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Rescue and aid workers have arrived from 17 countries to Myanmar.

Elon Musk’s rise as President Donald Trump’s all-powerful wingman was as rapid and unstoppable as one of his SpaceX rockets. But reports Wednesday are fueling speculation that the billionaire’s political career may be coming back to Earth.

Politico and ABC News quoted unnamed sources saying Musk could step away from an unprecedented role in which he is spearheading brutal cuts to US government services and has emerged only second to Trump as the face of the administration.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Politico’s report “garbage.” Another spokesman, Harrison Fields, said Politico is a “tabloid paper that would rather run fake news for clicks than real reporting.”

However, there has been speculation from day one over how long Musk can maintain his extraordinary position, one that has seen him get so close to Trump that critics dub him the “co-president.”

For two months, the world’s richest person has overseen an ideologically driven crusade by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. While DOGE aims ostensibly to save money, Musk has triggered widespread alarm by crippling US foreign aid programs and scientific research almost overnight.

And his prominence inside the White House has reportedly created friction in Trump’s inner circle.

Not only was the South Africa-born tech mogul given a leading voice at a much-publicized cabinet meeting — despite having no official cabinet position — but he regularly appears with Trump in the Oval Office and flies with the president on weekends to his Florida golf resort.

Trump hinted at a gradual break-up this week, telling reporters that “at some point Elon’s going to want to go back to his company.”

“He wants to. I’d keep him as long as I could keep him,” Trump said.

Musk loses ‘referendum’

The reports of tension inside the White House have been growing gradually, as have questions over how long Trump — not known for liking to share the limelight — could put up with such an out-sized personality.

But Trump officials may want to give the Tesla, SpaceX and X magnate a harder push after his resounding flop in trying to tilt an important election in the American heartland.

Tuesday’s contest to fill a vacant seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court quickly took on national implications after Trump and especially Musk threw their weight behind the conservative candidate, Brad Schimel.

Reprising his successful 2024 campaign tactics for Trump, Musk doled out cash to voters to drum up publicity and turnout for Schimel. In all, he poured some $20 million into Wisconsin’s race and campaigned in the state over the weekend.

Yet all for nothing: the Democrats’ favored candidate, Susan Crawford, won handily.

There was more bad news for Musk on Wednesday when his beloved Tesla posted a 13 percent drop in worldwide first quarter results — a slump that follows steadily declining share prices for the once stellar brand.

There’s a purely bureaucratic reason Musk may have to leave the White House and his DOGE role — his current legal status as a “special government employee” is theoretically set to expire by early June.

But analysts say the entrepreneur’s political future may be decided on another level.

Andrew Koneschusky, a political communications expert and former press secretary to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, called the Wisconsin vote a “referendum” on Musk.

“Watch closely for whether vulnerable Republicans begin to distance themselves from him in the weeks and months ahead.”

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

The commerce ministry is analysing the impact of 26 per cent reciprocal tariffs or import duties imposed by the US on India, a senior government official said on Thursday.

According to the official, the universal 10 per cent tariffs will come into effect on all imports into the US from April 5 and the remaining 16 per cent from April 10.

“The ministry is analysing the impact of the announced tariffs,” the official said, adding there is a provision that if a country would address the concerns of the US, the Trump administration can consider reducing the duties against that nation.

India is already negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the US. The two countries are aiming to finalise the first phase of the pact by fall (September-October) of this year.

“It is a mixed bag and not a setback for India,” the official said.

The US President listed the high tariffs charged by India on American products as he announced reciprocal tariffs on countries across the board, declaring a 26 per cent “discounted” reciprocal tariff on India.

“This is Liberation Day, a long-awaited moment. 2nd April 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again. We are going to make it wealthy, good, and wealthy,” Trump said on Wednesday in remarks from the Rose Garden at the White House as he announced the closely watched reciprocal tariffs on countries that impose levies on American goods.

As he announced the tariffs, he held up a chart that showed the tariffs that countries such as India, China, the UK, and the European Union charge, along with the reciprocal tariffs that these countries will now have to pay.

The chart indicated that India charged 52 per cent tariffs, including currency manipulation and trade barriers, and America would now charge India a discounted reciprocal tariff of 26 per cent.

“India, very, very tough. Very, very tough. The prime minister just left. He’s a great friend of mine, but I said, you’re a friend of mine, but you’re not treating us right. They charge us 52 per cent…,” he said. 

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

After weeks of anticipation and speculation, President Donald Trump followed through on his tariff threats by declaring on Wednesday a 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries and higher tariff rates on dozens of nations that run trade surpluses with the United States.

In announcing what he has called reciprocal tariffs, Trump was fulfilling a key campaign promise by raising US taxes on foreign goods to narrow the gap with the tariffs the White House says other countries unfairly impose on US products.

Trump’s higher rates would hit foreign entities that sell more goods to the United States than they buy. But economists don’t share Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs since they’re a tax on importers that usually get passed on to consumers. It’s possible, however, that the reciprocal tariffs could bring other countries to the table and get them to lower their own import taxes.

The Associated Press asked for your questions about reciprocal tariffs. Here are a few of them, along with our answers:

Do US-collected tariffs go into the General Revenue Fund? Can Trump withdraw money from that fund without oversight?

Tariffs are taxes on imports, collected when foreign goods cross the US border by the Customs and Border Protection agency. The money – about $80 billion last year – goes to the US Treasury to help pay the federal government’s expenses. Congress has authority to say how the money will be spent.

Trump – largely supported by Republican lawmakers who control the US Senate and House of Representatives – wants to use increased tariff revenue to finance tax cuts that analysts say would disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Specifically, they want to extend tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term and largely set to expire at the end of 2025. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, has found that extending Trump’s tax cuts would reduce federal revenue by $4.5 trillion from 2025 to 2034.

Trump wants higher tariffs to help offset the lower tax collections. Another think tank, the Tax Policy Center, has said that extending the 2017 tax cuts would deliver continued tax relief to Americans at all income levels, “but higher-income households would receive a larger benefit.”

How soon will prices rise as a result of the tariff policy?

It depends on how businesses both in the United States and overseas respond, but consumers could see overall prices rising within a month or two of tariffs being imposed. For some products, such as produce from Mexico, prices could rise much more quickly after the tariffs take effect.

Some US retailers and other importers may eat part of the cost of the tariff, and overseas exporters may reduce their prices to offset the extra duties. But for many businesses, the tariffs Trump announced Wednesday – such as 20% on imports from Europe – will be too large to swallow on their own.

Companies may also use the tariffs as an excuse to raise prices. When Trump slapped duties on washing machines in 2018, studies later showed that retailers raised prices on both washers and dryers, even though there were no new duties on dryers.

A key question in the coming months is whether something similar will happen again. Economists worry that consumers, having just lived through the biggest inflationary spike in four decades, are more accustomed to rising prices than they were before the pandemic.

Yet there are also signs that Americans, put off by the rise in the cost of living, are less willing to accept price increases and will simply cut back on their purchases. That could discourage businesses from raising prices by much.

What is the limit of the executive branch’s power to implement tariffs? Does Congress not play any role?

The US Constitution grants the power to set tariffs to Congress. But over the years, Congress has delegated those powers to the president through several different laws. Those laws specify the circumstances under which the White House can impose tariffs, which are typically limited to cases where imports threaten national security or are severely harming a specific industry.

In the past, presidents generally imposed tariffs only after carrying out public hearings to determine if certain imports met those criteria. Trump followed those steps when imposing tariffs in his first term.

In his second term, however, Trump has sought to use emergency powers set out in a 1977 law to impose tariffs in a more ad hoc fashion. Trump has said, for example, that fentanyl flowing in from Canada and Mexico constitute a national emergency and has used that pretext to impose 25% duties on goods from both countries.

Congress can seek to cancel an emergency that a president declares, and Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, has proposed to do just that regarding Canada. That legislation could pass the Senate but would likely die in the House. Other bills in Congress that would also limit the president’s authority to set tariffs face tough odds for passage as well.

What tariffs are other countries charging on US goods?

US tariffs are generally lower than those charged by other countries. The average US tariff, weighted to reflect goods that are actually traded, is just 2.2% for the United States, versus the European Union’s 2.7%, China’s 3% and India’s 12%, according to the World Trade Organization.

Other countries also tend to do more than the United States to protect their farmers with high tariffs. The US trade-weighted tariff on farm goods, for example, is 4%, compared to the EU’s 8.4%, Japan’s 12.6%, China’s 13.1% and India’s 65%. (The WTO numbers don’t count Trump’s recent flurry of import taxes or tariffs between countries that have entered into their own free trade agreements, such as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement that allows many goods to cross North American borders duty-free.)

Yet the Trump administration has used its own calculations to come up with far greater tariffs that they say other economies impose on the US For example, the White House said Wednesday that the European Union’s effective tariffs on the US equal 39%, far higher than the WTO’s numbers. It says China’s equal 67%.

Previous US administrations agreed to the tariffs that Trump now calls unjust. They were the result of a long negotiation between 1986 to 1994 – the so-called Uruguay Round – that ended in a trade pact signed by 123 countries and has formed the basis of the global trading system for nearly four decades.

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

A 31-year-old Indian national has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexually exploiting several children through a social media app where he often posed as a teenage boy to gain their trust and threatened and extorted them with child pornography when they refused his requests.

Sai Kumar Kurremula, 31, an Indian national living in Edmond, Oklahoma on an immigrant visa, has been sentenced to serve 420 months in federal prison for the sexual exploitation of three children and transportation of child pornography, US Attorney Robert Troester said in a statement.

At the sentencing hearing last week, US District Judge Charles Goodwin sentenced Kurremula to serve 420 months in federal prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release.

In announcing his sentence, Goodwin noted that these offences are among those that society considers the most serious because they involve such vulnerable victims. Goodwin further highlighted that Kurremula inflicted trauma on his victims that will echo throughout their lives and their families’ lives, and his lengthy sentence of imprisonment reflects that trauma.

In April last year, Kurremula was charged with sexual exploitation of children and transportation of child pornography. According to an affidavit filed in support of a criminal complaint, in October 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began investigating an account on a social media messaging app involving a user who was sexually exploiting minor girls.

The Internet Protocol address used to create the account led federal authorities to Kurremula. Public documents and evidence at the sentencing hearing allege Kurremula had sexually exploited at least 19 minors through the social media messaging app, often posing as a 13-15-year-old boy to gain the trust of his victims. When the victims refused his requests, Kurremula would manipulate, threaten, and extort his victims to produce even more child pornography.

Kurremula had pleaded guilty and admitted to sexually exploiting three minor victims and knowingly transporting images of child pornography. Specifically, Kurremula admitted that to ensure the minor victims complied, he threatened one minor that he would drive to her house and show her parents sexually explicit images of her; threatened another victim that he would come to her home and shoot her family; and threatened a third young individual that he would publicly post sexually explicit images and videos of her.

“The appalling exploitation, manipulation, and coercion of multiple children by this defendant justly warranted the 35-year sentence imposed by the Court,” Troester said. “This case serves as a clear warning to others that the strongest of penalties await those who exploit and victimize our children.” FBI Oklahoma City Special Agent in Charge Doug Goodwater said Kurremula manipulated children into sending him explicit images for his perverse gratification. “These disgusting actions robbed the victims of their innocence and caused unthinkable harm,” Goodwater said. PTI YAS ARD ARD

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

Prime Minister Narendra Modi departed for Thailand, where he will attend the 6th BIMSTEC Summit. He will then visit Sri Lanka for two days, which follows Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in December.

US President Donald Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs on Wednesday, sending fears of a trade war ricocheting around the world.

In a closely watched speech in the White House Rose Garden, the billionaire businessman said April 2, 2025 would “forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn,” insisting that domestic manufacturing would surge with companies flocking to the United States to make their products.

That has yet to be seen, but Trump made clear he was no longer allowing imports into the United States without an appropriate tariff — and said countries should embrace “a little tough love.”

“Foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn aport our once-beautiful American Dream,” Trump warned.

“But it is not going to happen anymore.”

Here are the other highlight quotes from his remarks.

– ‘Independence’ –

“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” Trump said, stressing that trade abuse by allies was often more intense than that committed by rivals.

“This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It’s our declaration of economic independence.”

“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers, and ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.”

– Benevolence? –

Despite unveiling “minimum baseline” tariffs of 10 percent on trading partners, Trump sought to spin his move as a positive for global trade.

“We are being very kind,” the president said. “We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us.”

And if countries recoil? “If they complain, if you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America.”

– China hit hard –

The world’s second largest economy, China, appeared at the top of the tariffs list Trump held up at the podium, with the president claiming that total tariffs on US goods charged by Beijing — with currency manipulation factored in — amounted to 67 percent.

“So we’re going to be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34 percent” on China imports, Trump said.

“They charge us, we charge them, we charge them less. So how can anybody be upset? They will be, because we never charged anybody anything. But now we’re going to charge.”

Trump said China’s President Xi Jinping was among several world leaders who “understand” the need for the tariffs, such as the ones he slapped on Chinese steel and other products during his first term as president.

“They all understand we’re going to have to go through a little tough love, maybe. But they all understand. They’re ripping us off and they understood it.”

– Way back when –

“From 1789 to 1913 we were a tariff-backed nation, and the United States was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been,” said Trump, who has repeatedly elevated 1890s protectionist president William McKinley as one of his heroes who also slapped tariffs on imports.

“In 1913 for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens, rather than foreign countries, would start paying the money necessary to run our government,” Trump said.

“Then in 1929 it all came to a very abrupt end with the Great Depression. And it would have never happened if they had stayed with the tariff policy,” Trump said, conveniently ignoring the multiple factors — including global economics, bank troubles, and the stock market crash — that led to the Great Depression.

– No surrender –

In addition to highlighting tariffs on China, other Asian powers and the European Union, Trump turned his ire closer to home.

“The United States can no longer continue with the policy of unilateral economic surrender,” he said.

“We cannot pay the deficits of Canada, Mexico and so many other countries. We used to do it. We can’t do it anymore.”

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

Stocks slumped, bonds surged, and gold hit a new high as markets braced for the impact of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs on Thursday. Trump announced a baseline 10 per cent tariff on all imports with far higher levies on some trading partners, particularly in Asia.

US stock futures were under pressure late on Wednesday following Trump’s announcement. Australian blue-chip stocks opened in the red on Thursday, as one of the first global markets reacted to the development. Asia’s markets were also set to slide as the bigger-than-expected wall of taxes was imposed around the world’s largest economy, upending trade and supply chains. 

Stocks Take A Dive

Nasdaq futures slipped 4 per cent, with tech on the front line after China, a significant manufacturing hub, was hit with a 34 per cent levy on top of a previous 20 per cent tariff. Apple shares were down nearly 7 per cent in after-hours trade.

S&P 500 futures tumbled 3.3 per cent and Nikkei futures dropped more than 4 per cent. The US dollar was, meanwhile, higher in rollercoaster currency trade, except against the safe-haven yen, which surged to 148.15 per dollar.

Australian blue-chip stocks dipped nearly two percent. A benchmark index of the country’s largest 200 listed companies dropped 1.96 percent 20 minutes after opening, as traders came to grips with 10 percent US tariffs on Australian exports.

The energy and financial services sectors were among the hardest hit on the ASX200 index, shedding more than two percent.

In a press conference announcing the global tariffs, Trump singled out Australia’s beef industry. 

Tokyo’s key Nikkei index fell more than three percent at the open on Thursday after Trump imposed 24 per cent tariffs on Japan. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 3.42 percent, or 1,222.77 points, at 34,503.10 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 3.32 percent, or 87.93 points, at 2,562.36.

Van Eck’s Vietnam ETF also fell more than 8 per cent in after-hours trade.

Gold Hits New Record

Oil prices dropped $2 on Thursday after US President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, stoking concerns that a global trade war may dampen demand for crude.

Brent futures fell $1.97, or 2.63%, to $72.98 a barrel by 0033 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down $1.98, or 2.76%, to $69.73.

Oil Prices Fall

Oil prices fell to negative territory after rising by a dollar in post-settlement trade on Wednesday as Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, stoking concerns that a global trade war may dampen demand for crude. Brent futures settled 46 cents higher, or 0.6 per cent, at $74.95 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 51 cents, or 0.7 per cent, to settle at $71.71. 

Currencies Struggle

The Indian rupee declined in the non-deliverable forward market on Thursday after Trump slapped a 26% tariff on imports from the Asian nation. 

The 1-month dollar/rupee non-deliverable forward was quoting at 85.86-85.90, implying that the Indian currency is likely to open 10-15 paisa weaker when the onshore spot market opens at 9:00 a.m. IST.

The offshore Chinese yuan dropped to a one-month low of 7.3482 versus the U.S. dollar, before recovering marginally to a current rate of 7.32. The U.S. equity futures experienced a sizeable drop, and Japan led the broader Asian equity market lower. The dollar also slid broadly on Thursday, while the euro was steady.

Trump’s Tariffs

US President Trump on Wednesday unveiled a raft of punishing tariffs targeting countries around the world, including some of its closest trading partners, in a move that risks sparking a ruinous trade war. He announced a baseline 10 per cent tariff on imports and reserved some of the heaviest blows for what he called the “nations that treat us badly,” including 34 percent on goods from superpower rival China, 20 percent on key ally the European Union and 24 percent on Japan.

Besides China’s 34 per cent tax, India got a 26 per cent, Vietnam 46  per cent and South Korea 25  per cent. The European Union was hit with a 20  per cent levy.

Trump also shut a loophole used to ship low-value packages from China, which is likely to hurt China’s giant online retailers.

But the 78-year-old Republican — who held up a chart with a list of levies — said that he was “very kind” and so was only imposing half the amount that those countries taxed US exports.

Trading partners are expected to respond with countermeasures of their own that could lead to dramatically higher prices.

“We would characterise this slate of tariffs as ‘worse than the worst case scenario’ the Street was fearing,” said analysts at Wedbush, with the technology supply chain in Taiwan and China hit hard.

U.S. interest rate futures leapt as investors priced in slowing US growth and a higher chance of rate cuts.

“The tariff rates unveiled this morning far exceed baseline expectations, and if they aren’t negotiated down promptly, expectations for a recession in the US will rise dramatically,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.
 

Donald Trump’s 10-percent tariffs on close ally Australia are “not the act of a friend,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday, but added that his country will not retaliate with its own levies.

“This is not the act of a friend,” Albanese told a news conference after Trump’s tariff announcement, saying one-in-four Australian jobs depending on trade.

The centre-left Australian leader, who faces a tightly contested general election May 3, said Australia charged nothing on US imports and should face zero US tariffs.

“These tariffs are not unexpected, but let me be clear, they are totally unwarranted,” he said.

The United States has been Australia’s strongest military ally since World War II, and the two countries have joined with Britain in a deal to provide Australia’s navy with stealthy nuclear-powered submarines.

But the new measures could change how people see their relationship, Albanese said.

“The Australian people have every right to view this action by the Trump administration as undermining our free and fair trading relationship and counter to the shared values that have always been at the heart of our two nations long standing friendship,” he said.

“This will have consequences for how Australians see this relationship,” the Australian leader added.

“These are uncertain times, but Australians can be absolutely certain of this: our government will always stand up for Australian jobs, Australian industry, Australian consumers and Australian values.”

Announcing the tariffs, Trump said Australians were “wonderful people” but accused them of banning US beef while exporting billions of dollars worth of their own beef to America.

“They don’t take any of our beef,” he said.

“They don’t want it, because they don’t want it to effect any of their farmers. And I don’t blame them, but we’re doing the same thing right now starting about midnight tonight, I would say.”

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

Donald Trump on Wednesday (local time) announced reciprocal tariffs, which he called “Liberation Day”.