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New global tariffs imposed by the US will have ‘profound’ economic consequences, the British prime minister warns.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the introduction of sweeping global tariffs by the United States has created a “new world” governed by “deals and alliances” rather than rules.
Starmer made the remarks in an opinion piece published in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper as countries around the world braced for further fallout from US President Donald Trump’s new tariff regime, which sent markets plummeting at the end of last week.
“The world as we knew it has gone. Old assumptions can no longer be taken for granted,” Starmer wrote.
Trump’s 10 percent baseline import tax on goods from around the world kicked in on Saturday. While the United Kingdom has got off relatively lightly with the 10 percent tariff, many nations face even higher levies in the coming days.
“This is an economic revolution, and we will win,” the US president wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Saturday. “Hang tough, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
Starmer disagreed. “Nobody wins from a trade war,” he said, describing “profound ” economic consequences from Trump’s trade offensive and signalling that “all options remain on the table” in responding to the tariffs. Advertisement
End of globalisation
On Sunday, Darren Jones, chief secretary to the UK Treasury, said on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that “globalisation as we’ve known it for the last number of decades” had in effect come to an end.
UK ministers had been reluctant to criticise the Trump administration in the wake of the tariffs as officials have been in talks with the US in recent weeks in the hope of securing a trade deal with Washington.
Starmer insisted in his opinion piece that a trade deal will be struck with the US only “if it is right for British business and the security of working people”, insisting that he would “continue to make the case for free and open trade”.
Trump’s 34-percent tariff on Chinese goods is set to kick in next week, triggering Beijing’s announcement of a 34-percent levy on US products from Thursday.
The European Union and Japan are also among about 60 US trading partners set to face higher rates on Wednesday, raising fears of recessions in some of the world’s leading economies.
Trump’s announcement of the tariffs on Wednesday has sent countries scrambling for a response. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced on Saturday that he would suspend all tariffs on goods imported from the US after being hit with an 18-percent levy.
On Sunday, Indonesian Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in a statement that his country, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, would not retaliate against Trump’s 32-percent tariff, which is to take effect on Wednesday. Advertisement
“The approach was taken by considering the long-term interest of bilateral trade relation, as well as to maintain the investment climate and national economic stability,” he said, adding that Jakarta will support potentially impacted sectors, such as the apparel and footwear industry.
The new levies mark “the most sweeping tariff hike since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the 1930 law best remembered for triggering a global trade war and deepening the Great Depression”, said the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington, DC.
Here is some more reaction to the tariffs from London, where ministers are weighing up a response to Trump’s higher levies.Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, has been speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on her BBC Sunday politics programme. Here is a roundup of what he said:
People should be prepared for things to be tougher in the global economy.
Globalisation has “come to an end” in the wake of the new tariffs. Asked if the era of “cheap fast-fashion or cheap TVs” was over, Jones said: “Yeah, it’s ended. Globalisation, as we’ve known it for the last number of decades, has come to an end.”
It is in the best interest of the British economy and workers to “get trade deals across the line”.
Jones said the government thinks a deal with Trump on tariffs can be reached, with talks ongoing. “We’re hoping to do a deal,” Jones said, adding that “we have a better outcome than other comparable countries as a consequence of our diplomacy”.
Ted Cruz, the US senator from Texas, has warned that his fellow Republicans risk a “bloodbath” in the 2026 midterm elections if Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs cause a recession.Cruz also warned that the president’s tariffs, if they stay in place for long and are met by global retaliation on American goods, could trigger a full-blown trade war that “would destroy jobs here at home, and do real damage to the US economy”.“A hundred years ago, the US economy didn’t have the leverage to have the kind of impact we do now. But I worry, there are voices within the administration that want to see these tariffs continue for ever and ever,” he added.The Texan’s comments, made on his Verdict podcast on Friday, were a further sign that the imposition of global “reciprocal” duties on imported goods is causing unease among Republicans.The Republican US senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa introduced bipartisan legislation on Thursday to grant Congress more power over placing tariffs on US trading nations. The bill, co-sponsored by the Democratic senator Maria Cantwell, would “reaffirm” the role of Congress in setting and approving trade policy.You can read the full story here:Crowds of people angry about the way Donald Trump is running the US rallied in scores of American cities on Saturday in the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement.The so-called “Hands Off!” demonstrations were held in more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists.Demonstrators voiced anger over the administration’s moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close social security administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut funding for health programs.Coming days after Trump’s tariff announcement, gatherings were also held outside the US, including in the European capital cities of London, Paris and Berlin, with many protestors there also expressing anger over the president’s new trade policies. Here are some pictures of the demonstrations:India does not plan to retaliate against Donald Trump’s 26% tariff on its exports into the US, an Indian government official told Reuters, citing ongoing talks for a deal between the countries.Narendra Modi’s administration has looked into a clause of Trump’s tariff order that offers a possible reprieve for trading partners who “take significant steps to remedy non-reciprocal trade arrangements”, said the official, who declined to be named as the details of the talks are confidential.New Delhi sees an advantage in being one of the first nations to have started talks over a trade deal with Washington, and is better placed than Asian peers like China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, which have been hit by higher US tariffs, a second government official told the news wire, also declining to be named.While the US appears set to avoid reciprocal tariffs from India, Taiwan and Indonesia the response from the European Union could be very different as it discusses imposing extra duties on US goods this week. China has already imposed 34% retaliatory tariffs.One of the most wilfully destructive aspects of Donald Trump’s shock and awe trade policy is the imposition of punitive tariffs on developing countries across Asia, including rates of 49% for Cambodia, 37% for Bangladesh, 48% for Laos.For decades Washington had championed economic development through trade. Now, at the same time as slashing overseas aid budgets and retreating from its role in supporting developing nations, it is ripping up that idea entirely.In its place, Trump intends to impose his will on the US’s trading partners. Some are all but powerless to exact concessions, given their small size, and dependence on the mighty American market.Alice Oyaro, the chief executive at the charity Transform Trade, which works with producers in some of the worst-hit countries, says: “Our biggest concern is that the additional costs are pushed down to those in the supply chain who are least able to pay. Small farmers exporting everything from green beans to cocoa, and women workers in Bangladeshi factories are already finding it hard to make ends meet. They will see their incomes squeezed even more.”You can read the full piece from our economics editor hereVietnam’s leader has requested a delay of “at least 45 days” to tariffs due to be imposed by the United States on 9 April, according to a copy of a signed letter seen by Agence France-Presse, the wire service reported on Sunday.The south-east Asian nation is facing 46% US tariffs, one of the highest levels imposed by Donald Trump.To Lam called on Trump in the letter to assign a representative to work with Vietnam’s deputy prime minister, Ho Duc Phoc, on resolving the issue, adding that he hoped to meet Trump personally in Washington at the end of May.Taiwan’s president has now said there are no plans for reciprocal trade tariffs against the US.Reuters reports that the 32% tariffs on Taiwanese goods announced by Donald Trump do not apply to semiconductors, a major export for the country.Meeting executives from small and medium-sized companies at his residence, the president, Lai Ching-te, said given Taiwan’s dependence on trade the economy would inevitably have a hard time dealing with the tariffs, but that he thought the impact could be minimised.“In the face of the US ‘reciprocal tariffs’, Taiwan has no plans to take tariff retaliation, and there will be no change in the investment commitments of enterprises to the United States as long as they are in the national interest,” he said, in comments provided by his office.Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, last month announced an additional $100bn investment in the US.Taiwan will now work to remove trade barriers and have other companies gradually increase their US investments. “In the future, in addition to TSMC’s increased investment, other industries, such as electronics, information and communications, petrochemicals, and natural gas will be able to increase investment in the US and deepen Taiwan-US industrial cooperation,” Lai said.As we mentioned in an earlier post, Taiwan, for whom the US is the island’s most important international backer in the face of mounting Chinese pressure over Beijing’s sovereignty claims, has not announced any retaliatory tariffs.But the country’s president, Lai Ching-te, said his government will remove trade barriers and Taiwanese companies will gradually increase their domestic investments. We will give you more information on this as we get it.Taiwan, which faces a new 32% tariff rate from the US, has already announced T$88bn ($2.67bn; £2.1bn) in assistance for affected companies.Taiwan runs a large trade surplus with the US. Taiwanese officials have repeatedly said trade with America has been skewed by strong demand for Taiwanese technology products, such as advanced semiconductors – a sector dominated by the island.Elon Musk, who heads the so-called department of government efficiency as one of Donald Trump’s closest advisers, has said he hopes to see complete freedom of trade between the US and Europe.The Tesla CEO and owner of X was speaking via video-link at a congress in Florence of Italy’s right-wing, co-ruling League Party on Saturday. He was being interviewed by Italy’s hard-line deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini.“At the end of the day, I hope it’s agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” the billionaire said.“And more freedom for people to move between Europe and North America, if they wish,” Musk said, adding, “that has certainly been my advice to the president”.Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday that the US’s trade tariffs were a mistake but their impact should not be overestimated and the reaction needed to be carefully considered.The Bank of Italy said on Friday the euro zone’s third largest economy would grow by just 0.5% this year, less than half the government’s 1.2% forecast made in September.High-debt Italy has committed to bringing its deficit below the EU’s 3% of gross domestic product ceiling in 2026 from 3.4% in 2024, a task made harder by its faltering economic growth.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy which faces a 32% tariff rate, said it will not retaliate against the levies and would instead pursue diplomacy and negotiations to find mutually beneficial solutions. Jakarta has said it would send a high-level delegation to the US for direct negotiations with the government.
Cambodia asked the US government on Friday to postpone the 49% tariff rate on its products, the highest rate in Asia and second-highest globally.
Vietnam’s leader To Lam and Donald Trump agreed on Friday to discuss a deal to remove tariffs (Vietnam will be subject to a 46% tariff).
Brazil, which faces a 10% levy on its exports to the US, has said its “government is evaluating all possible actions to ensure reciprocity in bilateral trade, including resorting to the World Trade Organization, in defense of legitimate national interests”.
Taiwan’s top financial regulator said this morning it will impose temporary curbs on short-selling of shares to help deal with potential market turmoil brought resulting from the new import tariffs. Taiwan’s government said on Thursday that the new 32% tariff rate levied on the island were unreasonable and it would discuss them with Washington.
China has hit back hard against Trump’s imposition of 34% tariffs on Chinese goods, which were already subject to a 20% levy, taking the total levy to 54%. Beijing in turn announced a slew of countermeasures, including extra levies of 34% on all US goods and export curbs on some rare earth minerals.
Canada announced a limited set of counter measures against the latest US tariffs. The new Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said the government will copy the US approach by imposing a 25% tariff on all vehicles imported from the US that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal (Canada and Mexico were exempt from Trump’s latest duties because they are still subject to a 25% tariff related to the US fentanyl crisis for goods that do not comply with the US-Mexico-Canada rules of origin). Carney says Canada will retaliate against “unjustified, unwarranted” tariffs.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is set to travel to Washington to meet with his close ally, US president Donald Trump.Netanyahu will meet Trump on Monday to “discuss tariffs, efforts to bring back Israeli hostages (from Gaza), Israel-Turkey relations, the Iranian threat, and the fight against the International Criminal Court”, which has accused the Israeli leader of war crimes, his Jerusalem office said in a statement.Israel was not spared from Trump’s tariff offensive. Unspecified Israeli goods exports to the US now face a 17% tariff. The US is Israel’s closest ally and largest single trading partner.An Israeli finance ministry official said on Thursday that Trump’s latest tariff announcement could impact Israel’s exports of machinery and medical equipment. Israel and the US signed a free trade agreement 40 years ago and about 98% of goods from the US are now tax-free.Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, travelled to the US in February. He will be the first leader to meet with Trump after the US imposed global tariffs. Israeli officials will be working hard to persuade the US president to lower or remove the tariffs.The White House’s tariff wars also risk reopening simmering Brexit tensions in Northern Ireland, as my colleague Lisa O’Carroll explains:
Donald Trump’s tariff plan could undermine the Brexit deal between the EU and the UK for trading arrangements in Northern Ireland, a highly sensitive agreement designed to maintain the 1998 peace pact.
As part of the president’s attempt to spur on a “rebirth” of the US, Trump has imposed a two-tier tariff rate on the island of Ireland – with a 20% tax on exports from the republic but a 10% rate on the UK, including Northern Ireland.
A former EU commissioner has questioned whether Trump thought through his plan’s effect on the peace process brokered by the US almost 30 years ago.
Although it could put Northern Ireland at an advantage over the Republic of Ireland for exports such as whisky and dairy produce, a political problem could arise if the EU retaliates with like-for-like tariffs of 20% on US imports.
Under the Windsor framework, the EU tariffs will apply in Northern Ireland, creating a manufacturing price difference between Northern Ireland and Great Britain for any important components from the US.
You can read the full story here:British ministers have been suggesting for weeks that the UK could be spared from Trump’s tariffs with a bespoke trade deal with the US. But Trump did not exempt the UK from 25 per cent tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars.Ministers are reportedly still working to persuade the Trump administration to scrap the 10 per cent tariff baseline global levy that has ensnared the UK along with many other countries around the world.If UK negotiators can not agree a deal to reduce the 10% tariff by 1 May, the government may impose retaliatory tariffs on US imports, but Downing Street sees this as a last resort.Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, was also interviewed by Sky News’ Trevor Phillips this morning. He said the UK had been “treated differently to the European Union” as a result of Brexit. As a reminder, Trump has imposed a 10% tariff on UK goods but a 20% tariff on EU goods.Asked if the lower 10% tariff imposed by the US was a “Brexit dividend”, the chief secretary to the Treasury said:
It is, there’s one. I’ve struggled to find one in the past but there is one we’ve ended up with.
It’s good, but what we’re not going to do is pick or trade off the United States or the European Union.
I’ve already talked about relationship with the United States, we know that’s important and works well, but so is our relationship with the European Union – on trade, on energy, but increasingly on security, and I think it’s the right strategic decision for the UK, especially in this world that’s chopping and changing around, that we have those strong bridges into the European Union and into the United States, and that’s what we’re working to deliver.
Jones’ comments echoed those from the shadow trade secretary, Andrew Griffith, who suggested that Brexit had spared the UK from higher import taxes.Griffith said: “The silver lining is that Brexit, which Labour ministers voted against no less than 48 times, means that we face far lower tariffs than the EU: a Brexit dividend that will have protected thousands of British jobs and businesses.”Here is some more reaction to the tariffs from London, where ministers are weighing up a response to Trump’s higher levies.Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, has been speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on her BBC Sunday politics programme. Here is a roundup of what he said:
People should be prepared for things to be tougher in the global economy.
Globalisation has “come to an end” in the wake of the new tariffs. Asked if the era of “cheap fast-fashion or cheap TVs” was over, Jones said: “Yeah, it’s ended. Globalisation, as we’ve known it for the last number of decades, has come to an end.”
It is in the best interest of the British economy and workers to “get trade deals across the line”.
Jones said the government thinks a deal with Trump on tariffs can be reached, with talks ongoing. “We’re hoping to do a deal,” Jones said, adding that “we have a better outcome than other comparable countries as a consequence of our diplomacy”.
The EU is likely to approve its first set of targeted countermeasures on up to $28bn (£21.7bn; €25bn) of US imports in the coming days, Reuters is reporting.The 27-nation bloc faces 25% import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars and “reciprocal” tariffs of 20% from Wednesday for almost all other goods.The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, will propose to members late on Monday a list of American products to hit with extra duties in response to Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs rather than the broader reciprocal levies.It is set to include US meat, cereals, wine, wood and clothing as well as chewing gum, dental floss, vacuum cleaners and toilet paper. The EU has been cautious to respond the tariffs so far.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Trump’s levies were a “major blow to the world economy” but held off announcing new countermeasures, adding that the commission was “always ready” to talk.Trump’s tariffs cover some 70% of the EU’s exports to the US – worth in total €532bn ($585bn; £454bn) last year – with likely duties on copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and timber still to come.On Monday, Luxembourg will host the first EU-wide political meeting since Trump’s announcement of the sweeping tariffs when ministers responsible for trade from the 27 EU members will exchange views on the impact and how best to respond.My colleagues have done a useful explainer breaking down what Trump’s tariffs are and how they’ve affected the economy since the announcement. Here is an extract from it:What exactly are the new tariffs Trump is imposing?Trump’s new tariffs are twofold. First, all imported goods will be subject to a 10% universal tariff starting 5 April. Then, on 9 April, certain countries will see higher tariff rates – what Trump has deemed “reciprocal tariffs” in retaliation for tariffs the countries have placed on American exports.Keep in mind that tariffs are paid by American companies that are importing goods such as wine from Europe or microchips from Taiwan.Some of the highest tariffs will be put on imports from Asian countries, including China, India, South Korea and Japan. EU exports will also have a 20% tariff.How did the White House calculate the tariffs?The administration said that it looked at countries with a trade deficit with the US in 2024, then divided that country’s trade deficit by its exports to the US, and considered this to be a tariff.The White House calls this definition a “tariff” placed on American goods, though a deficit and a tariff are not the same thing. It then halved the “tariff” and used that percentage to represent the new levy that the US would place on goods from that country.Here is a video of Trump announcing the sweeping tariffs on Wednesday. They were regularly touted on the Republican’s presidential campaign trail, but their scale have taken many commentators by surprise:The US’s 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks took effect on Thursday, the day after Trump announced tariffs on other goods from countries across the globe. This has prompted a swift reaction from car manufacturers.Britain’s car industry, which employs 200,000 people directly, is highly exposed to the new tariffs. The US is the second-biggest importer of British-made cars after the EU, with nearly a 20% share.Jaguar Land Rover has announced it would “pause” shipments to the US, as the The Coventry, England-headquartered company says it is working to “address the new trading terms” and is looking to develop its “mid- to longer-term plans”.The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank has said over 25,000 direct jobs in the car manufacturing industry could be at risk as exports to the US are projected to fall.Meanwhile, carmaker Stellantis said on Thursday it was temporarily laying off 900 workers at five US facilities after Trump’s tariffs were announced, and temporarily pausing production at an assembly plant in Mexico and one in Canada.Stellantis, which owns car brands like Jeep, Citroën and Ram, said it will be temporarily pausing production at the Windsor assembly plant in Canada up until the week of 21 April.The company will also be temporarily pausing production at the Toluca assembly plant in Mexico for the month of April, starting tomorrow. Due to the production pause, there will be temporary layoffs at the Warren and Sterling stamping plants in Michigan and at the Indiana and Kokomo transmission plants and Kokomo casting facility in Indiana.However, the United Automobile Workers union, one of biggest trade unions in the US, endorsed the tariffs, which Trump sees as a way of tempting US manufacturers to return to America.The union said the decision “signals a return to policies that prioritize the workers who build this country — rather than the greed of ruthless corporations.” Shawn Fain, the union president, said “ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions”.Welcome back to our live coverage of the economic fallout from Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs last week.Almost $5tn (£4tn) was wiped off the value of global stock markets after the US president made his shock announcement last Wednesday, which included a 10% base tariff on imports into the US from the UK.Trump’s 10% tariff on UK products came into force on Saturday, as global stock markets continued to fall in response to the imposition of import taxes.Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand were struck with tariffs of 49%, 46% and 36%, while the EU faces a levy of 20% for all the goods it exports to the US.The FTSE 100 plummeted on Friday in its worst day of trading since the start of the pandemic, while markets on Wall Street also tumbled.Analysts warn that already sluggish UK economic growth could be up to 0.5 percentage points lower over coming years as a result of Trump’s tariffs.In reaction to the US tariff offensive, the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has written an opinion piece in the Sunday Telegraph, saying he is ready to “use industrial policy to help shelter British business from the storm”. He is among world leaders who are in intense discussions with their teams, carefully weighing up how to respond to the president’s tariffs.“Old assumptions can no longer be taken for granted. The world as we knew it has gone. We must rise to meet the moment,” Starmer wrote.“We are ready for what comes next. The new world is less governed by established rules and more by deals and alliances.”Stay with us as we will keep bringing you all the latest updates and reaction to the tariff’s throughout the day.
Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz included a journalist in the Signal group chat about plans for US strikes in Yemen after he mistakenly saved his number months before under the contact of someone else he intended to add, according to three people briefed on the matter.The mistake was one of several missteps that came to light in the White House’s internal investigation, which showed a series of compounding slips that started during the 2024 campaign and went unnoticed until Waltz created the group chat last month.Trump briefly considered firing Waltz over the episode, more angered by the fact that Waltz had the number of Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic – a magazine he despises – than the fact that the military operation discussion took place on an unclassified system like Signal.But Waltz earned a reprieve after he took responsibility, and Trump decided against firing him in large part because he did not want the Atlantic and the news media more broadly to have the satisfaction of forcing the ouster of a top cabinet official weeks into his second term.The disclosures nonetheless triggered a “forensic review” by the White House information technology office, which found that Waltz’s phone had saved Goldberg’s number as part of an unlikely series of events that started when Goldberg emailed the Trump campaign last October.According to three people briefed on the internal investigation, Goldberg had emailed the campaign about a story that criticized Trump for his attitude towards wounded service members. To push back against the story, the campaign enlisted the help of Waltz, their national security surrogate.Goldberg’s email was forwarded to then-Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes, who then copied and pasted the content of the email – including the signature block with Goldberg’s phone number – into a text message that he sent to Waltz, so that he could be briefed on the forthcoming story.Waltz did not ultimately call Goldberg, the people said, but in an extraordinary twist, inadvertently ended up saving Goldberg’s number in his iPhone – under the contact card for Hughes, now the spokesperson for the national security council.A day after that Goldberg story was published, on 22 October, Waltz appeared on CNN to defend Trump. “Don’t take it from me, take it from the 13 Abbey Gate Gold Star families, some of whom stood on a stage in front of a 30,000 person crowd and said how he helped them heal,” Waltz said.According to the White House, the number was erroneously saved during a “contact suggestion update” by Waltz’s iPhone, which one person described as the function where an iPhone algorithm adds a previously unknown number to an existing contact that it detects may be related.The mistake went unnoticed until last month when Waltz sought to add Hughes to the Signal group chat – but ended up adding Goldberg’s number to the 13 March message chain named “Houthi PC small group”, where several top US officials discussed plans for strikes against the Houthis.Waltz said in the immediate aftermath of the incident that he had never met or communicated with Goldberg. He also suggested on Fox News that Goldberg’s number had been “sucked” into his phone, seemingly in reference to how his iPhone had saved Goldberg’s number.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe White House did not comment on the reporting in this story. Reached by phone on Saturday, Goldberg said: “I’m not going to comment on my relationship with Mike Waltz beyond saying I do know him and have spoken to him.”Trump was briefed on the findings of the forensic review last week around the time he decided to keep Waltz, a person familiar with the matter said. Trump accepted Waltz’s mea culpa and has publicly defended him in recent weeks since the group chat situation became public.When Trump left the White House on Thursday, he was joined aboard Marine One by his chief of staff Susie Wiles, his personnel chief Sergio Gor and Waltz, which aides took as a show of support for the embattled national security adviser.Waltz also appears to have also engendered some sympathy from inside Trump’s orbit over the group chat because the White House had authorized the use of Signal, largely because there is no alternative platform to text in real time across different agencies, two people familiar with the matter said.Previous administrations, including the Biden White House, did not develop an alternative platform to Signal, one of the people said. As a temporary solution, the Trump White House told officials to use Signal as they had done during the transition instead of regular text-message chains.
Fifteen members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Civil Defence were killed.Not fighters. Not militants. Not people hiding rockets or weapons. They were aid workers. Humanitarians. Medics who ran towards the injured when bombs fell. People who gave their lives trying to save others.
On March 23 in Rafah in southern Gaza, Israeli forces targeted a convoy of ambulances and emergency vehicles. Eight Red Crescent staff, six from the Palestinian Civil Defence and one United Nations staff member were slaughtered. The Israeli military claimed the vehicles were unmarked and suspected of carrying militants.
But that was a lie.
Footage retrieved from the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the murdered medics, shows flashing red lights, clearly marked vehicles and no weapons in sight. Then, heavy Israeli gunfire. Rifat’s body was later found in a mass grave along with 13 others, some of which bore the signs of execution: bullets in the head or chest and hands bound.
Even in death, they had to prove they were aid workers. Advertisement
And still, much of the Western media reported Israel’s version first – “Israel says …”, “the IDF states …”, “a military source tells …”. These carefully worded lines carry more weight than the blood-stained uniforms of the Red Crescent. More than the evidence. More than the truth.
This is not new. This is not an isolated mistake.
This is a system.
A system in which Palestinians are presumed guilty. A system in which hospitals must prove they are hospitals, schools must prove they are schools and children must prove they are not human shields. A system in which our existence is treated as a threat – one that must be justified, explained, verified – before anyone will mourn us.
This is what dehumanisation looks like.
I was born and raised in Gaza. I know what a Red Crescent vest means. It means hope when there’s nothing left. It means someone is coming to help – not to fight, not to kill but to save. It means that even in the middle of rubble and death, life still matters to someone.
And I also know what it means to lose that. To see medics killed and then smeared. To hear the world debate their innocence while their colleagues dig through mass graves. To watch the people who tried to save lives reduced to statistics, framed as suspects, then forgotten.
Dehumanisation is not just a rhetorical problem. It is not just media framing or political language. It kills. It erases. It allows the world to look away while entire communities are wiped out.
It tells us: Your life does not matter the same way. Your grief is not real until we verify it. Your death is not tragic until we approve it. Advertisement
This is why the deaths of these 15 medics and rescuers matter so deeply. Because their story is not just about one atrocity. It is about the machinery of doubt that kicks in every time Palestinians are killed. It is about how we must become our own forensic investigators, our own legal team, our own public relations firm – while mourning the dead.
This burden is not placed on anyone else. When Western journalists are killed, they are honoured. When Israeli civilians die, their names and faces fill screens around the world. When Palestinians die, their families have to prove they weren’t terrorists first.
We are always guilty until proven innocent – and often, not even then.
Study after study has found that Western media quote Israeli sources far more than Palestinian ones and fail to challenge Israeli statements with the same rigour. Palestinian voices are not only marginalised but are also often framed as unreliable or emotional – as if grief discredits truth, as if pain makes us irrational.
This media pattern fuels and reflects political decisions – from arms sales to diplomatic immunity, from silence at international forums to vetoes at the UN. It is all connected. When Palestinians are not seen as fully human, then their killers are not seen as fully responsible.
And the emotional toll is immense. We do not just grieve; we defend our grief. We do not just bury our dead; we fight to have their deaths recognised. We live with a psychological pressure no community should bear – the pressure to prove we are not what the world has already decided we are. Advertisement
These 15 medics and first responders were heroes. They ran towards danger. They served their people. They believed in the sanctity of life, even in a place where life is constantly under siege. Their memory should be sacred.
Instead, their story became another battleground.
The world needs to stop making us prove we are human. Stop assuming that we lie and that our killers tell the truth. Stop accepting a narrative that requires Palestinians to be saints in order to be mourned.
These medics deserved to be believed. They deserved to be protected. And they deserve justice.
But most of all, they deserved – as we all do – to be seen as human.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Pope Francis appeared in public for the first time in weeks on Sunday, greeting crowds from a wheelchair in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.It was the first time Francis appeared in public since he briefly addressed crowds when being discharged from the hospital on March 23. The pope suffered a bout of double pneumonia that left him hospitalized for five weeks.Francis made the unannounced visit near the end of Mass and delivered a brief greeting, all while receiving oxygen via his nose.”Good Sunday to everyone,” Francis said. “Thank you so much.”POPE FRANCIS MAKES FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN FIVE WEEKS Pope Francis listens to his secretary as he appears to the faithful at the end of a Mass celebrated by Monsignor Rino Fisichella (not pictured) on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Sick in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 6, 2025. (Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu via Getty Images)MEDICAL STAFF PROVIDES UPDATE ON POPE FRANCIS’ CONDITIONThe Vatican also released a written message from Francis marking Sunday’s Mass, which was specially focused on healthcare workers.”I ask the Lord that this touch of his love might reach all those who suffer and encourage those who are taking care of them,” said the text.Doctors overseeing Francis’ care during his stay at Gemelli Hospital in Rome say that they briefly considered ending the pope’s treatment due to his condition.Medical director Dr. Sergio Alfieri recounted the scenes on Feb. 28 when the 88-year-old suffered a coughing fit and inhaled vomit, prompting staff to have to clear his airways and later put on a non-invasive mechanical ventilation mask to help him breathe. Pope Francis appears in St. Peter’s Square for the first time in weeks. (Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu via Getty Image)”For the first time I saw tears in the eyes of some of the people around him. People who, I understood during this period of hospitalization, sincerely love him, like a father. We were all aware that the situation had worsened further and there was a risk that he would not make it,” Alfieri told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.”We had to choose whether to stop and let him go or force it and try with all the drugs and therapies possible, running the very high risk of damaging other organs. And in the end we took this path,” he reportedly added. Pope Francis waves to believers as he leaves the Cercle Cite after a meeting with Luxembourg’s prime minister during a four-day apostolic journey in Luxembourg and Belgium, in Luxembourg City, on Sept. 26, 2024. (Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP/Getty)Alfieri said to the newspaper that Francis “delegated every type of healthcare decision to Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal healthcare assistant who knows the Pope’s wishes perfectly.”CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP”Try everything, we won’t give up,” Alfieri recalled Strappetti telling staff at the hospital. “That’s what we all thought, too. And no one gave up”.
As a major “liquidity crisis” looms for United Nations entities in the face of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) funding cuts, with experts saying the Trump administration should examine the U.N.’s media branch, the Department of Global Communications, for its role in churning out anti-Israel propaganda. “The U.N. continues its spin-cycle messaging machine without washing out its waste and inefficiencies,” former National Security Council Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Organization Affairs Hugh Dugan told Fox News Digital. “That’s its real liquidity crisis.”Among the Department of Global Communications’ responsibilities are the provision of press support, upkeep of the U.N. Dag Hammarskjöld Library, heading of worldwide information centers and coordination of the U.N.’s Twitter presence. A full independent review of the Department’s activities is set to begin this year.HEAD OF UN WATCHDOG SAYS UNRWA HIRED PEOPLE ‘WHO WERE SUPPORTING TERRORISM’ The symbol of the United Nations is displayed outside the Secretariat Building at United Nations Headquarters in New York City on Feb. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, expressed her desire for the U.S. itself to examine the Department of Global Communications’ funding. Bayefsky told Fox News Digital that “the United Nations is the world headquarters of global disinformation,” with an “assembly line of lies, hate speech, incitement to violence, and antisemitism [that] is totally out-of-control.”Bayefsky said it is the “organization itself that poses an integrity risk — to world peace, civilized discourse, and human rights protection. The information environment cultivated by the U.N. has been poisoning the minds of generations of Americans, so isn’t it about time that Washington posed a risk to this U.N. ‘work’?” The Department’s fixation on Israel was evidenced in a February report about its operations, in which it briefly described crisis communications cells it runs regarding worldwide disasters in Haiti, Sudan and Ukraine, and went into more expansive detail describing its cell on “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”According to the Department, the crisis in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory “required strong messaging and outreach to ensure continued international support for the work of the United Nations and its partners.” The Department also mentioned that the cell “analyzed information integrity risks, such as the spread of misinformation and disinformation about United Nations work.” Throughout 2024, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) came under serious scrutiny and lost donors after information was uncovered about UNRWA leaders’ and members’ ties to terrorism, and the hate propelled through UNRWA curricula.UN BLAMES ISRAELIS FOR ATTACK ON COMPOUND BUT DOESN’T MENTION HAMAS, SAYS FORCED TO REDUCE GAZA FOOTPRINT Aid trucks of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) deliver aid near Gaza City. (Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)Fox News Digital asked Melissa Fleming, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Communications, to clarify the department’s allegations of misinformation and disinformation, and to describe why “strong messaging” was required of the department. Fleming explained that the Department needed to “clearly explain the role” of the U.N. and its humanitarian agencies, and analyze “information environments to better understand trends that might pose risk to the U.N.’s work.”Dugan, who was a senior advisor to 11 U.S. ambassadors to the U.N. said when it comes to the crisis in Gaza, “there’s some special treatment they’re giving to that region and the coverage of it, which I think is concerning to me.” He noted that cells focusing on Haiti, Ukraine, and Sudan “don’t talk about misinformation [or] disinformation.” The situation, he said, “wreaks… of the U.N.’s hand in propagandizing and service as a type of mediator of what information gets to whom, and when, and how.” Asked how many hours the Department of Global Communications devoted to its various crisis cells, Fleming said that time “is determined by a number of factors,” including “the scale of the crisis and the speed of developments on the ground,” and the level of international interest and U.N. events involved with the crisis. Fleming added that cells meet more often “in the early stages of a crisis.” Fleming said that “the Israel-Occupied Palestinian Territory crisis communications cell has met on a weekly basis for approximately one hour” following the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. She noted that this was “equivalent to the frequency and timing of meetings for the Ukraine crisis during the first year of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation in 2022.” WORLD FORGETS ‘CATASTROPHIC’ WAR IN SUDAN AS RUSSIA, IRAN, OTHERS REPORTEDLY FEED FIGHTING WITH ARMS Fighters of the Sudan Liberation Movement, a Sudanese rebel group active in Sudan’s Darfur State which supports army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, attend a graduation ceremony in the southeastern Gedaref state on March 28, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)Fleming did not state how much time has been devoted to the Haiti or Sudan crisis cells. The organization’s report on its activities refers to the situation in Sudan as a “massive humanitarian crisis.” In January, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that rebel actions in Sudan constituted genocide. Blinken described how tens of thousands of Sudanese individuals had died in conflict, that 30 million required humanitarian aid and that 638,000 were experiencing “the worst famine in Sudan’s recent history.” Blinken stated that Sudanese rebel group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “and RSF-aligned militias have continued to direct attacks against civilians, have systematically murdered men and boys — even infants — on an ethnic basis, and (have) deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence.”The U.N.’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan did not mention genocide in its September 2024 findings that “Sudan’s warring parties have committed an appalling range of harrowing human rights violations and international crimes, including many which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Conversely, the U.N. Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices declared in November 2024 that “Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians.” Hamas terrorists left Kibbutz Be’eri, a village near Gaza, in ruins. (Tomer Peretz)Former national security advisor Jake Sullivan said last year that the Biden administration does “not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide.” David May, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that “the focus on an imagined genocide, Gaza, is taking time and focus away from an actual genocide, Sudan.” May added that “essentially, the Department of Global Communications is tasked with presenting a Palestinian narrative and uses U.N. funds to act as another pro-Palestinian U.N. body.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPMay said that “while the United States withholds funding to the United Nations proportionate to the budgets of Palestinian-specific bodies, Washington does not account for more general U.N. departments carrying out an anti-Israel agenda.” Dugan expressed concern over the Department of Global Communications’ emphasis on its role in combating misinformation in its latest report. It “sends its mandate to go far beyond daily relations with the press corps,” he explained, and instead “sets them up to be judge, jury and executioner on storylines and narratives that the secretariat employees find offensive.”
KINSHASA, Congo — Major flooding in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa has killed at least eight people and cut off access to over half of the city and the country’s main airport, authorities said Sunday. Most of the fatalities in Friday’s deluge were caused by collapsing walls, said a provincial health minister, Patricien Ngongo. The flooding had damaged the main road leading to the airport, but it has been reopened to light traffic and within 72 hours would be opened to all traffic, said Kinshasa Gov. Daniel Bumba. The road also links Kinshasa to the rest of the Congo and officials worry about the impact on trade.”We’ve been here since nightfall, but we’re not making any progress, because we’ve been told that the road is cut in two, and we have goods that we’re going to pick up,” said Blaise Ndendo, a truck driver.In 2022 at least 100 people were killed during a similar flooding in Kinshasa.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza over the past 24 hours that targeted residential homes and makeshift tents.The main focus of the attacks was the southern city of Khan Younis, where the Israeli forces attacked residential homes and a makeshift tent, according to Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in the centre of the enclave.
Jamal al-Mdhoun, a resident of Khan Younis, told Al Jazeera how he survived the early morning bombing of a home that killed at least nine people.
“We were peacefully sleeping … and all of a sudden, homes were levelled, roofs brought down on innocent women’s and children’s heads. Missiles heavy enough to reduce mountains to ashes are fired on children,” he said.
“We pulled out eight dead bodies, all of them women and children – not a single man,” he added. “They are raising false claims [that they are targeting fighters]. All are lies. Their goal is to kill any human being with a Muslim identity. Those innocent women and children were all blown to pieces.” Advertisement
TOKYO — A medical transport helicopter carrying a patient fell into the sea in southwestern Japan Sunday, leaving three of the six people aboard missing, the Japan Coast Guard said.A medical doctor, nurse, pilot, helicopter mechanic and a patient caretaker, in addition to the patient, were aboard what the Japanese call “a doctor helicopter.” The Japan Coast Guard rescued three who suffered hypothermia, meaning that their body temperatures dropped abnormally, but they were conscious, an official with the coast guard told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The identities of the three rescued and the cause of the accident remain unclear. The Coast Guard deployed two planes and three ships to the area as part of the rescue operation.The helicopter was on its way to a hospital in Fukuoka city from an airport in Nagasaki Prefecture, when it crashed, according to the Coast Guard.
MOSCOW — A U.S. citizen awaiting trial in Moscow has been forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital, Russian state media reported Sunday.Joseph Tater, 46, was arrested in August 2024 after being accused of assaulting a police officer during a confrontation with staff at an upmarket hotel in the Russian capital.A Moscow court agreed to admit Tater to a psychiatric hospital non-voluntarily after a medical evaluation on March 15, Russian state news agency Tass reported.It said that doctors had described Tater as displaying signs of “tension, impulsivity, persecutory delusions, and lack of self-awareness regarding his condition.”Tater had been due to stand trial on April 14 on charges of assaulting a police officer, which is punishable with a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment. It is unclear when the court made its decision to detain him on medical grounds, but Tass previously reported that he had been released from pre-trial detention at the end of March.At a September court hearing, Tater claimed he came to Russia to seek political asylum and that he was being persecuted by the CIA.Tater’s defense lawyer has appealed his forced hospitalization, accusing officials of trying to “isolate the defendant from society,” Tass reported.Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Russia of forcing citizens into psychiatric institutions due to their political views — a Soviet-era practice they say has been increasingly used by President Vladimir Putin’s government. Tater has already served 15 days in jail for the same incident after being found guilty on administrative charges of “petty hooliganism.”He was detained in August 2024 when he became abusive to hotel staff who requested to see his documents, Russian state news agencies reported. They reported that Tater swore and “behaved aggressively” when the hotel refused to accommodate him, and later grabbed the arm of a police officer called to the scene.Tater is just one of several Americans detained in Russia on drug or assault convictions, with many serving sentences of several years. They include Robert Gilman, 72, who was handed 3 1/2-year sentence at the age of 72 after being found guilty of assaulting a police officer following a drunken disturbance on a train, and Travis Leake, a musician who was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to 13 years in prison in July 2024.