German carmaker Audi is halting deliveries of its vehicles to the US due to the new tariffs on automobiles imposed by US President Donald Trump, the newspaper Automobilwoche has reported.

Trump’s 25% levy on car imports took effect last week as part of a series of “reciprocal” measures that have rattled global markets.

A spokeswoman for Audi told the outlet on Monday that a letter had been sent to dealers instructing them to withhold all vehicles that arrived after April 2. Dealers were also urged to focus on reducing existing inventory.

Audi currently has more than 37,000 vehicles in stock in the US that are not affected by the new tariffs and can be sold, the spokeswoman said, adding that this inventory should last about two months.

What happens when the world’s second-largest economy suddenly pulls the plug on billions of dollars in US energy exports without warning, without negotiation and without a single public signal? You get a global energy market in shock and Washington scrambling for answers.

WIN News analysis

In a move that stunned traders, analysts and policymakers alike, China has just announced a complete halt on all liquefied natural gas imports from the United States. A decision made abruptly with no prior indication, no phased reduction and no explanation beyond a terse statement from Beijing.

European stock markets fell on Monday morning, continuing a global selloff triggered by US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs that had already rattled Asian markets.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index, which tracks the leading companies in the region, dropped more than 6% shortly after opening, hitting its lowest level since December 2023. Germany’s DAX tumbled nearly 10%, France’s CAC 40 slid 6.6%, and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 5.7%.

In London, the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks dropped 6%, marking its worst day since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Every stock in the index was in the red one hour after the market opened.

Shares in defense firms and banks led the decline. German arms maker Rheinmetall plunged nearly 24%, and UK-based Rolls-Royce lost 12%. Mining and investment companies were also among the hardest hit.

SIR KEIR Starmer has urged striking bin workers to start negotiating as tons of rat-ridden rubbish pile up. 

His challenge came as photos showed a major clean-up was needed to clear a car park in 24 hours in Birmingham. 

The 50ft long, 6ft mound of festering mess had been dumped at Tyseley Community Centre. 

Four bin lorries and a craned truck were brought in overnight to clear it. 

Emmanuel Macron has been spraying himself with copious amounts of luxury cologne, according to excerpts from a new book about the French president cited in the media.

In his book titled ‘The Tragedy of the Elysee: Inside the Hell of Macron’s Five-Year Terms’, Le Parisien journalist Olivier Beaumont claims that the president uses “industrial amounts”amounts of perfume on a daily basis.

Macron has a special affinity for Dior Eau Sauvage, and “a bottle [is] always to hand, particularly in one of the drawers of his desk,” the book says.

“Less-accustomed visitors may find themselves overcome by the floral and musky scent, as refined as it is powerful. It is a sign of one thing: that the president is in the building,” Beaumont writes, as quoted by The Telegraph.

Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone has said that the claims that Russia had meddled in the 2016 US presidential election were nothing but lies.

For years, Democrats have claimed that the Kremlin had waged a covert campaign to sway the race in favor of President Donald Trump. The 2019 report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller alleged that the Russian government interfered in the election “in sweeping and systematic fashion,”mostly through hacking and messaging on social media. The investigation, however, “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” according to the final report.

Peter Dutton has ditched his plan to force Canberra's public servants to work from the office five days a week after the policy proved unpopular with voters — particularly women — telling Australians "we have listened”...

It is not the Coalition's only backflip in its efforts to win over female voters, with the Liberals also yesterday disendorsing their candidate for the NSW seat of Whitlam, Ben Britton, after he claimed women should not be allowed to serve in combat roles in the military...

DUTTON FLIPS ON WFH

Coalition dumps key policy… and a candidate

FULL STORY PAGE 7

The daily Telegraph.... 07/04/2025

The dreadful atrocities by Hamas on 7 October 2023 horrified the world and triggered the destruction of Gaza, the deaths of more than 50,000 Gazan men, women and children and the wounding of tens of thousands more.

John Stace

Israeli leaders placed the entire blame on Hamas for the deaths of 1200 Israelis and others and the kidnapping of another 250. But the attack would not have been so devastating if the Israel Defence Force had responded to the evidence that Hamas was preparing a large military action.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will deliver a speech on Monday acknowledging that the era of globalization has come to an end, The Times has reported.

Starmer will make the address in response to US President Donald Trump imposing sweeping tariffs on the majority of America’s trading partners, including the UK, earlier this week, according to the article on Sunday.

The outlet said the prime minister will say that tariffs are “wrong,” but would also stress that he understands Trump’s “economic nationalism” and why the voters, who believe they have seen no benefits from free trade and mass immigration, support it.

Starmer will also stress that the fallout from the US charges on imports means that the government in London should “move further and faster” to boost economic growth at home.

WASHINGTON -- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is reportedly looking to leave the Trump administration following the president's "reciprocal tariff" announcement, which has raised concerns about its impact on the economy, The New Republic reported on Saturday.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe, contributor Stephanie Ruhle revealed that Bessent, once a hedge fund manager, is increasingly isolated within the administration and may be seeking an exit to salvage his credibility, possibly aiming for a position at the Federal Reserve.

According to the report, Bessent's frustration stems from Trump's tariff policy, which includes a 10 percent baseline tariff on nearly all foreign goods, a move that Bessent warned could escalate global trade tensions.

The Hungarian prime minister said the EU Commission's call for people to prepare a 72-hour emergency kit was scary. "What's on these people's minds? Are they up to something?" the politician lamented, speaking on public radio.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the first national leader to react to the EU Commission's advice for people to prepare a 72-hour survival kit for emergency situations.

Having written two celebrated books on fascism in the 20th century, Jewish-American scholar John Stanley draws direct parallels with the second Donald Trump presidency.

"Fascism is what the Trump administration is now doing," he told DW of the president's second term in office.

In late March, Stanley announced his decision to quit Yale University and move to Canada, where he will work at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He follows Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore,  two Yale history professors who are a married couple, who also left for Toronto after the US presidential election.  

Peter Dutton’s election campaign is faltering just as momentum should be building, fuelling growing unease inside the Coalition that his abrasive image and perceived ideological closeness to Donald Trump is pushing away the swing voters he needs to win.

What was meant to be a disciplined opening to a five-week campaign, centred on cost-of-living pressures and national security, was instead overshadowed by muddled messaging, strategic drift and a leader whose tough-guy persona – unyielding, combative, defiantly anti-woke – now seems misaligned with voters unsettled by Trump’s assault on the global rules-based order.

X is not real life, but its tentacles slither into the increasingly online landscape that defines real life. It’s not X’s fault; it has merely become an incubator of a trend launched years ago by the 24-hour news cycle. Really, then, much of our modern malaise is the fault of Ted Turner, a man so wise he saw fit to marry Jane Fonda in 1991, well after she had publicly aired her crazy in myriad ways. 

And while information is good, there’s only so much of it that comes out in a day, which leaves lots of hours left to fill. Hence, the terrain quickly shifted from constant news to constant hysteria. Which is fine, if toting a fainting couch around with you is your thing, but there’s really no need to live this way. Take, for example, the latest outrage to animate us all: President Trump’s tariffs. 

Russia will have little difficulty reaching its target of 1.5 million active military personnel, despite the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Christopher Cavoli has predicted.

During a US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, the four-star US Army general evaluated Moscow’s ability to enhance its military capabilities.

”I believe the personnel they’ll be able to build as quickly as they want to,”Cavoli stated, referencing the launch of a spring conscription campaign on Tuesday that aims to enroll 160,000 recruits for military training. Unlike Kiev, Moscow does not deploy conscripts to the front lines, relying instead on volunteers.