Bedugul Coffee: There’s no getting around these tariffs

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Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Thanks for subscribing to the Weekend Briefing. I recommend our story on a suspected Russian-run sabotage plot that led to three parcels that detonated at courier depots in Britain, Germany and Poland last summer. It involves fake cosmetics, massage pillows and sex toys. What more could you need? Our World News podcast explores RFK Jr.'s cuts to U.S. healthcare systems, and our latest edition of City Memo takes us to Sydney.

Trump tariffs: Nowhere to hide

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Roll with it: Hit by tariffs of up to 50% on their exports to the United States, most nations lack the power to hit back or the will to slug it out. As for financial markets, China summed it up: They've spoken. China's retaliatory tariffs contributed to an epic slump, with the S&P 500's 6% fall slicing $5 trillion off its market cap in two days. Wall Street's fear level reached a five-year high. Anyone who thought Fed Chair Jerome Powell would propose measures to deal with the economic fallout were wrong. And this Chinese video mocks the U.S., and includes the notice that the "Track is AI-generated. The debt crisis? 100 percent human-made."
'This is bigger than I expected': Investors are looking for assets that can ride out a recession and higher inflation as well as companies that rely less on international trade. The tariffs are hitting some of the poorest countries hardest. Just take a look at Lesotho. Sign up for our Tariff Watch newsletter, which brings you the latest daily headlines. I also hope you'll keep up with our live coverage.

Federal workers fear Friday-night firings

Dismissed: Mass firings have taken place on seven of the 10 Fridays since Trump has been in office, a move that one expert said is designed to reduce media coverage and make it more difficult for civil servants to get legal help. Job cuts at the FDA removed employees critical to reviewing new medicines, and the Health Department might reinstate some workers and ask others to return temporarily. Among the latest casualties is National Security Agency director Timothy Haugh.
Legal updates: Elon Musk's DOGE team has to send new termination notices to U.S. Agency for International Development staff because the first round was full of errors. A judge said the administration must follow procedures if it wants to file probationary workers. The administration is reclassifying some workers to make firing them easier. More than 1,000 "hands off!" protests are expected in the U.S. this weekend.

Israeli troops expand 'security zone' in northern Gaza

More territory: Soldiers carrying out the operation east of Gaza City were letting civilians out through organized routes as they took more land and issued evacuation warnings that now cover about a third of the strip. Israel killed a Hamas commander in Sidon, Lebanon, along with his wife and daughter. It also struck four air bases in Syria that Turkey was thinking of deploying forces as part of a planned joint-defense pact.
And in Europe: Benjamin Netanyahu applauded Hungary for leaving the International Criminal Court as he visited Budapest, a rare trip abroad for the Israeli prime minister as he defied an ICC arrest warrant. In France, far-right leader Marine Le Pen called for a peaceful protest in Paris this Sunday after a court convicted her of embezzling EU funds and barred her for five years of running for office. Her tactics in fighting "the tyranny of judges" are turning off some of her fellow citizens even as Trump supported her and the judge in the case received death threats.

Elon Musk backlash is bad for Tesla

Declines: Musk pledged that Tesla would return to growth this year after posting its first sales decline in 2024, but the odds are stacked against him because of his DOGE work and support of far-right policies in Europe. Chinese EV rivals and Trump's tariffs aren't helping.
TikTok: China was supposed to agree to a deal to spin off TikTok's U.S. assets. That didn't happen thanks to Beijing's objections to Trump's tariffs. Trump extended by 75 days a deadline for ByteDance to sell the assets or face a U.S. ban.

Before I forget…

The death toll from Myanmar's earthquake rose to 3,354, state media reported. Three U.S. aid workers were laid off while helping with rescue and recovery, a former senior staffer said.
Multiple Ukrainians legally in the U.S. received an email saying their status had been revoked and they had seven days to leave or "the federal government will find you." The government said it sent the email by mistake.
Kenya denied that it discussed debt restructuring with China's finance minister after posting on X that it had done exactly that.
Potential miniseries material: A former HR software company employee in Ireland confessed to spying for a rival at the behest of the firm's CEO.
Bulgarian soccer club Arda Kardzhali feted former player Petko Ganchev two weeks after holding a minute's silence in his memory after incorrectly believing that he died.

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