USA

The UK government is working on a new programme, which aims to predict potential offenders capable of committing serious crimes. The programme, ‘Murder Prediction,’ will use the data of people already with the authorities to identify those at high risk of becoming murderers.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said the project would help improve public safety by using algorithms to analyse data from multiple people. The government will identify patterns and risk factors to predict and prevent serious crimes.

Although the government hopes the research will help the justice system, critics argue it could lead to privacy violations.

Statewatch, a UK-based civil rights group, said the data would also be collected for people who haven’t committed any crime, The Guardian reported. It said the authorities would use sensitive information like if they have gone to the police for help or have ever self-harmed or been involved in domestic abuse.

Sofia Lyall, a researcher with Statewatch, criticised the project, describing it as “chilling and dystopian.” She said, “This latest model, which uses data from our institutionally racist police and Home Office, will reinforce and magnify the structural discrimination underpinning the criminal legal system.”

She added that like other systems of its kind, it would code in bias towards racialised and low-income communities. “Building an automated tool to profile people as violent criminals is deeply wrong, and using such sensitive data on mental health, addiction, and disability is highly intrusive and alarming,” she added.

The government claimed the project will use data from people with at least one criminal conviction.

As of now, the initiative is in the research phase and has not yet been put into practice, it said.

Critics fear the data being used may result in unfair bias, particularly against poor people and ethnic minorities.

According to the MoJ, the programme was started under former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and would “examine alternative and innovative data science techniques to risk assessment of homicide” and “review offender characteristics that increase the risk of committing homicide.”

The project is being conducted for research purposes only, the ministry added. It has been designed using existing data held by HM Prison and Probation Service and police forces on convicted offenders to help us better understand the risk of people on probation going on to commit serious violence, it added.

China on Friday said it would raise tariffs on US goods to 125 per cent from 84 per cent, hours after President Xi Jinping urged the European Union to join hands with Beijing in resisting “unilateral bullying”, referring to the massive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

The new levy, which will come into effect on Saturday, was announced after Trump this week raised the tariffs for China to 145 per cent, further escalating the ongoing trade war between the world’s top two economies.

“The US’s imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China seriously violates international trade rules, basic economic laws and common sense,” Beijing’s State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement shared by the finance ministry.

China also said it would “ignore” further tariff hikes by President Trump as US goods would no longer make economic sense for importers. Beijing said the US “should bear full responsibility” for the global economic “turbulence” unleashed by President Trump’s tariffs.

Washington’s levies “(caused) the current world economy, global markets and multilateral trading systems to suffer serious shocks and severe turbulence”, a spokesperson for Beijing’s Commerce Ministry said.

Beijing also said that President Trump decided to freeze tariffs on other countries partly after “pressure from China”.

The US President on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs on all countries, barring China. He said he was raising tariffs on Chinese imports, citing a “lack of respect” from Beijing.

A previous round of US tariffs had come into force on Wednesday, hiking up duties on Chinese imports to 104 per cent.

China then responded to the 104 per cent duties, saying it would raise its tariffs on US imports from 34 per cent to 84 per cent, effective from Thursday.

Xi Jinping On US-China Trade War, Trump Tariffs

Xi Jinping on Friday met his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sanchez, in Beijing and stressed that there are “no winners” in tariff wars.

State-run news agency Xinhua said the Chinese President also warned the European Union it needed to cooperate with China so the two can ride out the mounting trade war with Washington.

“China and Europe should fulfil their international responsibilities… and jointly resist unilateral bullying practices,” he said, asserting this would not only “safeguard legitimate rights and interests… but also safeguard international fairness and justice.”

The escalation in the US-China trade war comes days after President Trump called his Chinese counterpart a “smart man”.

“I think President Xi is a man who knows exactly what needs to be done. He’s a very smart man. He loves his country. I know that for a fact. I know him very well,” he told reporters at the White House this week.

“And I think he’s going to want to make a deal. I think that’s going to happen. We’ll get a phone call at some point, and everything will be ready,” he added.

“It is going to be a great thing for us, the world and for humanity,” Trump said.

(With agency inputs)

China on Friday called on the European Union to join hands to resist “unilateral bullying” by the United States, referring to the 145 per cent tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on imported Chinese goods and the 20 per cent tax (suspended for 90 days after the EU retaliated) on goods from the bloc.

China also said it is ready to fight a trade war if the US continues to act “recklessly”.

The appeal was made by President Xi Jinping as he met his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sanchez, in Beijing. State-run news agency Xinhua said Mr Xi also warned the European Union it needed to cooperate with China so the two can ride out the mounting trade war with Washington, D.C.

“China and Europe should fulfil their international responsibilities… and jointly resist unilateral bullying practices,” the Chinese President said echoing remarks from earlier and stressing this would not only “safeguard legitimate rights and interests… but also safeguard international fairness and justice.”

The Spanish Prime Minister – whose nation buys about $50 billion of goods from China every year – said tensions over trade should not impede EU’s cooperation with Beijing.

“Spain and Europe have a significant trade deficit with China…” Mr Sanchez admitted, “But we must not let trade tensions stand in the way of the potential growth of our relationships.”

“No Winners…”, China’s Warning

In a separate statement – underlining Beijing’s increasingly aggressive stance towards Trump’s tariffs – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said “trade wars have no winners”.

“China does not want to fight these wars… but it is not scared. If the US truly wants to resolve issues through dialogue (then) it must stop applying extreme pressure and acting recklessly.”

READ | “If War Is What US Wants…”: China’s Sharp Retort To Trump’s Tariffs

“These tactics do not work on China…” the spokesperson said, serving yet another warning to Trump, “If the US insists on a tariff and trade war, China’s response will continue to the end.”

That was made shortly before Chinese state-run news agency said Beijing had announced another tit-for-tat response – upping tariffs on American imported goods to 125 per cent.

“Meet Halfway”

On Tuesday Beijing urged Washington to meet it “halfway”; China’s Commerce Ministry warned that the tariffs risked “severely” impacting the global economy, but stressed “the door to dialogue is open”.

READ | China Urges US To Meet ‘Halfway’ As Trump Ups Tariffs To 125%

“We hope the US will meet China halfway, and, based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, properly resolve differences through dialogue and consultation,” Commerce Ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian said.

Trump’s Taxes On China

Trump’s sweeping tariffs – few, if any, countries and territories have been left untouched – have unsettled and roiled the global markets. But the biggest target has been China.

The current 145 per cent levy includes a 20 per cent tax levied earlier this year over Beijing’s alleged role in the global fentanyl (a deadly synthetic narcotic) supply chain.

NDTV Explains | Trump’s 25% Auto Tariffs. What Are They, Who Is Affected?

And it excludes steel and aluminium imports, as well as autos and auto parts, on each of which Trump has slapped an additional 25 per cent tariffs on under separate regimes.

Beijing has responded with high tariffs of its own; on Wednesday it imposed 84 per cent taxes on all imported American goods as it accused the US of “arrogance and bullying behaviour”.

The hostile back-and-forth between the US and China has also prompted Beijing, in a rather unprecedented move, to look for support from the global community, including India.

“Make Elephant, Dragon Dance”

In fact, Trump’s tariffs seem to be doing what decades of political and diplomatic wrangling could not, at least with any great degree of success – to get India and China to work together.

The tariff war has led Beijing to make conciliatory statements about Delhi; the latest was Tuesday, when the Chinese Embassy called on India and China to “stand together…”

READ | “India, China Relationship Is…”: Beijing’s Message On Trump Tariffs

“China-India economic and trade relationship is based on mutual benefits. Facing the US’ abuse of tariffs, which deprives countries, especially in the ‘Global South’, of their right to development, the largest developing countries (in the area) should stand together…” Yu Jing, a spokesperson, said on X.

Ms Yu’s X post followed a statement by President Jinping himself; on April 1, the Chinese leader told President Droupadi Murmu in Beijing that India and China should work together.

India has not yet responded to this statement, although External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the relationship between the two countries is moving in a “positive direction”.

Trump’s Tariffs On India

Trump, meanwhile, had announced “discounted” tariffs for India – ‘only’ 26 per cent – to be added to the baseline 10 per cent for certain goods, such as steel.

READ | Trump Announces 26% “Discounted Reciprocal Tariff” On India

There is also the possibility Trump will throw in additional taxes on import of pharmaceutical goods.

India exported goods worth $89.91 billion to the US in 2024, but this year sectors like seafood and vehicles and auto parts will take a hit.

But, unlike China, India has said it will not ‘retaliate’ and impose tariffs of its own, even if analysts expect a significant hit to exports to the US, by as much as $5.76 billion, this year.

READ | India To Avoid Retaliation On US Tariffs, Will Instead Focus On…

A government official told Reuters Delhi will focus on a clause that offers a possible reprieve for trading partners who “take significant steps to remedy non-reciprocal trade arrangements”.

Sources have said India is open to cutting existing tariffs in cases.

With input from agencies

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Four men were publicly executed in Afghanistan on Friday, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power.

The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an AFP tally.

Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums.

Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city.

“They (the convicted men) were made to sit and turn their backs to us. Relatives from the victims’ families stood behind and shot them with a gun,” Mohammad Iqbal Rahimyar, a 48-year-old spectator, told AFP.

The men had been “sentenced to retaliatory punishment” for shooting other men, after their cases were “examined very precisely and repeatedly”, the Supreme Court said in a statement.

The families of the victims turned down the opportunity to offer the men amnesty, it said.

“If the family of the victim had forgiven the men it would be better, otherwise it’s God’s order, and should be implemented,” a 35-year-old man who gave his name as Zabihullah told AFP outside the stadium.

Afghans had been invited to “attend the event” in official notices shared widely on Thursday.

A third man was executed in Zaranj in Nimroz province and the fourth was in Farah city in the western province of the same name, the Supreme Court said.

“It’s good that the Islamic Emirate shows its politics and force. I am very happy with that,” said another 30-year-old spectator named Javid, referring to the Taliban government’s official name.

Eye for an eye

The previous execution was in November 2024, when a convicted murderer was shot three times in the chest by a member of the victim’s family in front of thousands of spectators, including high-ranking Taliban officials, at a stadium in Gardez, the capital of eastern Paktia province.

Corporal punishment — mainly flogging — has been common under the Taliban authorities and employed for crimes including theft, adultery and alcohol consumption.

However, all execution orders are signed by the Taliban’s reclusive Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who lives in the movement’s heartland of Kandahar.

Akhundzada ordered judges in 2022 to fully implement all aspects of the Taliban government’s interpretation of Islamic law — including “eye for an eye” punishments known as “qisas”, allowing for the death penalty in retribution for the crime of murder.

Law and order is central to the severe ideology of the Taliban, which emerged from the chaos of a civil war following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989.

One of the most infamous images from their first rule depicted the 1999 execution of a woman wearing an all-covering burqa in a Kabul stadium.

She had been accused of killing her husband.

The United Nations and rights groups such as Amnesty International have condemned the Taliban government’s use of corporal punishment and the death penalty.

Amnesty included Afghanistan in countries where “death sentences were known to have been imposed after proceedings that did not meet international fair trial standards”, the non-governmental organisation said in its annual report on death sentences published in April.

The report said Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were responsible for 91 percent of known executions last year, with increases in death sentences in all three countries spurring a global rise.

The 1,518 executions recorded worldwide in 2024 did not include thousands of people believed to have been executed in China — the world’s leading executioner — Amnesty said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Agustin Escobar, the CEO of Siemens Spain, visited India weeks before he was killed in a plane crash in New York on Thursday. Besides Mr Escobar, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and their children – aged 4, 5, and 11 – also died after their Bell 306 helicopter went down into the Hudson River along Manhattan, media reports claimed.

Last month, Mr Escobar travelled to Siemens hubs in Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai, describing it as an “inspiring week”.

“What an inspiring week connecting with our talented teams across Bangalore, Pune, and Mumbai,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.

He added he was impressed by the innovation happening in his Indian hubs.

“From R&D labs to manufacturing facilities, I witnessed innovation in action at every stop,” he said.

Mr Escobar highlighted key moments, including deep-diving into future opportunities at the Siemens Bengaluru hub, exploring innovation at his Center of Excellence Engineering and R&D team in Pune, and connecting with his teams at Kalwa, Mumbai.

He said the best part of his visit was meeting Siemens teams and was deeply inspired by his teams’ passion, energy and commitment to excellence.

“From town halls to small group discussions, every conversation showed me why India is such a crucial part of our global success story,” he added.

Concluding his post, he gave a special thanks to the Siemens India teams for making his visit so memorable and meaningful. “Your dedication to transforming everyday life through technology with purpose is remarkable!”

On Thursday, Mr Escobar’s helicopter took off from New York, and it broke apart mid-air before plunging into the Hudson River.

The US Department of Justice on Thursday said the extradition of Mumbai 26/11 attacks accused Tahawwur Rana is a “critical step toward seeking justice” for the six Americans and other victims who were killed in the “heinous” attacks.

Rana, a 64-year-old Pakistan-born Canadian citizen, was flown to India from the US on a special aircraft on Wednesday and arrived in Delhi Thursday evening. He is accused of conspiring with his childhood friend and Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 2008 attacks.

The US Department of Justice said that after the attacks, which were carried out by 10 Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists, Rana allegedly told Headley that the Indians “deserved it.”

“In an intercepted conversation with Headley, Rana allegedly commended the nine LeT terrorists who had been killed committing the attacks, saying that “[t]hey should be given Nishan-e-Haider”-Pakistan’s “highest award for gallantry in battle,” which is reserved for fallen soldiers,” it said in a statement.

While nine terrorists were killed by security forces during the attack, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in 2012.

Tahawwur Rana, David Headley’s Role In 26/11 Mumbai Attacks

Tahawwur Rana is accused of facilitating a fraudulent cover so that David Headley, who was born Daood Gilani, could freely travel to Mumbai to conduct surveillance of potential attack sites for Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Rana, a former military medic who served in Pakistan’s army, emigrated to Canada in 1997, before moving to the US and setting up businesses in Chicago, including a law firm and a slaughterhouse, allegedly agreed to open a Mumbai branch of his immigration business and appoint Headley as the manager of the office, despite Headley’s having no immigration experience.

“On two separate occasions, he allegedly helped Headley prepare and submit visa applications to Indian authorities that contained information Rana knew to be false,” the US Department of Justice said.

He also allegedly supplied, through his unsuspecting business partner, documentation in support of Headley’s attempt to secure formal approval from Indian authorities to open a branch office of Rana’s business.

Over the course of more than two years, Headley – currently serving a 35-year sentence in the US for terrorism-related charges linked to the Mumbai attacks and a planned assault on a Danish newspaper – allegedly repeatedly met with Rana in Chicago and described his surveillance activities on behalf of LeT, LeT’s responses to Headley’s activities, and LeT’s potential plans for attacking Mumbai.

Rana, who was arrested by US police in 2009, has been charged with criminal conspiracy, waging war against the government of India, murder and forgery under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He was extradited to India after the US Supreme Court rejected his bid to remain in the United States, where he was serving a sentence related to another LeT-linked attack.

West Yorkshire Police (WYP), one of the UK’s biggest police forces has temporarily blocked applications from white British candidates as it attempts to boost diversity. Those deemed to be from the “under-represented” groups can lodge their applications for the constable entry programmes early, a report in The Telegraph has claimed.

A whistleblower cited by the publication claimed that Black and Far East Asian candidates were considered “particularly under-represented and given a “gold” ranking, followed by those of south-east Asian origin”.

“This feeds into a general theme where the pipeline for anyone white British is strangled, whilst anyone not white British is ushered through onto the next available stage,” added the whistleblower who was involved in going through the job applications.

Notably, WYP is the fourth largest force in the UK with a report earlier this year claiming that it spent more money on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) than any other force. On its website, WYP admits that because of the lack of ethnic minority officers, it must accept applications “all year round from these under-represented groups”.

“We are currently accepting applications for the two police constable entry programmes (uniform and detective) from people from our under-represented groups. If you are not from one of these groups, please keep checking this page for future recruitment opportunities,” the website reads.

“Enabling people from an ethnic minority background to apply early does not give them an advantage in the application process, it simply provides us with more opportunity to attract talent from a pool of applicants who reflect the diverse communities we serve.”

Watch: Greenpeace Activists Arrested For Dumping Red Dye Into US Embassy Pond

DEI in Britain

This is not the first instance when UK institutions have come under the scanner for promoting diversity hiring. It was reported last month that the Royal Air Force (RAF) was facing a shortage of pilots owing to the failure of a diversity hiring scheme. Candidates who were previously rejected and older applicants who have experience in “flying-related” roles were being urged to reapply for the various roles, to offset the damage.

It was under Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston’s tenure that the Air Force pledged to have 40 per cent women and 20 per cent of personnel from ethnic minorities by 2030. As the diversity hiring policies were pushed, air chiefs were told to stop choosing “useless white male pilots”, the leaked emails showed.

Hours after Tahawwur Rana, accused of playing a big role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was brought to India, fresh images have emerged of US Marshals handing him over to Indian authorities for extradition. 

The US Justice Department released photos of Rana, clad in a beige prison-issued uniform and flanked by US Marshals, being delivered into the custody of representatives of the Ministry of External Affairs at a secure location on April 9. 

Between November 26 and 29, 2008, ten gunmen trained by the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) unleashed a wave of coordinated terror across Mumbai.

Photo Credit: US Justice Department

Rana has been accused of playing a role in laying the groundwork for the attacks – not as a trigger-puller, but as an enabler operating in the shadows. Rana allegedly used his Chicago-based immigration business as a front to enable childhood friend and co-conspirator David Coleman Headley – born Daood Gilani – to travel freely to India under fraudulent documents.

Headley, who had received military training from LeT in Pakistan, scouted targets for the attack, conducted video surveillance, and shared detailed reconnaissance reports with LeT operatives. 

Photo Credit: US Justice Department

According to an official statement by the US Justice Department, after the Mumbai attacks, in an intercepted conversation, Rana allegedly said the victims “deserved it” and praised the attackers, claiming they deserved Pakistan’s highest military honour, the Nishan-e-Haider.

In 2009, Rana was arrested on charges related to a separate LeT-linked plot targeting a Danish newspaper that had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. In 2013, a US court convicted Rana of conspiring to support LeT and sentenced him to 14 years in federal prison. David Headley turned informant and pleaded guilty to 12 terrorism charges – including for the Mumbai attacks – and was sentenced to 35 years.

In 2020, India formally requested Rana’s extradition. But the process dragged on for nearly five years as Rana’s lawyers cited poor health and the threat of torture to delay the extradition to India. 

On February 27, Rana filed a last-ditch ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation’, pleading that his medical conditions – including multiple heart attacks, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, suspected bladder cancer, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, and chronic asthma – effectively made his extradition to India a death sentence.

Rana then escalated the request to the US Supreme Court, but it too was denied after deliberation. On April 9, he was handed over to Indian authorities before landing in India the next day, where he has been remanded to an 18-day anti-terror body National Ivestigation Agency (NIA) custody. 

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a small galaxy, located about 200,000 light-years away, orbiting our Milky Way galaxy is being torn apart, a new study has claimed. The findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series on Thursday (Apr 10), suggest that the gravitational pull of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the SMC’s larger companion, might be tearing the smaller one apart.

“When we first got this result, we suspected that there might be an error in our method of analysis. However, upon closer examination, the results are indisputable, and we were surprised,” said Kengo Tachihara, an astronomer at Nagoya University in Japan who co-led the study.

Analysing the data collected by the European Space Agency’s recently retired Gaia spacecraft, the scientists found that stars in SMC were moving in opposite directions on either side of the galaxy as if they were being “pulled apart”.

“Some of these stars are approaching the LMC, while others are moving away from it,” said Mr Tachihara, adding that the gravitational influence of the LMC might be leading SMC to its “gradual destruction”.

The researchers also made another shocking discovery. claiming that the massive stars tracked within the SMC were not rotating around the galaxy’s axis. This suggests that something might be wrong with our understanding of the galaxy’s mass and its history of interactions with the LMC and the Milky Way.

“If galactic rotation is absent in the SMC, it could significantly alter the previously calculated histories of interactions among the Milky Way, LMC, and SMC.”

Also Read | Milky Way Blasts Neighbouring Galaxy’s Mass Like A ‘Giant Hairdryer’, Hubble Finds

Importance of SMC

The SMC, alongside LMC, is one of the 30 galaxies residing in our cosmic neighbourhood. Measuring just 7,000 light-years across compared to our own galaxy’s 100,000 light-year diameter, SMC circles the Milky Way about once every 1.5 billion years.

Even though it is a small, or so-called dwarf galaxy, the SMC is so bright that it is visible to the unaided eye from the Southern Hemisphere and near the equator. Owing to its proximity and brightness, SMC offers an opportunity to study phenomena that are difficult to examine in more distant galaxies.

“We are unable to get a ‘bird’s-eye view’ of the galaxy in which we live,” Mr Tachihara noted. “As a result, the SMC and the LMC are the only galaxies in which we can observe the details of stellar motion. This research is important because it allows us to study the process of star formation in connection with the motion of stars throughout the galaxy.”

Stocks and the dollar tumbled while gold hit a fresh record high as panic gripped markets again Friday after Donald Trump admitted that his global tariff blitz could see “a transition cost”.

The US president’s decision to delay crippling duties for 90 days sparked a frenzied scramble for equities that had been beaten down since his “Liberation Day” announcement unleashed a global panic.

However, the realisation that nothing had been resolved, coupled with Trump’s decision to double down on his battle with economic superpower China, fuelled another bout of selling.

After blockbuster rallies Thursday in response to the 90-day tariff pause, markets across the region were back deep in negative territory at the end of a highly volatile week.

Tokyo sank more than four percent — a day after surging more than nine percent — while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Wellington, Jakarta and Manila were also in the red.

Ho Chi Minh City stocks rallied, however, after Vietnam said it would hold talks with the US president.

Hong Kong also dropped but Shanghai fluctuated as traders focused on possible Chinese stimulus measures instead of the fact that the country was now facing duties of up to 145 percent.

Beijing also said Friday it would implement a moderately loose monetary policy in a bid to reassure investors.

The losses followed a similar story on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 lost 3.5 percent, the Dow 2.5 percent and the Nasdaq 4.3 percent. That ate into the previous day’s gains of 9.5 percent, 7.9 percent and 12.2 percent.

The selling was not limited to equities. The dollar tanked against the yen, euro, pound and Swiss franc — investors dropping what is usually considered a key safe haven currency as they look to unload US risk assets, including gold standard Treasuries.

The weaker dollar and the rush for safety has also sent gold to a fresh record high above $3,200, while fears of a possible global recession have battered oil prices, which extended losses Friday.

‘Ground Zero’

“There has been a pronounced ‘sell US’ vibe flowing through broad markets and into the classic safe-haven assets, with the dollar losing the safe-haven bid put in over the past week,” said Pepperstone group’s Chris Weston.

He added that the moves had “the feel of repatriation flows by foreign entities, with many re-focused on the idea that Trump’s reluctant pause on tariffs was due to increased system risk and migrating capital away from Ground Zero”.

With Treasuries being sold off, sending their yields higher and making US debt more expensive, there is a fear of a bigger calamity down the line.

Michael Krautzberger at Allianz Global Investors wrote: “A fall in the dollar could be a sign that markets are questioning its status as a global reserve currency.

“Looking forward, the big fear is that the response to the additional US tariff threats in recent days, especially on Chinese goods, is the opening salvo from the big foreign holders of US Treasuries in tariff-hit countries, as they sell their US Treasury holdings.

“A trade war morphing into a capital war would represent a significant escalation in recent tensions.”

Trump says he wants to use tariffs to reorder the world economy by forcing manufacturers to base themselves in the United States and for other countries to decrease barriers to US goods.

While he acknowledged Thursday there would be “a transition cost and transition problems”, the Republican dismissed the global market turmoil and insisted that “in the end it’s going to be a beautiful thing”.

And commerce secretary Howard Lutnick posted on social media that “the Golden Age is coming. We are committed to protecting our interests, engaging in global negotiations and exploding our economy”.

Trump also warned that the huge tariffs delayed Wednesday would be reintroduced if no agreements had been made between Washington and other countries.

“If we can’t make the deal we want to make… then we’d go back to where we were,” he said.

Key figures around 0230 GMT

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 4.2 percent at 33,148.45 (break)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1 percent at 20,452.64

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 3,214.14

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 143.43 yen from 144.79 yen on Thursday

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1305 from $1.1183

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3021 from $1.2954

Euro/pound: UP at 86.83 pence from 86.33 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $59.63 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.7 percent at $62.92 per barrel

New York – Dow: DOWN 2.5 percent at 39,593.66 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 3.0 percent at 7,913.25 (close)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)