Archive April 22, 2025

US stocks and dollar tumble as Trump renews attacks on Fed Chair Powell

US stocks and the dollar have dropped sharply as United States President Donald Trump’s attacks on the chief of the US central bank shake investors’ confidence in the world’s top economy.

The benchmark S& P 500 fell 2. 36 percent on Monday, one of the steepest one-day declines of the year.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2. 55 percent, dragging the index down nearly 18 percent from its position at the start of the year.

The dollar fell to a three-year low, at one point weakening to 97. 923 against a basket of major currencies.

US government bonds also fell as investors sold off the traditional safe-haven assets, with the yield on 10-year Treasury notes rising above 4. 4 percent.

Asian markets opened broadly lower on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and Taiwan’s TAIEX down about 0. 8 percent, 0. 6 percent and 0. 5 percent, respectively, as of 02:00 GMT.

The steep losses came as Trump renewed his attacks on US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, branding the central bank boss a “major loser” and “Mr Too Late” on social media for not moving faster to cut interest rates.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to replace Powell, saying last week that his termination “cannot come fast enough”.

On Friday, Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economic adviser, said the administration was studying the possibility of removing Powell, whose term runs until May next year.

Since announcing its most recent cut to its benchmark interest rate in December, the Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee has expressed caution about lowering rates further in the near term amid concerns that Trump’s sweeping tariffs will stoke inflation.

Powell warned in a speech last week that the tariffs could leave the US economy grappling with weak growth, rising unemployment and higher inflation all at once, putting the central bank’s dual goals of maximum employment and stable prices in “tension”.

“We know from experience in the United States and many other countries that politicians are tempted to ease monetary policy while they are in office because the initial effects are to increase growth and employment. Only later, perhaps when they have left office, does the higher inflation show up,” Joseph E Gagnon, a senior fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Al Jazeera.

“Markets understand this and are worried that President Trump may try to undo the Fed’s longstanding protection against political interference. ”

Powell, who was nominated by Trump in 2017 and tapped to serve another four-year term by former US President Joe Biden, has said he would not resign if asked and insisted that he can only be removed for malfeasance.

Under a US Supreme Court ruling handed down in 1935, the executive branch is prohibited from dismissing the heads of independent federal agencies such as the Federal Reserve except for “cause”.

The Trump administration, which has taken aim at numerous established norms, is seeking to overturn the 90-year-old precedent in a Supreme Court case related to its dismissal of the heads of the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board.

Any move to dismiss Powell would almost certainly send shockwaves through financial markets, given the more than century-old principle that the Federal Reserve should set interest rates free from political considerations.

On Monday, Austan Goolsbee, the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, warned that any effort to undermine the independence of the central bank would have negative ramifications for the economy.

“When there is interference over the long run, it’s going to mean higher inflation,” Goolsbee said in an interview with CNBC, without commenting directly on Trump’s attacks on Powell.

“It’s going to mean worse growth and higher unemployment. ”

Gagnon said the financial markets were reacting to the “greater probability of presidential interference” with the Federal Reserve.

“More generally, investors will be less interested in holding investments in the United States if they believe the Fed will not be independent in the future because that means the US economy will not perform as well in the future as in the past,” he said.

Why China has warned countries against ‘appeasing’ Trump in trade deals

China has warned countries against striking trade deals with the United States at Beijing’s expense, ratcheting up its rhetoric in a spiralling trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

Responding to reports suggesting that US President Donald Trump’s administration is pressuring other countries to isolate China, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Monday that Beijing “will take countermeasures in a resolute and reciprocal manner” against nations that align with the US against it.

The warning comes as countries prepare for talks with the US to seek exemptions from “reciprocal” tariffs that Trump imposed and then later paused on about 60 trading partners.

So what’s this latest verbal spat about, how much clout does China wield in global trade and can Trump drive a wedge between other capitals and Beijing?

What’s the backdrop?

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Trump was seeking to use tariff talks to push US economic partners to curb trade with China and rein in Beijing’s manufacturing dominance.

In return, these nations could secure reductions in US levies and trade barriers. The Trump administration has said it is in negotiations with more than 70 countries.

On Monday, China’s Commerce Ministry hit back, warned other nations that “to seek one’s own temporary selfish interests at the expense of others’ interests is to seek the skin of a tiger”. In effect, it argued that those trying to strike deals with the US – the tiger – would be eaten up themselves eventually.

The ministry also said China would in turn target all countries that fell in line with US pressure to hurt Beijing.

What’s the status of US-China trade?

After Trump suspended his “reciprocal tariffs” on major US trading partners on April 9, he ramped them up on China. US trade levies on most Chinese exports have climbed to 145 percent. Beijing has retaliated with duties of its own at 125 percent on US goods.

Trump has long accused China of exploiting the US on trade, casting his tariffs as necessary to revive domestic manufacturing and return jobs to the US. He also wants to use tariffs to finance future tax cuts.

For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to three Southeast Asian countries last week to bolster regional ties. He called on trading partners, including Vietnam, to oppose unilateral bullying.

“There are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars,” Xi said in an article published in Vietnamese media, without mentioning the US.

As with other countries in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has been caught in the trade war’s crossfire. It is not only a manufacturing hub itself, but China also frequently uses it to dispatch exports to the US to avoid the tariffs imposed by the first Trump administration on Beijing in 2018.

Elsewhere, the Trump administration has begun talks with East Asian allies over the tariffs with a Japanese delegation visiting Washington, DC, last week and South Korean officials set to arrive this week.

Many countries now find themselves stuck between the world’s two biggest economies – China, a large source of manufactured goods and a key trading partner, and the US, a crucial export market.

How dependent is the world on Chinese exports?

In a report published in January by the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, analysts found that in 2023, about 70 percent of countries imported more from China than they did from the US.

China’s rapid ascent as a trading superpower can be traced back to 2001, the year it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and when it started to dominate global manufacturing after years of successful protectionist industrial policies.

During the 2000s, China benefitted from the relocation of international supply chains, turbocharged by substantial inflows of foreign investment, large pools of low-cost labour and an undervalued currency exchange rate.

By 2023, China had become the largest trading partner for at least 60 countries, almost twice as many as for the US, which remained the largest trading partner for 33 economies.

The gap between them is also widening in many countries: The Lowy Institute analysis found that in 2023, 112 economies traded more than twice as much with China as they did with the US, up from 92 in 2018 during Trump’s first trade war.

“The critical dependence China has developed around the world, especially in Asia, means that lots [of trading partners] cannot do without China,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, an economist at the investment bank Natixis. “From critical minerals to silicon chips, Chinese exports are almost irreplaceable. ”

Has world trade tipped more in China’s favour since Trump’s last trade war?

In 2018, two years into his first administration, Trump imposed 15 percent tariffs on more than $125bn in Chinese goods, including footwear, smartwatches and flat-screen TVs.

Since then, the US has become an even more important source of demand for non-Chinese exports, especially from Mexico and Vietnam, reflecting the impact of years of US tariffs on China.

Yet if Trump’s aim in part was to hurt Beijing, his first salvoes failed.

Since 2018, many more nations have deepened their trade relations with China – at the expense of the US.

When China joined the WTO, more than 80 percent of countries had more two-way trade with the US than with China. That had fallen to just 30 percent by 2018, the year of Trump’s first tariffs on China, according to the Lowy Institute analysis.

That trend has only solidified since then: In 2018, 139 nations traded more with China than with the US. By 2023, that number had risen to 145, and about 70 percent of the world’s economies now trade more with China than with the US – up from just 15 percent in 2001.

“Trump doesn’t seem to understand how important Chinese trade flows have become,” Garcia-Herrero told Al Jazeera. “What’s more, he’s not offering much by way of carrots, like more investment, so I don’t think he’ll get what he wants. ”

Can countries afford to alienate China on trade?

According to Garcia-Herrero, a few countries such as Mexico that have particularly deep trade links with the US, probably will “say no to Chinese imports”.

However, she highlighted that “China’s presence in supply chains is so massive for most of America’s other trade partners, decoupling is virtually impossible. ”

Indeed, around the world, China has become an invaluable source of imports. The European Union, for instance, had a trade deficit with China worth 396 billion euros ($432bn) in 2022, up from 145 billion euros ($165bn) in 2016.

China accounts for 20 percent of EU goods imports. The equivalent figure in Great Britain is 10 percent. Last week, Treasury Secretary Rachel Reeves said it would be “very foolish” for the UK to engage in less trade with China.

Across the developing world, China’s trade role is just as crucial. Roughly a quarter of Bangladesh’s and Cambodia’s total imports are from China. Nearly a fifth of Nigeria’s and Saudi Arabia’s goods imports come from China.

“Trump’s trade policy is shortsighted,” Garcia-Herrero said. “Trying to pry trade away with China may work in countries where the US has military bases. … They may have to accept the US’s concerns. ”

Leonardo DiCaprio pays emotional tribute to Pope Francis after his death at 88

Hollywood legend Leonardo DiCaprio has paid emotional tribute to Pope Francis after the Vatican announced his death on Easter Monday.

DiCaprio, 50, posted photographs of himself and himself Pope Francis on social media. The actor wrote: “Pope Francis was a transformational leader — not only for the Catholic Church, but also for environmental reform and activism. He demonstrated a deep and unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship, most notably through his groundbreaking 2015 encyclical Laudato Si. “

The pair met nine years ago, a rendezvous DiCaprio said he fondly remembers. The star, who has won three Golden Globe Awards including for The Wolf of Wall Street, added: “This powerful document served as a clarion call for a fundamental shift in how we relate to the planet. Emphasizing the interconnectedness of all life, Pope Francis urged individuals, communities, institutions, and world leaders to unite in caring for our common home. His words helped catalyze momentum ahead of the global 2015 COP21 conference, ultimately contributing to the formation of the Paris Agreement.

“During the filming of my documentary Before the Flood in 2016, I had the honor of sitting down with Pope Francis for a conversation on the urgent need to address climate change. That experience was enlightening, deeply moving and thought provoking. “

Pope Francis
Pope Francis was pictured on April 06, 2025 at St Peter’s Square (Getty Images)

The lengthy statement added: “In 2023, Pope Francis expanded upon Laudato Si’ with the publication of Laudate Deum: Apostolic Exhortation on the Climate Crisis. In it, he renewed his call for immediate and decisive climate action, reminding us that “we are part of Nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it,” and that we must not view the world from the outside, but from within.

“Pope Francis was one of the most extraordinary spiritual leaders of our time. His legacy will continue to inspire generations of environmentalists around the world. May he rest in peace. “

DiCaprio, from Los Angeles, California, has long been an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and established The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998 aged 24 with the mission of bringing attention and funding to the protection of biodiversity, ocean and forest conservation, and climate change.

People gather at St Peter's Square following the death of Pope Francis
People gather at St Peter’s Square following the death of Pope Francis (Getty Images)

Legendary director and DiCaprio’s longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese also lauded the Pope as a “remarkable human being” in a statement to Variety. He said: “There is so much that can be said about the significance of Pope Francis and everything he meant to the world, to the church, to the papacy. I will leave that to others. He was, in every way, a remarkable human being. He acknowledged his own failings. He radiated wisdom.

“He radiated goodness. He had an ironclad commitment to the good. He knew in his soul that ignorance was a terrible plague on humanity. So he never stopped learning. And he never stopped enlightening. And, he embraced, preached and practiced forgiveness. Universal and constant forgiveness.

“The loss for me runs deep — I was lucky enough to know him, and I will miss his presence and his warmth. The loss for the world is immense. But he left a light behind, and it can never be extinguished. “

Haiti is nearing ‘point of no return’ as gang violence surges: UN official

Haiti is approaching a “point of no return” as it struggles to respond to escalating gang violence, the top United Nations official in the country has said.

Maria Isabel Salvador, the UN special representative to the Caribbean nation, delivered the warning to the UN Security Council on Monday.

“As gang violence continues to spread to new areas of the country, Haitians experience growing levels of vulnerability and increasing scepticism about the ability of the state to respond to their needs,” Salvador said.

“Haiti could face total chaos,” she said, adding that aid and support for the international force deployed to stem rampant gang violence was desperately needed to avoid that fate.

“I urge you to remain engaged and answer the urgent needs of the country and its people,” she said.

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti faces severe political instability, with swaths of the country under the control of rival armed gangs who carry out widespread murders, rapes and kidnappings.

Salvador cited cholera outbreaks and gender-based violence alongside a deteriorating security situation.

Most recently, Salvador said, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, freeing more than 500 prisoners during the assault. It was the fifth prison break in under a year and “part of a deliberate effort to entrench dominance, dismantle institutions and instil fear”, she said.

Armed gangs have also been increasingly battling for control of the capital, Port-au-Prince, with violence intensifying as rival gangs attempt to establish new territories, she said.

Meanwhile, a  Kenyan-led force authorised by the UN has failed to push back the gangs since the deployment began in June of last year. The mission has about 1,000 police officers from six countries, short of the 2,500 originally planned.

Kenya’s national security adviser, Monica Juma, told the council in a video briefing from Nairobi that the force has entered “a decisive phase of its operation” where gangs are coordinating operations and attacking people and strategic installations, and targeting the political establishment.

While the Haitian police and the multinational force have launched intensive anti-gang operations and achieved some notable progress, especially in securing critical infrastructure, she said a significant gap exists.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also warned that further international support was “required immediately to allow the national police to prevent the capital slipping closer to the brink”, according to an unpublished report seen by the AFP news agency.

The report detailed the surge in violence, with the UN recording 2,660 homicides in the three months since December 2024 – a 41. 3 percent increase over the previous quarter.

But the report also pointed to a high civilian toll in efforts to counter the gangs.

During the period, anti-gang operations resulted in 702 people killed, with 21 percent estimated to be innocent civilians, the report said.

There was also an alarming increase in gender-based violence, with 347 incidents reported in the five months to February 2025, according to the UN data.

I felt BBC wanted me to leave Match of the Day, says Lineker

Steven McIntosh

Gary Lineker has said he believes the BBC wanted him to leave Match of the Day as he was negotiating a new contract last year.

The presenter and the BBC jointly announced in November that he would be stepping down from the flagship football programme, although he will still host World Cup and FA Cup coverage.

Asked by the BBC’s Amol Rajan why he would choose to leave given his successful tenure, Lineker said: “Well, perhaps they want me to leave. There was the sense of that. “

However, the BBC noted in the same statement that Match of the Day “continually evolves for changing viewing habits”.

PA Media Gary Lineker commentating for BBC Sport in 2021PA Media

Reflecting on his departure from Match of the Day, Lineker told Rajan: “It’s time. I’ve done it for a long time, it’s been brilliant. “

However, asked why he’d want to leave when the ratings were still high and it was a job Lineker still enjoyed, the former footballer said he “had the sense” the BBC had wanted him to step down.

“I always wanted one more contract, and I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether to do three years [more],” Lineker explained.

But, he continued, the matter of how long to sign for was complicated by the cycle of broadcasting rights for matches.

“In the end, I think there was a feeling that, because it was a new rights period, it was a chance to change the programme,” he said.

“I think it was their preference that I didn’t do Match of the Day for one more year, so they could bring in new people. So it’s slightly unusual that I would do the FA Cup and the World Cup, but to be honest, it’s a scenario that suits me perfectly. “

BBC suspension

Lineker was also asked about comments he posted on social media in March 2023, criticising the then-government’s immigration policy.

The remarks led to his suspension from the BBC, prompting other sports presenters to down tools in solidarity, something Lineker said he felt “moved” by.

Reflecting on his tweets, Lineker said he did not regret taking the position he did, but that he would not do it again because of the “damage” it did to the BBC.

“I don’t regret saying them publicly, because I was right – what I said, it was accurate – so not at all in that sense.

“Would I, in hindsight, do it again? No I wouldn’t, because of all the nonsense that came with it… It was a ridiculous overreaction that was just a reply to someone that was being very rude. And I wasn’t particularly rude back. “

He continued: “But I wouldn’t do it again because of all the kerfuffle that followed, and I love the BBC, and I didn’t like the damage that it did to the BBC… But do I regret it and do I think it was the wrong thing to do? No. “

The row erupted when Lineker called a government asylum policy “immeasurably cruel”, and said a video promoting it used language that was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”.

The home secretary at the time, Suella Braverman, who appeared in the video, called his criticism “offensive” and “lazy”, while Downing Street said it was “not acceptable”.

Lineker’s post reignited the debate about the BBC’s impartiality guidance on social media and how it applied to presenters.

Behind the scenes of a BBC TV Studio (Plymouth), TV camera and BBC Logo on LED wall.

Lineker argued that the previous set of rules “were for people in news and current affairs”.

“They have subsequently changed,” he acknowledged. “But that left people like me, who has always given his honest opinions about things, then they suddenly changed them and you have to go, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be impartial now’. It doesn’t make any sense. “

He added: “I’ve always been strong on humanitarian issues and always will be, and that’s me. “

Lineker said that, following his tweets, “the goalposts were massively moved because it was never an issue until, suddenly, this point”.

The BBC updated its social media guidance in 2023 following a review that was commissioned in the wake of the fallout over Lineker’s tweets.

The corporation said presenters of flagship programmes, such as Match of the Day, “carry a particular responsibility to respect the BBC’s impartiality, because of their profile on the BBC”.

Gaza doc

Lineker hit the headlines again recently when he, along with 500 other high-profile figures, signed an open later urging the BBC to reinstate a documentary about Gaza to iPlayer.

The documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, was pulled from the streaming service in February after it emerged its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.

Lineker told Rajan he would “100%” support the documentary being made available again, arguing: “I think you let people make their own minds up. We’re adults. We’re allowed to see things like that. It’s incredibly moving. “

He added that, although the 13-year-old was narrating the programme, the script had “not been written by [the child], it’s been written by the people who produced the show”.

“I think [the BBC] just capitulated to lobbying that they get a lot,” he said.

After concerns were raised, the BBC took down the programme while it carried out further due diligence. The matter is currently still being investigated by the corporation.

Gambling in sport

Getty Images Close-up on a man gambling online using a mobile app on his cell phone while drinking beer at the pubGetty Images

In the wide-ranging interview, which will be broadcast on Tuesday, Lineker also discussed his footballing career, his son’s leukemia battle as a baby, and his views on gambling sponsorship in sports.

Lineker said the football industry should rethink its responsibility when it comes to taking money from gambling firms.

“I know people [for whom] it becomes an addiction, it can completely destroy their lives,” he said.

“There’s talk about taking [logos] off the shirts, but you see it on the boards around the ground everywhere.

On top of his presenting roles, Lineker is also the co-founder of Goalhanger Podcasts, which make the successful The Rest is History series and its spin-offs about Politics, Football, Entertainment and Money.

The 64-year-old indicated to Rajan his next career move “won’t be more telly”, adding: “I think I’ll step back from that now.

“I think I’ll probably focus more on the podcast world, because it’s such a fun business and it’s just been so incredible. “

Paula Radcliffe says watching daughter undergo chemotherapy was ‘horrible’

Marathon runner Paula, 51, took daughter Isla to the paediatrician during lockdown after she experienced a variety of symptoms including stomach aches and loss of breath

Paula Radcliffe and her daughter Isla (Image: Charlie Varley/varleypix.com)

Celebrated marathon runner Paula Radcliffe has said it was “horrible” to watch her daughter Isla undergo chemotherapy and described it as “the hardest thing a parent can go through”. A decade on from Radcliffe’s final London Marathon and her 18-year-old daughter, who was diagnosed and treated for cancer in 2020, will be running her first 26. 2-mile race in the capital.

The long-distance runner, 51, took Isla to the paediatrician during lockdown after she experienced a variety of symptoms including stomach aches and loss of breath.

“It then moved very quickly. On the Tuesday she visited the doctor, we had a scan on the Wednesday and one week later we were already in the hospital starting the first round of chemo,” she told the Radio Times.

Talking about the treatment, she said: “It’s the hardest thing a parent can go through. “

“You can support them and be with them the whole way through, but you can’t do that chemo for them. It’s horrible to watch your child suffering through that, but at the same time we believed that if it felt bad, it was killing the cancer. “

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Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain celebrates with her daughter Isla after winning the 2008 Womens ING New York City Marathon
Paula Radcliffe celebrates with her daughter Isla after winning the 2008 Womens ING New York City Marathon(Image: Getty Images)

She added: “There are things you’re not ready for either going through it or as a parent. She (Isla) doesn’t know how it has affected her chances of becoming a parent,” she said.

Radcliffe also has a son called Raphael with her husband Gary Lough and spoke about how her daughter’s diagnosis had affected him.

“There was a huge amount of mother’s guilt for the fact that you have to focus more on one child for that period of time,” she said.

Radcliffe will be commentating as part of the BBC team during the marathon, taking place on Sunday. “It’s an extremely emotional place to be anyway, when you see people turn that corner on the Mall and they realise they’ve done it”, she said.

“But when it’s your little girl doing it, that’s going to be a bit more emotional. “

Radcliffe told The Move Against Cancer Podcast in 2021 that Isla had undergone three rounds of chemotherapy and that it had been “really hard” for their family.

Her career saw her win the London and New York marathons three times each, along with victory in the 2002 Chicago Marathon.

She returned to marathon running for the first time in a decade at the Tokyo Marathon in March and ran the Boston Marathon on Monday.

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