US car invoices increased the risk of a world trade war
President Trump’s plan to impose a 25 % invoice on cars and spare parts sent a turbulence through the world car industry. Markets in Asia, Europe and the US were swinging yesterday, as automakers’ stock prices declined. Trump threatened to target the EU and Canada if it sets up to react.
Invoices in all cars and certain car accessories, exported to the US, will come into force next Thursday. Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Canada account for about 75 % of US vehicle imports. Here the big car companies will be affected.
The invoices put Trump’s theory of unorthodox trade. For the president, invoices encourage companies to transfer factories to the US, creating more US jobs. Economists say their effects are more complex and that they could cause significant damage.
Reactions: The leader of Mark Carney, Canada, said the US was “no longer a reliable partner” and that his country would announce retaliation invoices next week. In Germany, whose automotive industry is a huge exporter in the US, Finance Minister Robert Habeck said it was “vital for the EU to provide a decisive response to invoices”, adding, “it must be clear that we will not retreat”.
A dark vision of a postwar Ukraine
European leaders in Paris yesterday discussed a French proposal to send a “assurances of assurance” to help ensure a possible peace in Ukraine. But French leader Emmanuel Macron said the details of such a force were still ironed. Russia called the proposal unacceptable.
The meeting followed three days of talks caused by the US in Saudi Arabia this week, which gave agreements, with warnings, between Russia and Ukraine to stop attacks on energy infrastructure and the fight against the Black Sea.
Russian goals: Moscow wants relief from restrictions on shipping, insurance and banking that complicate its agricultural exports. “Russia also wants sanctions that are lifted to the State Agricultural Bank and to reconnect with the international SWIFT payment system,” said my colleague Paul Sonne, who covers Russia. “But this would require agreement from European allies that have been cut off from talks.”
Front: Journalists for the Times were integrated with Ukrainian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine. Inside aircraft, mines and snipers, peace talks seemed a world away.
Anti-Hamas protests in Gaza grew up
Rare public protests in Gaza to end Hamas’ domination – and in war – have spread to several cities in the last three days. While most of the demonstrations were small, they represent the boldest challenge for Hamas’s power since the war began in 2023.
Hamas has been brutally accumulated in protests in the past. This time, her security forces were largely absent, probably due to the delicate position of the team with the Gazans and the difficulty of mobilizing under the threat of Israeli air raids.
Quotable: “Hamas has to leave,” said Ahmad al-Masri, who helped ask for the demonstrations. “If it doesn’t, bloodshed, wars and disaster will not stop.”
Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition gave more power to choose judges, repeating a judicial review that distributed the country before the war.
Yemen: Middle East experts said Houthis supported by Iran would not be easily defeated, despite the intentions revealed by US officials in their conversation.
More top news
Whales are singing. Fish. But the sharks were silent in our ears, until the scientists in New Zealand recently heard a shark make a click, probably hitting his teeth together. Listen to a recording.
Lives lived: David Childs, an architect crowned by the New York horizon with the Shimmering New 1 World Trade Center, replacing the twin towers destroyed on 9/11, died on Wednesday at 83.
Communication Starters
Arts and ideas
The ruins of the Third Reich
Europe is turning with human residues from two world wars that killed tens of millions of people. Many simply disappeared into ruins, while others were hurriedly buried in unmarked graves.
In Germany, where memory and forgetting it is linked to huge guilt, the question of how to handle these ruins is particularly full. Treating the issue, it is Volksbund, an organization that has been tasked with finding the tombs of all the Germans who died in the many wars of the country and giving each dignified burial, no matter who they were or what they did. (Auf Deutsch Lesen.)
This is for today’s update. We say it next week – and thank you to those who inform us that yesterday’s underlying line showed it wrong that it was Monday.
Good Friday and make a great weekend. – Natasha
Arrive at Natasha and the team in updates@nytimes.com.
