.
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet and Cecilia Laurent Monpetit
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Quiz Answer: B. Male fruit flies drink alcohol to become more attractive to females, says a new study. Alcohol produced by rotting fruit allows males to increase their release of pheromones and leads to higher mating success. Scientists have been trying for years to solve the mystery of why the insects are attracted to alcohol. “We don't think flies drink alcohol because they are depressed,” said study author Bill Hansson.