Business

Head of European Commission says bloc would prefer to negotiate but all countermeasures are on the table

• Trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariffs: what to expect and will the UK be spared?

The European Union has a “strong plan” to retaliate against tariffs imposed by Donald Trump but would prefer to negotiate, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said.

Trump, who has upended eight decades of certainties about the transatlantic relationship since taking office, has threatened tariffs on goods from around the world from Wednesday. His administration in March put tariffs on imported steel and aluminium and said higher duties on cars would come into effect on Thursday.

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President promises he will be ‘very kind’ but critics warn his strategy risks triggering chain reaction and global trade war

As Donald Trump prepared to unveil a swathe of reciprocal tariffs, global markets braced 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 European Union.

The US president said on Monday he would be “very kind” to trading partners when he unveils further tariffs this week, potentially as early as Tuesday night.

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Canadian PM says Donald Trump has permanently altered relations, as countries around the globe insist import taxes are harmful to all, including Washington

Canada’s prime minister has said the era of deep ties with the US “is over”, as governments from Tokyo to Berlin to Paris sharply criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports, with some threatening retaliatory action.

Mark Carney warned Canadians that Trump had permanently altered relations and that, regardless of any future trade deals, there would be “no turning back”.

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Analysis published by non-profit group Oceana comes amid fears over human health risks posed by the spread of microplastics

By 2030, Coca-Cola products will account for an estimated 602m kilograms of plastic waste entering the world’s oceans and waterways each year, according to a stark new analysis published Wednesday by the non-profit Oceana.

That is enough plastic to fill the stomachs of 18m whales.

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President says levies will take effect on 2 April when he is expected to unveil reciprocal tariffs on other imports

Donald Trump announced plans to impose sweeping 25% tariffs on cars from overseas on Wednesday, days before the US president is expected to announce wide-ranging levies on other goods from around the world.

“What we’re going to be doing is a 25% tariff for all cars that are not made in the United States,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We start off with a 2.5% base, which is what we’re at, and go to 25%.”

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Body representing over 90 firms says it could take airport to court over costs of closure if issue not ‘amicably settled’

A body representing more than 90 airlines using Heathrow airport said there might be a case for legal action if a settlement over the costs incurred from Friday’s closure after a fire is not reached.

Europe’s largest airport was closed in the early hours of Friday morning after the blaze at a major electricity substation hit electricity supplies.

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Yisroel Liebb of New Jersey claims pilot broke lock and pulled him out with his pants down, leaving him exposed

An Orthodox Jewish passenger says a United Airlines pilot forcibly removed him from an airplane bathroom while he was experiencing constipation, exposing his genitalia to other flyers during a flight from Tulum, Mexico, to Houston.

Yisroel Liebb, of New Jersey, described his trip through allegedly unfriendly skies in a federal lawsuit this week against the airline and the US Department of Homeland Security, whose officers he said boarded the plane upon landing and took him away in handcuffs.

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