First Thing: China raises tariffs on US imports to 125%

The Chinese leader Xi Jinping made the move after urging the EU to resist Trump’s ‘bullying’. Plus, the supreme court orders the US to help return a Salvadorian man it wrongly deported

Good morning.

China has hiked its tariffs on US goods to 125% as the trade war between Washington and Beijing continues to escalate, just hours after its leader, Xi Jinping, said there were “no winners in a tariff war”.

Xi made the comments during a meeting with Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, as he asked the EU to work with China to resist the US’s “unilateral bullying” and “safeguard international rules and order” as well countries’ own economic interests.

The Chinese commerce ministry announced on Friday that it was increasing its 84% tariffs on all US imports to 125%, reiterating that Beijing would “fight to the end”. Donald Trump has increased US duties against Chinese imports repeatedly and they now stand at 145%.

How are markets reacting? Oil prices were expected to fall for the second week running, and US stocks fell again on Thursday. Follow our business live blog here and our US politics blog here.

Tufts student says she has suffered several asthma attacks in Ice custody

Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student who was detained by immigration authorities last month, has said she has struggled to get medical care, has suffered repeated asthma attacks in detention, and has had her hijab ripped off.

A judge ordered that the Turkish national and doctoral student, who was detained by masked officers in the Boston area on 25 March, cannot be deported without a court order. But she remains detained at the South Louisiana Ice processing center.

In a declaration filed by her lawyers, she said she faced delays getting medical help for an asthma attack. She also reported that a nurse ripped off her hijab after she declined to remove it.

What are her lawyers requesting? Öztürk’s attorneys on Thursday asked the federal court in Vermont to release her, or to transfer her to the state of Vermont, while her case is heard.

Supreme court orders US to help return man wrongly deported to El Salvador

The US supreme court has upheld a judge’s order requiring the Trump administration to help return a Maryland father whom the US government has acknowledged was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

US district judge Paula Xinis last week ordered that the administration “facilitate and effectuate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The Salvadorian national was deported to the country and detained in its notorious mega-prison, despite there being an order from an immigration judge barring him from being sent to El Salvador. Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland with his wife, a US national, and has had a work permit since 2019.

The supreme court, in an unsigned decision, said that the judge’s order “properly requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador”. It also asked Xinis to clarify what she meant by “effectuate”.

What does the Trump administration say? It has conceded Abrego Garcia was deported over an “administrative error” – but now claims it cannot help him return to the US due to El Salvador being a sovereign nation.

In other news …

The Israeli military is organizing hiking tours for civilians in newly occupied Syrian territory, local media has reported, presenting it as a trip “within Israel” despite the Golan Heights demilitarized buffer zone being internationally recognised as Syrian territory.

A helicopter crashed into New York’s Hudson River on Thursday, killing all six people onboard.

Prosecutors in Taiwan have charged a Chinese ship captain with deliberately damaging undersea cables off the island in February, in a legal first.

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine has said he will run again against the country’s authoritarian leader, Yoweri Museveni, in next year’s presidential elections, despite have been jailed, attacked and shot.

Stat of the day: Trump administration has revoked more than 600 student visas so far

The number of students who have had their visa revoked by the US government has risen above 600, according to the latest data aggregated by Inside Higher Ed. Some of these decisions were related to their pro-Palestinian solidarity protests and other student activism, and others were for “minor crimes”. It is a sharp uptick from “more than 300” visas that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, confirmed had been rescinded in late March.

Don’t miss this: Six children’s 1,000-mile journey across Sudan in search of safety

An estimated five million children have fled their homes since Sudan’s brutal civil war began almost two years ago, triggering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Karl Schembri reports the story of six orphans who were forced to flee from their home city of Omdurman, near the capital of Khartoum, and travel nearly 1,000 miles to the West Darfur city of Al Geneina in search of safety.

Climate check: Will global climate action be a casualty of Trump’s tariffs?

Trump’s trade war could spell bad news for the climate, with fears of a global recession of the horizon, energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose writes in this analysis. Fears of a recession have also sent oil and gas prices plummeting, meaning it’s cheaper to pollute – and making investment in clean energy appear relatively more expensive. But the biggest threat remains Trump’s tariffs against China – the world’s biggest clean producer of green technology, including of batteries for electric vehicles.

Last Thing: Couple who fled their Swedish eco-resort say leaving behind 158 barrels of human waste is ‘very normal’

A “literal shitstorm” – their words, not mine – has been brewing after a Danish couple who ran an eco-resort in Sweden abandoned their retreat – and also left behind 158 barrels of human feces. Obviously, this has grabbed headlines, but the couple, who have since moved to Guatemala, leaving behind tax bills in Denmark and Sweden, defended the waste situation as “very normal”.

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