Good morning.
As Donald Trump prepared to unveil a swathe of reciprocal tariffs, global markets braced themselves and some Republican senators voiced their opposition to a strategy that critics warn risks a global trade war, provoking retaliation by major trading partners such as China, Canada and the EU.
The US president said on Monday he would be “very kind” to trading partners when he unveiled further tariffs this week, possibly as early as Tuesday night.
The Republican billionaire insists that reciprocal action is needed because the world’s biggest economy has been “ripped off by every country in the world”, promising “Liberation Day” for the US.
What do Europeans think of the plans? A large majority of western Europeans support retaliatory tariffs against the US, a survey has shown, if Trump introduces sweeping import duties for major trading partners as expected this week.
Musk’s ‘Doge’ gains access to federal payroll system despite staff warnings
Members of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly gained access to a payroll system over the weekend that processes the salaries of about 276,000 federal employees across various government agencies, despite warnings from senior staff about the potential risks.
According to two people familiar with the situation who spoke to the New York Times, Doge employees had spent about two weeks trying to obtain administrative access to the program, known as the Federal Personnel and Payroll System.
Then, toward the end of last week, senior career officials at the interior department reportedly issued a memo highlighting the unusual nature of the request and the associated risks with granting it.
What did the memo say? The memo, reviewed by the Times, stated that “such elevated access to critical high-value asset systems is rare with respect to individual systems and no single [Department of Interior] official presently has access to all HR, payroll and credentialing systems”.
In other news …
The president of France’s far-right the National Rally (RN) party has described a court’s decision to ban Marine Le Pen from public office for five years as “disproportionate, political and partisan”.
Myanmar’s military faces criticism over continued airstrikes and claims it is blocking aid to earthquake survivors, as international agencies urged “unfettered access” to humanitarian aid in the conflict-riven nation.
Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to overhaul US elections faced its first legal challenges yesterday as the Democratic National Committee and a pair of nonprofits filed two separate lawsuits calling it unconstitutional.
At least three people have been killed and seven injured in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Stat of the day: OpenAI raises up to $40bn in record-breaking deal with SoftBank
OpenAI said it had raised $40bn in a funding round that valued the ChatGPT maker at $300bn – the biggest capital-raising session ever for a startup. It comes in a partnership with the Japanese investment group SoftBank and “enables us to push the frontiers of AI research even further”, OpenAI announced, adding it would “pave the way toward AGI (artificial general intelligence)” for which “massive computing power is essential”.
Don’t miss this: How to use AI to get a job interview and nail it – along with the salary you deserve
The fear that artificial intelligence (AI) will replace millions of jobs is widespread. But equally, in today’s tough job market, not using AI wisely as part of your search could mean you miss out, Harriet Meyer writes. It’s a tricky balancing act to harness the technology’s power without losing the human touch. Here are some tips for supercharging your search and beating the screening, sharpening your speaking skills and boosting your negotiating position.
Climate check: Average person will be 40% poorer if world warms by 4C, new research shows
Economic models have systematically underestimated how global heating will affect people’s wealth, according to a study that finds 4C warming will make the average person 40% poorer – an almost four-fold increase on some estimates. The study, by Australian scientists, says average global GDP per person will be reduced by 16% even if warming is kept to 2C higher. This is much higher than previous estimates of a drop of about 1.4%.
Last thing: ‘We weren’t stuck’ – Nasa astronauts tell of space odyssey and reject claims of neglect
In the end, whatever Elon Musk and Donald Trump liked to insist, the astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams have said they were never stuck, nor stranded in space, and definitely not abandoned or marooned. The world heard on Monday, for the first time since their return to Earth two weeks ago, from the two Nasa astronauts whose 10-day flight to the International Space Station (ISS) last summer turned into a nine-month stay. And their story was markedly at odds with the narrative that came from the White House.
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