Key events
Pirelli has put on hold plans to invest further in the United States as it tries to smooth out tensions linked to having Chinese state-owned group Sinochem as its largest investor, the Italian tyre maker said on Friday.
Sinochem has a 37% stake in Pirelli and is at odds with the company and its Italian shareholders over governance, at a time when being seen as a Chinese-linked business is increasingly proving an obstacle for doing business in the US, one of Pirelli’s key markets.
Pirelli makes about 25% of its revenues in North America, which it mostly serves through its plants in Mexico, South America and Europe, although it also runs a smaller facility in the US state of Georgia.
The Italian government intervened in 2023 to curb Sinochem’s powers in Pirelli and shield management’s autonomy.
Responding on Friday to a media report, Pirelli said its desire to increase its production capacity in the US “has been known for some time”, reports Reuters.
“At the moment, however, nothing has been decided given the regulatory obstacles linked to questions of governance and shareholder structure regarding which … evaluations and in-depth analyses with Sinochem are still ongoing,” it said in a statement.
The Corriere della Sera daily said on Friday that Paolo Zampolli, US president Donald Trump’s special envoy for global partnerships, hoped that Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni would announce an investment by Pirelli during her visit to the White House on 17 April.
Zampolli said Pirelli would invest $1bn in Georgia to produce smart tyres, raising the investment to $2bn in the future.
Expanding capacity in the US would help limit the impact of US tariffs, but Washington has also decided to crack down on Chinese technology in the automotive industry, banning key software and hardware from Chinese-controlled companies.
Marco Tronchetti Provera, the Italian businessman at the helm of Pirelli since 1992 and now its executive vice-chair, said early this week that US local authorities were raising objections in negotiations on plans to expand the group’s capacity in the country due to Sinochem’s stake. Tronchetti’s vehicle Camfin controls a 26.4% stake in Pirelli.
Shareholders are now discussing possible solutions ahead of a board meeting on 28 April.
Trump to undergo first physical of his second term
Donald Trump, the oldest person to assume theUS presidency, is to undergo his first physical examination of his second term on Friday.
Trump, who turns 79 in June, is known for his love of fast food but often talks about his robust physical and mental health.
“I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump wrote in a post on the Truth Social platform on Monday, announcing the planned exam.
The White House did not respond to queries about the exam and what would be included, reports Reuters.
The physical could offer the first clear look at Trump’s condition since his ear was grazed by a bullet in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July. His campaign released a report by Ronny Jackson, Trump’s former White House doctor, saying the injuries were superficial.
The White House typically determines what data will be released from a president’s health exam. Trump is not compelled to release any information, and there is no template for the presidential exam. Trump released only limited information about his health during his presidential campaigns.
During the 2024 election, Trump drew sharp contrasts with his predecessor, Joe Biden, now 82, claiming he was younger and fitter.
A White House doctor said in 2018 when Trump was serving his first term that he was in overall excellent health but needed to shed weight and start a daily exercise routine, reports Reuters.
Trump included a cognitive exam, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, as part of his physical during his first term, and his doctor later said he scored 30 out of 30.
Biden released detailed summaries of his physical exams while in office, but several books published in recent months have raised questions about his mental acuity in his final months in the White House.
The mental ability and age of both Biden and Trump were in focus during last year’s election campaign, especially after Biden’s disastrous performance in a debate with Trump in June, and Trump’s increasingly rambling speeches at rallies.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Friday that “the US cannot act recklessly, and the wheel of history cannot go backwards,” referring to US tariffs on China.
Reuters reports that Wang made the remarks in a meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general Rafael Mariano Grossi in Beijing.
China on Friday increased its tariffs on US imports to 125%, hitting back against US president Donald Trump’s decision to increase duties on Chinese goods to 145% and raising the stakes in a trade war that threatens to up-end global supply chains.
After doubling down on his promise not to pause his latest tariffs, Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause for most countries except China. Why did he change his mind?
My colleague, Jonathan Freedland, speaks to James Bennet of the Economist about who might have forced the president’s hand, and what could happen next, in the latest episode of the Politics Weekly America podcast:
Helen Davidson
China has raised its tariffs on US products to 125% in the latest salvo of the trade dispute with Washington, just hours after Xi Jinping said there were “no winners in a tariff war”.
Xi made the comments during a meeting with the Spanish prime minister in which he invited the EU to work with China to resist “bullying”, part of an apparent campaign to shore up other trading partners.
The Chinese commerce ministry announced on Friday that it was raising the 84% tariffs on all US imports to 125%, again saying that China was ready to “fight to the end”. The statement also suggested it may be Beijing’s last move in the tit-for-tat tariff raises as “at the current tariff level, there is no market acceptance for US goods exported to China”.
“If the US continues to impose tariffs on Chinese goods exported to the US, China will ignore it,” it said, flagging that there were other countermeasures to come.
Some markets continued to tumble on Friday, as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, described the US president’s 90-day tariff pause – which sets most tariffs at 10% until July – as “fragile”.
Asian indices followed Wall Street lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei down nearly 5% and Hong Kong stocks heading towards the biggest weekly decline since 2008. Oil prices were also expected to drop for a second consecutive week.
US Senate approves Trump’s nominee for top military officer
The US Senate approved Donald Trump’s nominee to be the nation’s top military officer on Friday after the president abruptly fired the previous chair of the joint chiefs of taff this year.
Lawmakers signed off on Dan Caine’s nomination and promotion to four-star general in an early morning vote of 60 to 25 ahead of a two-week recess, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Trump’s administration has dismissed a series of senior officers as part of a rare and major shake-up of top US military leadership that began shortly after he returned to office in January.
Democrats have sharply criticised the firings – including of the previous joint chiefs chair, Gen Charles “CQ” Brown– accusing Trump and defence secretary Pete Hegseth of seeking to ensure the military is led by people loyal to the president.
AFP reports that Caine sought to allay such concerns about his nomination during his confirmation hearing last week, pledging that he would “continue the traditions and standards of my oath of office and my commission as a nonpartisan leader who will always strive to do the right thing”.
He said that guarding against politicisation of the military “starts with being a good example from the top and making sure that we are nonpartisan and apolitical and speaking the truth to power every day”.
“The nation and the constitution all require a nonpartisan military,” said Caine, who as a retired lieutenant general was a highly unusual candidate for the top military post.
Nominees for chair of the joint chiefs must have served as the head of a military branch, as leader of a combatant command or as vice-chair – none of which Caine has done – but the president can waive that requirement.
Supreme court orders US to help return man wrongly deported to El Salvador
The US supreme court upheld on Thursday a judge’s order requiring Donald Trump’s administration to facilitate the return to the United States of a Salvadoran man who the government has acknowledged was deported in error to El Salvador.
US district judge Paula Xinis last week issued an order that the administration “facilitate and effectuate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in response to a lawsuit filed by the man and his family challenging the legality of his deportation.
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”.
However, the court said that the additional requirement to “effectuate” his return was unclear and may exceed the judge’s authority. The justices directed Xinis to clarify the directive “with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs”.
The administration, meanwhile, “should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps,” the court directed.
The Associated Press (AP) reports that the administration has conceded that it made a mistake in sending him to El Salvador, but argued that it no longer could do anything about it.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are some other key developments:
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Donald Trump is undergoing his annual physical on Friday, potentially giving the public its first details in years about the health of a man who in January became the oldest in US history to be sworn in as president. “I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump, 78, posted on his social media site.
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A week of turmoil unleashed by US president Donald Trump’s tariffs showed little sign of easing on Friday, with some markets again tumbling and French president Emmanuel Macron describing the 90-day tariff pause as “fragile”. Macron wrote on X early on Friday that the partial suspension “sends out a signal and leaves the door open for talks. But this pause is a fragile one”.
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During a cabinet meeting, Trump defended his tariff policies, saying, “We’re in great shape,” while warning that there may be a “transition cost”. The president’s abrupt decision to postpone the implementation of “reciprocal” tariffs by 90 days sparked accusations of market manipulation and insider trading. Meanwhile, former treasury secretary Janet Yellen called Trump’s economic policy the “worst self-inflicted wound” an administration has imposed on an otherwise well-functioning economy.
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Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the government can deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil for his “beliefs”. In response to a judge’s request for evidence, the government submitted a two-page memo, in which it argues that the Trump administration may deport noncitizens whose “beliefs, statements or associations” represent a threat to US foreign policy interests. The memo was released the same day that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement shared, and then deleted, a social media post saying that it is responsible for stopping illegal “ideas” from crossing the US border.
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Iran said on Friday it was giving nuclear talks with the United States on Saturday “a genuine chance”, after president Donald Trump threatened bombing if discussions failed. Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that Washington and Tehran would begin talks in Oman, which has mediated between the west and Tehran before.
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A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration can require all people in the country without authorisation to register with the federal government. Also today, the Washington Post reported that the Social Security Administration has added the names and social security numbers of more than 6,000 mostly Latino immigrants to a database used to track dead people, and the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is working to effectively cancel the Social Security numbers of immigrants with legal status.
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The Trump administration is considering placing Columbia University under a consent decree, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The decision would mark a major escalation in the federal government’s crackdown on the Ivy League institution.
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House speaker, Mike Johnson, was finally successful in muscling through a multitrillion-dollar budget framework that paves the way for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, just a day after a rightwing rebellion threatened to sink it. Now Republicans in both chambers need to come together to actually write the legislation and lay out the spending cuts they have promised to pay for the plan.
