The Week 1535

Trump’s “medicine”: trade war unleashed Donald Trump promised to bring down energy prices, said Keith Johnson in Foreign Policy – “and on that front at least, he has delivered”. The bad news, though, is that the recent plunge in crude oil prices reflects fears that he has tipped the global economy into recession. Markets have been in meltdown since last week, when the president “launched a trade war against every country on Earth”, imposing tariffs even on uninhabited volcanic islands off the coast of Antarctica. The move wiped some $8trn off the world’s stock markets. Wall Street suffered its worst one-day fall since the Covid crisis in 2020; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index had its biggest one-day fall since 1997; Tesla shares fell by nearly 10%. It’s hard to overstate…

A pair of critically endangered giant tortoises have become first-time parents at the age of approximately 100. Abrazzo and Mommy, a pair of Western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoises, produced the four hatchlings at Philadelphia Zoo; Mommy had first arrived there in 1932, but had to wait 90 years for Abrazzo to join her. Since then, they have laid four eggs, but the prior three weren’t viable. The zoo said it was “overjoyed” by the new arrivals, which were a “first” in its 150-year history. A “miracle” baby girl has become the first child in Britain to be born following a womb transplant. Amy Isabel Davidson was delivered six weeks ago at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in London. Her mother, Grace, 36, had been born without a functioning womb, but received…

The US-China trade war is escalating, said The Economist – “and fast”. Chinese officials have vowed to “fight to the end” in the face of the latest threats from Trump. Last week, Beijing had already promised to match new American tariffs of 34% – a move that drew return fire from Washington, which announced total levies of 104% of goods from China, applicable from 9 April. No sooner had those come into force, than China upped the ante further, announcing retaliatory 84% tariffs on all US imports. Until this week, Chinese officials had trodden carefully in a bid to “limit self-harm”. But with Trump no longer seeming very interested in striking a trade deal with Beijing, China’s leaders appear ready to go all out, to try to “win the trade…

Controversy of the week “Binmageddon” “Has there ever been a better advertisement against voting Labour in a local election than what is happening in Birmingham?” asked Simon Heffer in The Daily Telegraph. In the week when residents’ council tax bills went up by 7.5%, “over 17,000 tons of foetid waste” lay uncollected on its streets, some of it “piling seven-feet high” – the city having been turned into a stinking dump by an ongoing bin strike. Bulked up on an all-you-can-eat buffet of waste, rats “as big as cats” prowl the city, becoming “bolder and more aggressive” by the day. As the weather warms, the rat population could “multiply exponentially”, spreading disease and causing a public health crisis. Every day that “binmageddon” continues, Brummies are getting more desperate, said Kate…

The judiciary has been forced to draw up guidance for courts on how to deal with “emotional support animals”, because defendants are increasingly seeking to bring badly behaved and disruptive pets into court to help them cope with “stress”. At Grimsby Crown Court, for instance, one defendant brought a Staffordshire terrier puppy that urinated and defecated on the foyer floor after his owner was sent down for dangerous driving. Researchers who polled 1,000 white-van-driving tradesmen found that 80% think the “white-van man” stereotype is offensive and outdated. More than half said they enjoy “mindful activities” such as yoga, while one in five drinks herbal tea, and 22% have a nightly skincare regime.…

Backing yourself, after a recent survey found that one in 50 men believe they could beat a horse in a 100-metre sprint. (Horses can reach up to 40mph, while Usain Bolt, the fastest man on Earth, managed only 27mph.) Nearly three in ten adults confessed to having spotted an animal and thought, “I can outrun that.” Burying the hatchet, as Madonna and Elton John announced they had ended their 20-year feud. The singers fell out when John accused Madonna of lip-syncing in 2004, but reconciled this week after bumping into each other backstage at Saturday Night Live. John, 78, apologised for all the hurtful things he had said over the years, which included calling Madonna “a fairground stripper”. Theme park fans, after Universal confirmed its first European resort will be…