While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 3, 2025
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With Mexico, Canada and China vowing retaliation and counter measures, the scene was set for a round of turbulence.
PHOTO: AFP
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Global markets brace for Trump tariff hikes
Global markets are set for a fresh jolt on Feb 3 after US President Donald Trump launched a trade war with sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China that threaten to undermine economic growth and reignite inflation.
With Mexico and Canada - the top US two trading partners - vowing immediate retaliation and China saying it would take “counter measures,” the scene was set for a round of turbulence. Markets were dealt a blow last week as the emergence of China’s DeepSeek AI model hit tech stocks, and uncertainty around Trump tariffs has weighed on broader markets.
The White House has not yet published all the details of the tariff plan, leaving questions about their impact and duration.
The risk of a global trade war could hurt US corporate profits and pressure inflation, potentially upending US interest rate cut expectations, and further weaken currencies such as the Canadian dollar and China’s yuan.
‘Pain’ from tariffs will be ‘worth the price’, says Trump
Getty Images via AFP
US President Donald Trump said on Feb 2 that Americans may feel economic “pain” from his tariffs on key trading partners, but argued it would be “worth the price” to secure US interests.
On Feb 1, Mr Trump finally signed off on threatened 25 per cent tariffs on neighbouring Mexico and Canada – despite sharing a free trade pact – and hit China with a 10 per cent tariff, in addition to already enacted levies.
The move provoked immediate vows of retaliation, while analysts warned that the ensuing trade war would likely decrease US growth and raise consumer prices over the short term.
Rubio warns Panama of US action without ‘immediate changes’ on canal
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Feb 2 warned Panama that it would face action from the US unless it makes “immediate changes” on the Panama Canal, alleging it had violated the handover treaty.
Meeting President Jose Raul Mulino, Mr Rubio “made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the treaty,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
Mr Rubio told Mr Mulino that President Donald Trump “has made a preliminary determination that the current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party over the Panama Canal area is a threat to the canal and represents a violation of the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal,” Mr Bruce said.
Syrian President Sharaa meets Saudi Crown Prince in Riyadh on first foreign visit
PHOTO: REUTERS
Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Feb 2 in his first foreign trip as Syrian leader, in a sign of the major shifts under way in regional alliances.
Mr Sharaa assumed power as transitional president last week, after leading a rebel campaign that ousted longtime Iran-backed leader Bashar al-Assad, whose ties with the rest of the Arab world were strained throughout the nearly 14-year Syrian war.
Mr Sharaa said in a written statement that he had discussed humanitarian and economic cooperation with the Crown Prince, as well as “extensive future plans in the fields of energy, technology, education and health”.
Hundreds of thousands protest against Germany’s far-right
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Demonstrators descended on Berlin on Feb 2 to protest last week’s decision by Germany’s conservatives to make overtures to the far right ahead of this month’s legislative election, drawing at least 160,000 people, according to police.
Organisers said 200,000 people had turned out to denounce the breach by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Germany’s unwritten agreement not to work with the far right at the national level, in place since World War II.
After the rally started just outside the Bundestag, Germany’s Parliament building, some protesters chanted slogans including “Shame on you CDU” before moving on towards the party’s headquarters.
