Measles outbreaks in the US

Experts: Measles outbreaks risk becoming the new normal

The Trump administration's health policy could lead to measles becoming a common disease in the US again, writes the New York Times. Large outbreaks like the one currently underway in Texas could become the new normal, experts warn.

- We have really opened the door for this virus to come back, says Thomas R Frieden, who previously headed the CDC.

For an outbreak to start, the infection must first enter the country and then reach an unvaccinated population. The current policy increases the likelihood of both factors. First, because the international work against measles is greatly affected by the US decision to leave the World Health Organization (WHO), which increases the likelihood of being infected abroad.

In addition, cuts within the CDC mean that the agency will have to reduce its work to inform about the importance of vaccines.

Another child with measles has died in Texas

A second child with measles has died in Texas in the US, reports NBC News. However, the exact cause of death is still under investigation.

So far, more than 500 cases of the disease have been confirmed since the beginning of January and the outbreak is growing rapidly. An adult is also suspected of having died as a result of the disease, which had previously claimed no American lives in a decade.

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy is expected to attend the dead child's funeral on Sunday.
 

Trump's USA

Ministers' war chat
Investigation shows: This is what happened when Goldberg was added to the ministers' war chat

An internal investigation has now determined what happened when US national security adviser Mike Waltz added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a chat group about a military strike in Yemen, The Guardian reports. According to the investigation, it was preceded by a series of mistakes that began during the 2024 election campaign.

Waltz then received an email containing Goldberg's number, in connection with Trump's campaign staff wanting help handling a news event. By mistake, the number was saved under the contact of Donald Trump's then-spokesman Brian Hughes, who in his current role as spokesman for the National Security Council was the one who should have actually been invited to the chat group.

The Guardian has received the information from several sources who also claim that Trump was very close to firing Waltz after the scandal. The reason he ultimately did not do so is said to have been because he did not want it to look like the media had managed to force a top advisor out early in his term.

Greenland's future
Republicans see Trump: The talk about Greenland is embarrassing and harmful

Donald Trump's talk about taking over Greenland is "embarrassing and harmful." That's what Republican congressman Don Bacon said in an interview with the Danish newspaper Berlingske.

- No one in their right mind believes that we will invade Greenland or make Canada the 51st state. Yet (Trump) says it, says Bacon.

He is one of the few Republicans who openly dares to criticize the president, and he understands that it will make him unpopular. But he also says that he is not alone in his criticism, but that his assessment is that half the party agrees with him, even if few dare to say it.

At the same time, he urges Denmark to take Trump's statements calmly.

- I don't know what's going on in his head, but I know that he loves the commotion this is creating in the media, says Bacon.  

Votes on tariffs

Treasury Secretary: Who knows how the market will react

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent describes this week's stock market crash as a "short-term" reaction.

- The market is an organic animal, you never know what the reaction will be, he says in an interview with NBC News.

- Who knows how the market will react in a week, the Treasury Secretary continues.

Scott Bessent then claims that the market "consistently underestimates Donald Trump" and Bessent describes the reaction when Trump was first elected as a "crash".

November 9, 2016, the first trading day after Trump's election, all major US stock market indexes closed in the red.

Prime Minister: "The USA will be the first victim"

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou warns that Donald Trump's tariffs are an "earthquake" and that the USA will be one of the "first victims". He says this in an interview with the French Le Parisien.

He also says that the tariffs will hit France's economic growth hard and increase unemployment. According to Bayrou's assessment, the country's GDP growth will decrease by 0.5 percentage points.

Among other things, France's exports of wines and luxury consumer goods will be affected by Trump's tariffs.

- There is an imminent risk to jobs. Trump's decision is extremely serious for France and even more harmful for the USA, he says.

Trump's Tariffs
Hassett: 50 countries want to negotiate with the US

More than 50 countries have contacted the White House to begin negotiations after Donald Trump's tariff announcement, says Kevin Hassett, who heads the president's National Economic Council.

- They are doing it because they understand that they will have to bear a large part of the cost of the tariffs. So I don't think we will have a big effect on consumers in the US, Hassett tells ABC News.

Donald Trump has been talking about tariffs for 40 years and this tariff policy is what he wants, Hassett says.

 

Political situation in Turkey

Turkey's opposition demands presidential elections this year

The largest Turkish opposition party, the CHP, is demanding that the country hold presidential elections this year and that the arrested Ekrem Imamoglu be the party's candidate. Party leader Özgür Özel said this on Sunday, AFP reports.

- You should be pitted against our candidate by November at the latest, Özel said in a speech addressed to President Erdogan.

The election is actually planned to be held no later than May 7, 2028.

Özel also praised the widespread demonstrations in the country that broke out after Imamoglu was arrested.
 

Turkish opposition calls for continued resistance

Turkey's largest opposition party, the CHP, will hold an extraordinary congress on Sunday to re-elect party leader Özgür Özel, AFP reports. At the same time, widespread protests against President Erdogan continue and Özel is urging people, whether they vote for the CHP or not, to gather outside the congress hall in Ankara to show their dissatisfaction.

- Our congress's main demand will be the release of our presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, says Özel.

The protests in the country broke out after Imamoglu was arrested and imprisoned just days before he was to be elected as a presidential candidate. In connection with the protests, almost 2,000 more people have been arrested.
 

The protests unite old and young: "They are the future"

Nearly 2,000 people have been arrested in Turkey since the widespread protests in the country broke out, reports the AP. Among those arrested are many students and other young people.

Student Burak Turan tells how he witnessed how the police arrested dozens of young people in connection with a demonstration.

- They are behaving as if it is war, they are taking advantage of martial law, he says.

The AP reporter has also spoken to a man in his 60s who says he is participating in the demonstrations to support the young people.

"We are not important, but they are. They are our future," he says.

Trump's USA Tariffs

Analysis: Trump is doing Brexit and thinks it's working

Donald Trump's tariffs can be compared to Brexit, notes the New York Times' Mark Landler in an analysis. Both have been a hammer blow to the international order.

"Economists expect similar chaos to hit the global trading system as a result of Trump's theatrical exit," he writes.

But while Trump's tariffs will damage free trade, they will not spell the end of it. The benefits of free trade are so powerful that the world will find new ways to make it work, even without its central players, writes Landler.

Trump's plan is for the tariffs to boost domestic production and finance a huge tax cut, writes The Guardian's Philip Inman in an analysis. But a prolonged recession in the country is becoming increasingly inevitable as countries respond to the president's tariffs.

In Sky News, David Blevins writes that increased domestic production will lead to higher prices for American consumers, since imported goods are much cheaper than domestically produced ones. But that does not worry Trump.

“He does not seem to have his head in the sand. He seems to believe that everything will work out in the end,” writes Blevins.

He is pointed out as the mastermind behind Trump's tariffs

Donald Trump's economic advisor, Harvard economist Stephen Miran, is pointed out as the mastermind behind the president's tariffs, reports DN.

Miran, who has written a report titled “A User's Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System,” believes that the tariffs will generate significant revenue for the United States. He also believes that it is the countries that are subject to tariffs that pay, not Americans through higher prices, as other experts argue.

In Miran's report, he writes that China is the main target of the tariff policy and that they will not be able to respond with their own tariffs due to their capital control rules.

But Per Altenberg, trade strategist at the Swedish College of Commerce, tells DN that his theory is contradictory.

- Just two days after the tariffs were introduced, China responded with the same coin, tariffs of 34 percent. And the euro has strengthened, not weakened, he says.

Sources: Bessent's phone went hot - tops appeal to Trump

In the day after Donald Trump's tariff announcement on Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was bombarded with messages from worried financial leaders on Wall Street. This was in an attempt to persuade Bessent to speak to Trump about the tariffs. This is what sources tell Bloomberg.

Wall Street saw Bessent as its best card to get Trump to turn on his heel, but in reality the Finance Minister is said to have had a relatively hidden role in the tariff decision. His involvement reportedly extended to presenting different scenarios for the markets and the economy based on different tariff levels.

Trump's USA Reactions to tariffs

Vietnamese companies appeal to Trump for tariffs

American and Vietnamese companies have asked the Trump administration to postpone the 46 percent tariffs that are to be imposed on the country, Reuters reports.

They express concern that the tariffs will hit the companies. In a letter from the Vietnamese Ministry of Commerce to the United States, it is written that the tariffs were "shockingly high" and that it is low tariffs that help consumers.

Vietnam is a major producer of various goods that are important to Western companies, and the United States is their largest trading partner. Donald Trump and Vietnamese leader To Lam have discussed a separate agreement to remove the tariffs.

American agriculture trembles before the tariffs: "Already going backwards as it is"

Donald Trump's broad tariffs have caused American farmers to prepare to receive less than planned payment for their crops and to lose ground in foreign markets, writes AFP.

– We are already going backwards as it is, says Jim Martin, a fifth-generation farmer who grows corn and soybeans.

At least half of US soybean exports and an even larger share of sorghum exports go to China, which this week announced tariffs of 34 percent on all American goods in response to US tariffs.

Farmer Michael Slattery notes that the tariffs mean that China's incentives to import American agricultural products are now reduced.

– It will be much cheaper to buy from Mexico, he notes.

In addition to reduced sales, farmers are also affected by the fact that the tariffs make purchases of machinery and fertilizer, for example, more expensive.

Starmer: "The world as we know it is gone"

The world as we know it is gone. This is what British Prime Minister Keir Starmer writes in a text for The Telegraph.

Old values ​​can no longer be taken for granted. When it comes to Donald Trump’s tariffs, the immediate priority is to stay calm and get a good deal, Starmer writes. He promises to do everything he can to protect Britain’s national interests against Trump’s trade war.

“The economic consequences here and around the world will be profound,” he continues.

Another leader who is focusing on national interests is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She also promises to protect Italian companies affected by Trump’s tariffs, Reuters reports.

“We are ready to use all the tools necessary to support our companies and sectors that could be penalized,” Meloni says in a video to the Italian Congress. 

 

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