While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, April 7, 2025

Trump team rejects market fears, projecting defiance on tariffs

US President Donald Trump’s top economic officials dismissed investors’ fears of inflation and recession, offering no apologies for the market turmoil sparked by sweeping global tariffs and defiantly insisting a boom is on the horizon. 

On the heels of huge global stock market falls, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and others dug in on April 6 and declared that Mr Trump would persist in his tariffs agenda, whatever markets may do.

“The tariffs are coming,” Mr Lutnick said on CBS’s Face the Nation, adding that Mr Trump “announced it and he wasn’t kidding.”

“I see no reason that we have to price in a recession,” Mr Bessent told NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, despite economists at JPMorgan saying on April 4 that they now expect the US to slip into a recession this year.

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Prabowo mulls over Cabinet reshuffle as Indonesia’s economy slows: Sources

President Prabowo Subianto is considering replacing some ministers in his Cabinet in the coming months due to their unsatisfactory performance and amid political pressure from his coalition partners. This comes as Indonesia is set to record lower-than-expected economic growth for the first three months of 2025.

Three senior government officials told The Straits Times that Mr Prabowo’s inner circle has suggested he remove “weak elements” in his six-month-old administration in order to accelerate fulfilling his campaign promises.

The move comes amid concerns over a weakening economy and softer consumer spending, given the slew of populist programmes that require huge funding, and declining tax revenues, which have driven the rupiah to its weakest level against the US dollar since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and sent Indonesian stocks tumbling to levels not seen in over a decade.

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Zelensky slams US lack of response to Putin truce rejection

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on April 6 lamented the lack of a US response to Russia’s refusal to agree “a full, unconditional ceasefire” as two people were killed in Moscow’s latest aerial bombardment.

Russia mounted a “massive” missile and drone attack on Ukraine that also wounded seven people, Mr Zelensky said, warning that Moscow was stepping up its aerial attacks.

Ukraine has agreed to an unconditional truce in the more than three-year-long war proposed by the United States but Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to do so.

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Second child dies of measles in Texas amid rising outbreak

A measles outbreak has killed a second child in the southwestern United States, authorities said on April 6, with almost 650 people now infected as the highly contagious disease spreads.

“We are deeply saddened to report that a school-aged child who was recently diagnosed with measles has passed away,” Mr Aaron Davis, vice-president of UMC Health System, a medical centre in Texas, told AFP.

The child had been receiving treatment for “complications of measles” in hospital, he said, adding they were “not vaccinated against measles and had no known underlying health conditions.”

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Underwhelming Manchester derby ends in Premier League stalemate

Manchester United and Manchester City played out an anticlimactic 0-0 Premier League draw on April 6 in a low-key derby that dealt a blow to City’s bid for Champions League qualification.

Pep Guardiola’s team, who were missing their top scorer Erling Haaland through injury, are fifth in the table on 52 points, one behind Chelsea, and United are languishing in 13th place on 38.

“Tight game. They had chances, we had chances as well,” Guardiola said. “The only problem is we moved too much with the ball. We had to be in the right position and we didn’t do that.”

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