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Orders tumble by 3.7 percent after a rise in March when businesses increased purchases in anticipation of tariffs.

Orders from United States factories have tumbled in April after a surge in March when businesses had front-loaded purchases in anticipation of tariffs.

New orders for US manufactured goods dropped by 3.7 percent on a monthly basis, worse than economists had expected, according to Census Bureau data released on Tuesday.

Economists polled by the Reuters news agency expected a 3.1 percent drop. Dow Jones forecast a 3.3 percent drop. On an annual basis, however, factory orders rose by 2 percent.

April’s report is in sharp contrast to the 3.4 percent increase in March, which topped five straight months of increases.

Manufacturing, which accounts for 10.2 percent of the US economy, has been put under pressure by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs. Trump sees the tariffs as a tool to raise revenue to offset his promised extension of tax cuts and to revive a long-declining industrial base, a feat that economists argued was impossible in the short term because of labour shortages and other structural issues.

Hardest hit sectors

Orders in the transportation sector fell 17.1 percent, led by a sharp drop in the commercial aircraft sector. Aircraft orders fell by 51.5 percent in April. Orders for motor vehicles, parts and trailers dropped 0.7 percent.

Electrical equipment, appliances and component manufacturing fell by 0.3 percent. But manufacturing for computers and other electronic products actually grew by 1 percent.

Machinery orders also rose 0.6 percent. Excluding transportation, which led the surge in March orders, orders fell 0.5 percent, matching March’s decline of non-transportation goods.

The government also reported that orders for nondefence capital goods excluding aircraft, a measure of business spending plans on equipment, decreased 1.5 percent in April rather than 1.3 percent as estimated last month.

Shipments of these so-called core capital goods fell by an unrevised 0.1 percent, or $1.8bn.

An Institute for Supply Management survey showed manufacturing contracted for a third straight month in May and suppliers took the longest time in nearly three years to deliver inputs to factories.

Published on
03/06/2025 – 15:44 GMT+2

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Major European steel giants saw their share prices falter on Tuesday afternoon, as investors continue to weigh the impact of US President Donald Trump’s plan to double steel and aluminium tariffs from 25% to 50%, with the latter set to take effect from 4 June. 

The announcement has escalated trade tensions and drawn significant criticism from worldwide trade partners. Trump, meanwhile, claims the move will make the US steel industry even stronger. 

He said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social: “Our steel and aluminum industries are coming back like never before. This will be yet another BIG jolt of great news for our wonderful steel and aluminum workers. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

German steel company Thyssenkrupp’s share price declined 0.5% on Tuesday afternoon on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Salzgitter AG’s share price also declined on the exchange, by 0.4%.

Following the trend, ArcelorMittal SA’s stock dipped 1.1% on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange on Tuesday afternoon, while Austrian steel company Voestalpine AG’s share price declined 0.8% on the Vienna Stock Exchange. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, however, major US steel companies such as Cleveland-Cliffs, Nucor, and Steel Dynamics saw their share prices surge on Monday. 

Cleveland-Cliffs’ share price closed 23.2% higher, whereas Nucor’s share price jumped 10.1%. Steel Dynamics’ share price also closed higher, up 10.3% on Monday. 

US businesses risk significant harm due to tariffs

The unpredictability of recent US tariffs continues to pose considerable risks to US businesses, despite Trump’s reassurances that tariffs will benefit the economy. This is mainly because several US companies with international operations could be forced to scramble to find alternative foreign suppliers and customers.

It is also remains unclear how long steel and aluminium tariffs could stay at the 50% level proposed, as Trump continues to negotiate other tariffs with various countries. 

Felix Tintelnot, professor of economics at Duke University, told TIME: “We’re talking about expansion of capacity of heavy industry that comes with significant upfront investments, and no business leader should take heavy upfront investments if they don’t believe that the same policy [will be] there two, three, or four years from now.

“Regardless of whether you’re in favour [of] or against these tariffs, you don’t want the President to just set tax rates arbitrarily, sort of by Executive Order all the time,” he added.

Tintelnot also highlighted that increasing the price of aluminium, which is a very common input material in several sectors such as automotive and construction, would, in turn, hurt those industries, even if there may be some advantages to the domestic US steel and aluminium sectors.

“The bread was dipped in blood.” A Palestinian child mourns his mother who was killed when Israeli forces opened fire at an aid distribution point in Rafah, Gaza. More than 100 people have been killed in days of attacks at aid hubs run by the US-Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Israeli forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians and injured 90 more as they opened fire close to an aid distribution site in Rafah, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The latest killings came early on Tuesday at the Flag Roundabout, near an aid hub operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

It was the third such incident around the Rafah hub in as many days. Gaza’s authorities report that more than 100 aid seekers have been killed since the United States- and Israel-backed GHF started operating in the enclave on May 27, with reports of violence, looting and chaos rife.

The Israeli military said it had fired shots as “a number of suspects” deviated from the regulated routes, on which a crowd was making its way to the GHF distribution complex.

The “suspects” were about 500 metres (approximately 550 yards) from the site, the military said in a statement on Telegram, adding that it was looking into reports of casualties.

The death toll was confirmed by Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.

A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Hisham Mhanna, said 184 wounded people had been taken to its field hospital in Rafah, 19 of whom were found dead on arrival, and eight others died later of their wounds.

Video verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency showed the arrival of dozens of injured people at the hospital.

Lured

Gaza’s Government Media Office accused Israel of “a horrific, intentionally repeated crime”, saying it has been luring starving Palestinians to the GHF centres – controversially opened following an 11-week total blockade to take over most aid distribution from the United Nations and other aid agencies – and then opening fire.

It said Tuesday’s death toll brought the number of aid seekers killed at aid sites in the Rafah governorate and the so-called Netzarim Corridor since GHF launched operations to 102, with 490 others injured.

The United Nations on Monday demanded an independent investigation into the repeated mass shootings of aid seekers in Gaza.

“It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” said Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”

“We heard from witnesses that there was chaos,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting about Tuesday’s killings from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. “The Israeli forces just opened fire randomly, shooting Palestinians … using quadcopters and live ammunition.”

Health Ministry officials and doctors said most of the wounded have been hit in their chest and head, she added.

The bloodshed, she continued, had unfolded in the same way as on the previous two days, amid ongoing chaos around the aid distribution centres.

“There’s no process. There’s no system,” she said. “You just need to run first to be able to get the food.”

‘Either way, we will die’

Rasha al-Nahal told The Associated Press news agency that “there was gunfire from all directions”, and that she saw more than a dozen people dead and several wounded on the road.

When she finally made it to the distribution hub, there was no aid, al-Nahal said, adding that Israeli troops “fired at us as we were returning”.

Another witness, Neima al-Aaraj, from Khan Younis, described the shooting as “indiscriminate”.

“I won’t return,” she said. “Either way, we will die.”

The Israeli military, in its statement on Telegram, said troops had fired warning shots as people deviated from “designated access routes” and “after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops”.

However, it denied firing on civilians or blocking them from accessing aid.

This account echoes statements around similar incidents on Sunday, when 31 aid seekers were reportedly killed, and on Monday, when three more were killed.

Israeli forces have opened fire again on Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid from a distribution site in Gaza, killing at least three people and injuring more than 30, as the United Nations demands an independent investigation into the repeated mass shootings of aid seekers in the strip.

The shooting erupted at sunrise on Monday at the same Israeli-backed aid point in southern Gaza where soldiers had opened fire just a day earlier, according to health officials and witnesses.

“The Israeli military opened fire on civilians trying to get their hands on any kind of food aid without any kind of warning,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

“This is a pattern that’s been widely condemned by international aid organisations because it enhances the breakdown of civil order without ensuring humanitarian relief can be received by those desperately in need.”

Witnesses said Israeli snipers and quadcopter drones routinely monitor aid sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by Israel and the United States.

A Red Cross field hospital received about 50 people wounded in the latest shooting, including two who were dead on arrival, said Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross. Most had been hit by bullets or shrapnel. A third body was taken to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis.

Moataz al-Feirani, 21, said he was shot in the leg while walking with thousands of others towards the food site.

“We had nothing, and they [the Israeli military] were watching us,” he told The Associated Press news agency, adding that surveillance drones circled overhead. The shooting began about 5:30am (02:30 GMT)  near the Flag Roundabout, he said.

The pattern of deadly violence around the GHF aid distribution site has triggered mounting international outrage, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday demanded an independent inquiry into the mass shooting of Palestinians.

“It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” he said. “I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”

The Israeli military has denied targeting civilians, claiming its soldiers fired “warning shots” at individuals who “posed a threat”.

The GHF has also denied the shootings occurred although doubts about its neutrality have intensified since its founding executive director, former US marine Jake Wood, resigned before operations even began after he questioned the group’s “impartiality” and “independence”.

Critics said the group functions as a cover for Israel’s broader campaign to depopulate northern Gaza as it concentrates aid in the south while bypassing established international agencies.

Aid is still barely trickling into Gaza after Israel partially lifted a total siege that for more than two months cut off food, water, fuel and medicine to more than two million people.

Thousands of children are at risk of dying from hunger-related causes, the UN has previously warned.

At least 51 people killed in 24 hours

Elsewhere in the territory, Israeli air attacks continued to hammer residential areas.

In Jabalia in northern Gaza, Israeli forces killed 14 people, including seven children, in an attack on a home, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence agency. At least 20 people remained trapped under the rubble.

Two more Palestinians were killed and several wounded in another attack in Deir el-Balah, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, while a drone attack in Khan Younis claimed yet another life.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that at least 51 Palestinians have been killed and 503 injured in Israeli attacks across the territory in the latest 24-hour reporting period alone.

Despite growing international condemnation, Israel’s military on Monday ordered the displacement of even more civilians from parts of Khan Younis, warning it would “operate with great force”.

Roughly 80 percent of the strip is now either under Israeli military control or designated for forced evacuation, according to new data from the Financial Times, as Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are crammed into an ever-shrinking patch of land in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border.

Israel has made little secret of its aim to permanently displace Gaza’s population as officials openly promote “voluntary migration” plans.

The Financial Times reported that the areas Palestinians are being pushed into resemble a “desert wasteland with no running water, electricity or even hospitals”.

Satellite images showed Israeli forces clearing land and setting up military infrastructure in evacuated areas.

Analysts who reviewed dozens of recent forced evacuation orders said the trend has accelerated since the collapse of a truce in March.

“The Israeli government has been very clear with regards to what their plan is about in Gaza,” political analyst Xavier Abu Eid told Al Jazeera.

“It is about ethnic cleansing.”

Judges say Berlin broke EU law by refusing Somali asylum seekers entry.

A Berlin court has ruled that Germany violated asylum law when it deported three Somali nationals at its border with Poland in a decision that challenges Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s aggressive new migration stance.

The three asylum seekers – two men and one woman – were turned back by border police at a train station in Frankfurt an der Oder, a city on Germany’s eastern border.

“The applicants could not demand to enter Germany beyond the border crossing,” the court said in a statement on Monday. “However, the rejection was unlawful because Germany is obliged to process their claims.”

Officials cited the asylum seekers’ arrival from a “safe third country” as grounds for their refusal.

But the court determined the expulsion was illegal under European Union rules, specifically the Dublin regulation, which requires Germany to assess asylum claims if it is the responsible state under the agreement.

It marks the first such legal ruling since Merz’s conservative-led coalition took office in February, riding a wave of anti-immigration sentiment that has helped boost the far-right Alternative for Germany party, now the country’s second largest political force in parliament.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt defended the deportations, saying the asylum system was failing under pressure. “The numbers are too high. We are sticking to our practice,” he told reporters, adding that the court would receive legal justifications for the government’s position.

Migration policies in doubt

But opposition lawmakers were quick to capitalise on the ruling. Irene Mihalic of the Greens called it “a severe defeat” for Merz’s government, accusing it of overstepping its powers “for populist purposes”.

“The border blockades were a rejection of the European Dublin system and have offended our European neighbours,” she said.

Karl Kopp, managing director of Pro Asyl, an immigration advocacy group, said the expulsion of the Somalis reflected an “unlawful practice of national unilateral action” in asylum policy and called for their return to Germany, the Reuters news agency reported.

The ruling also casts doubt on Merz’s wider migration agenda. In May, his government introduced a directive to turn back undocumented people at Germany’s borders, including those seeking asylum – a sharp departure from former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s more open policy during the 2015 migrant crisis.

Last month, the European Commission proposed a bloc-wide mechanism that would permit member states to reject asylum seekers who passed through a “safe” third country. The measure, widely criticised by rights groups, still awaits approval from national parliaments and the European legislature.

Published on 02/06/2025 – 19:11 GMT+2•Updated
19:13

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EU trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič will meet his US counterpart Ambassador Jamieson Greer on Wednesday on the sidelines of an OECD meeting in Paris following a high-level gathering of EU and US experts in Washington on Tuesday against rising tensions over US customs duties.

The Commission is hoping to rekindle negotiation with the US a week after EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US president Donald Trump spoke on the phone, despite Trump’s subsequent decision on 30 May to slap 50% tariffs on EU steel and aluminium.

“The EU in good faith paused its countermeasures on 14 April, to create space for continued negotiations, and following the call between president Ursula von der Leyen and president Donald Trump both sides agreed to accelerate the pace of talks,” Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said on Monday, acknowledging however that Trump’s last announcement on steel and aluminium undermined the Commission’s “ongoing efforts to reach a negotiated solution with the US”.

The Commission has suspended until 14 July a list of countermeasures targeting US products after Trump decided on a 90-Day pause in the trade dispute he launched against his partners across the globe. But the Commission could decide to move forward with those countermeasures, it said.

A second list of US product is also open to consultation from industry until 10 June, when EU member states will adopt them.

“If no mutually acceptable solution is reached, both the existing and the possible additional measures will automatically take effect on 14 July or earlier if circumstances require,“ Gill said.

Šefčovič has already travelled to Washington three times to meet with his US counterparts, but his efforts have so far failed to break the deadlock.

The US and the EU exchanged proposals to begin negotiations, but both sides have dismissed the other’s offers. It wasn’t until EU and US leaders spoke by phone that talks were able to move forward—until President Trump announced new tariffs on steel and aluminium at the end of last week, putting the negotiations at risk once again.

The US currently imposes 25% tariffs on EU steel and aluminium, 25% on cars and 10% on all EU imports. Several investigations in pharma, semiconductors or aircrafts could also lead to more US tariffs on EU goods.

Just 40 countries representing 3.5 percent of the world’s population respect all civil liberties, a new study has found, warning that “democracy and human rights are under attack worldwide in a way we have not seen for decades.”

The Atlas of Civil Society report published by the German relief organisation Brot fur die Welt (Bread for the World) on Monday said only 284 million people living in “open” countries – including Austria, Estonia, the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand and Jamaica – enjoy protection of unrestricted civil rights and liberties.

The nongovernmental organisation defines a country as “open” if it allows people to form associations “without legal or practical barriers, demonstrate in public spaces, receive information and are allowed to disseminate it”.

Forty-two countries making up 11.1 percent of the world’s population are listed in a second category in which civil rights are classified as “impaired”. These include Germany, Slovakia, Argentina and the United States.

In these countries, the rights to freedom of assembly and expression are largely respected, but there are recorded violations.

‘Restricted, suppressed or closed’

“In contrast, 85 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where civil society is restricted, suppressed, or closed. This affects almost seven billion people,” the report found.

“Their governments severely restrict civil liberties and harass, arrest, or kill critical voices. This applies to 115 of 197 countries,” it added.

Several European countries appear in the “restricted” category, including Greece, the United Kingdom, Hungary and Ukraine.

Civil society is considered “oppressed” in 51 countries, including Algeria, Mexico and Turkey. In these countries, governments monitor, imprison or kill critics, and exercise censorship, according to the data.

Finally, Russia and 28 other countries are classified as “closed” and
characterised by an “atmosphere of fear”. Criticism of the government
or regime in these countries is severely punished.

Brot fur die Welt drew on data collected by the Civicus network of civil society organisations worldwide for its annual report covering 197 countries and territories.

Nine countries improved their freedom of expression ratings last year, including Jamaica, Japan, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, Botswana, Fiji, Liberia, Poland and Bangladesh.

However, nine countries were downgraded from the previous year, including Georgia, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Peru, Ethiopia, Eswatini, the Netherlands, Mongolia and the Palestinian territory.

Dagmar Pruin, president of Brot fur die Welt, warned that “the rule of law, the separation of powers and protection against state arbitrariness are under threat or no longer exist in more and more countries.”

Published on
02/06/2025 – 13:29 GMT+2

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At the time of writing (13:05 CEST), all major European indexes were in the red after China said the US “severely violated” the terms of their recent trade agreement. Market participants also considered the impact of US President Donald Trump’s plan to double current tariffs on steel and aluminium from 25% to 50% from this Wednesday.

The EURO STOXX 50 was down 0.68%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.48%, while France’s CAC 40 declined 0.63%.

“Donald Trump has upset markets once again,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said in an email note sent to Euronews.

“Doubling import taxes on steel and aluminium, and aggravating China once again, mean we face a situation where uncertainty prevails. Trump’s continuous moving of the goal posts is frustrating for businesses, governments, consumers and investors.

“Equity markets were down across Europe and Asia, with futures prices implying a similar pattern when Wall Street opens for trading on Monday. Unsurprisingly, gold got a boost as investors returned to safe-haven assets.”

US markets end May on flat note

Meanwhile, US markets ended May on a flat note, although for the month as a whole each of the main indices rose strongly following hopes of tariff reconciliations.

“Such optimism will face an immediate challenge as June begins, with comments over the weekend keeping the aggressive rhetoric in place. The latest broadsides from the White House were primarily directed at China and the EU, with both threatening a response in kind to any further tariff hikes,” Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said in an email note to Euronews.

However, he noted, back on the ground, there were some promising economic signs with the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditures index coming in lower than expected and with a consumer sentiment index showing higher than had been feared.

“However, such respite could prove short-lived as the latter was largely predicated on an apparent softening of hostilities between the US and China in the latter part of the month, which has since evaporated. There will be a further signal on the state of the economy at the end of the week, with non-farm payrolls expected to show that 130,000 jobs will have been added in May compared to 177,000 the previous month and that the 4.2% unemployment rate will remain unchanged.

“In the meantime, US markets have repaired much of the damage wrought over the last few months although sentiment remains fragile. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq are down by 0.6% and 1% respectively in the year-to-date, while the 0.5% gain for the benchmark S&P500 has in part been driven by a resurgence of the mega cap technology trade,” Hunter said.

Asia markets under pressure

In addition to contending with the weekend comments, Asian markets fell foul of geopolitical uncertainty following the latest Russia-Ukraine developments, with the Hang Seng under pressure based on the renewed likely tariff hikes on aluminium and steel.

“Mainland China was closed for a public holiday, which could leave some losses being stored up ahead of its reopening, likely exacerbated by a report which showed a further contraction in factory activity over the last month,” Hunter added.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Any description of Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s fleet of strategic bombers could leave one scrambling for superlatives.

Forty-one planes – including supersonic Tu-22M long-range bombers, Tu-95 flying fortresses and A-50 early warning warplanes – were hit and damaged on Sunday on four airfields, including ones in the Arctic and Siberia, Ukrainian authorities and intelligence said.

Moscow did not comment on the damage to the planes but confirmed that the airfields were hit by “Ukrainian terrorist attacks”.

Videos posted by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), which planned and carried out the operation, which was called The Spiderweb, showed only a handful of planes being hit.

The strategic bombers have been used to launch ballistic and cruise missiles from Russian airspace to hit targets across Ukraine, causing wide scale damage and casualties.

The bomber fleet is one-third of Moscow’s “nuclear triad”, which also consists of nuclear missiles and missile-carrying warships.

According to some observers, the attack shattered Russia’s image of a nuclear superpower with a global reach.

The attack inadvertently “helped the West because it targeted [Russia’s] nuclear potential”, Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the Ukrainian military’s general staff, told Al Jazeera.

While the assault decreases Russia’s potential to launch missiles on Ukraine, it will not affect the grinding ground hostilities along the crescent-shaped, 1,200km (745-mile) front line, he said.

Romanenko compared The Spiderweb’s scope and inventiveness to a string of 2023 Ukrainian attacks against Russia’s Black Sea fleet that was mostly concentrated in annexed Crimea.

Although Ukraine’s navy consisted of a handful of small, decades-old warships that fit into a football field-sized harbour, Kyiv reinvented naval warfare by hitting and drowning Russian warships and submarines with missiles and air and sea drones.

Moscow hastily relocated the decimated Black Sea fleet eastwards to the port of Novorossiysk and no longer uses it to intercept Ukrainian civilian vessels loaded with grain and steel.

The Spiderweb caught Russia’s military strategists off-guard because they had designed air defences to thwart attacks by missiles or heavier, long-range strike drones.

Instead, the SBU used 117 toy-like first-person-view (FPV) drones, each costing just hundreds of dollars, that were hidden in wooden crates loaded onto trucks, it said.

Their unsuspecting drivers took them right next to the airfields – and were shocked to see them fly out and cause the damage that amounted to $7bn, the SBU said.

“The driver is running around in panic,” said a Russian man who filmed thick black smoke rising from the Olenegorsk airbase in Russia’s Arctic region of Murmansk, which borders Norway.

Other videos released by the SBU were filmed by drones as they were hitting the planes, causing thundering explosions and sky-high plumes of black smoke.

Russia’s air defence systems guarding the airfields were not designed to detect and hit the tiny FPV drones while radio jamming equipment that could have caused them to stray off course wasn’t on or malfunctioned.

The SBU added a humiliating detail – The Spiderweb’s command centre was located in an undisclosed location in Russia near an office of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Moscow’s main intelligence agency, which Russian President Vladimir Putin once headed.

“This is a slap on the face for Russia, for FSB, for Putin,” Romanenko said.

However, Kyiv didn’t specifically target the pillar of Russia’s nuclear triad.

“They are destroying Russian strategic aviation not because it’s capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads but because of its use to launch … nonnuclear [missiles],” Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University, told Al Jazeera.

The operation, which took 18 months to plan and execute, damaged a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“This is our most far-reaching operation. Ukraine’s actions will definitely be in history textbooks,” he wrote on Telegram late on Sunday. “We’re doing everything to make Russia feel the necessity to end this war.”

The SBU used artificial intelligence algorithms to train the drones to recognise Soviet-era aircraft by using the planes displayed at an aviation museum in central Ukraine, the Clash Report military blogger said on Monday.

‘The very logic of the negotiations process won’t change’

The attack took place a day before Ukrainian and Russian diplomats convened in Istanbul to resume long-stalled peace talks.

But it will not affect the “logic” of the negotiations, a Kyiv-based political analyst said.

“Emotionally, psychologically and politically, the operation strengthens the positions of Ukrainian negotiators,” Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera. “But the very logic of the negotiations process won’t change.”

“Both sides will consider [US President] Donald Trump an arbiter, and whoever is first to leave the talks loses, ruins its negotiation positions with the United States,” Fesenko said.

Once again, the talks will likely show that the sides are not ready to settle as Russia is hoping to carve out more Ukrainian territory for itself and Ukraine is not going to throw in the towel.

“Russia wants to finish off Ukraine, and we’re showing that we will resist, we won’t give up, won’t capitulate,” Fesenko said.

By Monday, analysts using satellite imagery confirmed that 13 planes – eight Tu-95s, four Tu-22Ms and one An-12 – have been destroyed or damaged.

“What a remarkable success in a well-executed operation,” Chris Biggers, a military analyst based in Washington, DC, wrote on X next to a map showing the destruction of eight planes at the Belaya airbase in the Irkutsk region in southeastern Siberia.

Five more planes have been destroyed at the Murmansk base, according to Oko Hora, a group of Ukrainian analysts.

The Spiderweb targeted three more airfields, two in western regions and one near Russia’s Pacific coast, according to a photo that the SBU posted showing its leader, Vasyl Malyuk, looking at a map of the strikes.

But so far, no damage to the airfields or the planes on them has been reported.

Russia is likely to respond to The Spiderweb with more massive drone and missile attacks on civilian sites.

“I’m afraid they’ll use Oreshnik again,” Fesenko said, referring to Russia’s most advanced ballistic missile, which can speed up to 12,300 kilometres per hour (7,610 miles per hour), or 10 times the speed of sound, and was used in November to strike a plant in eastern Ukraine.

Published on
02/06/2025 – 13:27 GMT+2

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Brussels and Washington have little chance of breaking the trade deadlock they have been in since mid-March and the imposition of the first US tariffs on steel and aluminium, Ignacio García Bercero, a former senior EU official and expert of the Bruegel think tank, told Euronews.

“It seems to me very clear that if the US is not ready to take action to substantially mitigate the impact of the tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars. I don’t really see how it is going to be possible to reach any kind of negotiated agreement,” García Bercero said.

“The increase of US tariffs on steel and aluminium from 25% to 50% hardens the position of the US, which is the only country capable of deciding how to end the crisis.”

US President Donald Trump announced last Friday an increase in US tariffs imposed in mid-March on steel and aluminium coming into the country — including EU imports — from 25% to 50%, as of June 4.

Those tariffs come on top of 25% US tariffs on cars and 10% US levies on all EU imports.

However on 28 May, the US Court of International Trade ruled that an emergency law invoked by Trump did not give him unilateral authority to impose the 10% tariffs and ordered an immediate block on them.

The day after, a US court of appeals paused the lower court’s ruling to consider the government’s appeal on 9 June.

But the tariffs of 25% on steel, aluminium and cars were not challenged by the judges as they were grounded on a different law regarding national security.

Several investigations are currently being conducted by the US on the same legal basis into the pharmaceutical, semiconductor and aircraft industries, which could lead to further US tariffs.

“It is very clear that the US has already indicated that it is not ready to do anything on the 10% tariffs, which in any case are being challenged by a US court,” García Bercero said.

“And it now appears that it is not very easy to do anything on the other tariffs which are based on national security – the tariffs targeting steel, aluminium and cars or cars parts,” the former EU official explained.

“Quite frankly, I don’t really see how it is possible to reach any kind of agreement.”

“Therefore the EU need to adopt rebalancing action at least on steel, aluminium, cars and car parts increase,” García Bercero added.

Deadlines coming in fast

The EU has currently suspended until 15 July a first list of US products worth €21 billion to retaliate against US tariffs on steel and aluminium, after Trump decided a 90-day pause in the trade conflict until 9 July.

A second package is under discussion in Brussels until 10 June to target €95 billion worth of US goods in retaliation for the 25% tariff on cars and 10% on EU imports, if negotiations with the US fail.

Further countermeasures on steel and aluminium would need to be adopted by EU member states.

After the negotiation between the EU and the US seemed to kick off 10 days ago, the US president already threatened to impose 50% tariffs on all EU imports.

But a call between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen eased the pressure with the promise from both sides to “fast-track” the trade talks. 

Brussels stated that it did not alter its offer in the negotiation, which includes zero-to-zero tariffs on all industrial goods and the purchase of certain strategic US products, such as energy, AI, or agricultural products.

“I’m not optimistic. But it doesn’t mean that it’s not the right tactic to continue to discuss and to see whether or not finally there is a willingness of the US to put something on the table,” García Bercero concluded.  

Russia and Ukraine continued to launch air strikes overnight as they prepared to meet for a second round of direct peace talks in Turkiye.

The Ukrainian delegation arrived in Istanbul on Monday, despite recent rhetoric from Kyiv suggesting it may not take part in the follow-up to the first round of talks between the adversaries last month, at which little progress was made towards a ceasefire in the war, started by Russia as it invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

The Russian negotiators also announced they had arrived in the Turkish city, where Kyiv and Moscow – under pressure from the United States – are expected to present respective memorandums on peace terms.

The first round of talks ended with just a prisoner swap agreed, with Ukraine complaining that Russia continues to make unacceptable and unrealistic demands.

Russia has resisted pressure to send its memorandum to Kyiv in advance. However, presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, Moscow’s lead negotiator, was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying the Kremlin had received Ukraine’s proposal.

Kyiv, according to the Reuters news agency, has proposed a roadmap for lasting peace, with no restrictions on its military strength nor international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine, conditions that Moscow has sought to insist upon.

As the delegations arrived in Turkiye, Ukrainian officials were busy coordinating with European allies, who are seeking to raise support for Kyiv amid uncertainty over the commitment of the US under President Donald Trump.

Ahead of the meeting with their Russian counterparts, the Ukrainian delegation met with representatives from Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Around the same time, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius for a summit with the leaders of NATO’s eastern and Nordic members, who are some of Kyiv’s staunchest backers amid the Russian invasion.

“If Ukraine is not present at the NATO summit, it will be a victory for Putin, but not over Ukraine, but over NATO,” he said last week.

Zelensky wants the Western military alliance to offer security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal, something Moscow has called “unacceptable.”

Zelenskyy had reiterated calls for a “full and unconditional ceasefire” before the talks.

“Second – the release of prisoners. Third – the return of abducted children,” he said in a post on social media.

Zelenskyy also called for a direct meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has previously said such a meeting could take place only after the delegations reach wider “agreements”.

Russia continues to demand that a ceasefire agreement must address the “root causes” of the conflict. It has persistently referred to limiting Ukraine’s military capabilities, banning Ukraine from joining NATO and agreeing to territorial concessions.

Massive bombardment

As the delegations arrived in Istanbul, both countries reported bombardments from massive overnight attacks.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that its air defence units had “intercepted and destroyed” 162 Ukrainian drones, the majority of which were over the bordering regions, including 57 intercepted over the Kursk region and 31 over the Belgorod region.

A day earlier, Ukraine carried out one of its biggest and most successful attacks on Russian soil, hitting dozens of strategic bombers in Siberia and other military bases in the country.

Ukraine, meanwhile, reported that Russia had targeted its territory with 80 drones overnight, striking 12 targets.

The governor of Kherson, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on Telegram that artillery fire had killed a 40-year-old man in the Korabelny district.

A five-year-old child was also injured in the attack in Kherson and was undergoing medical supervision, he added.

Maxwell, known as one of the game’s most powerful hitters, is calling time on his one-day career with Australia.

Explosive Australian batsman Glenn Maxwell has announced his retirement from one-day cricket, but will continue in Twenty20 cricket with his eye on next year’s World Cup.

The 36-year-old, who played 149 One Day Internationals (ODIs), blasting 3,990 runs, said he was starting to feel the physical toll of the 50-over game.

“I felt like I was letting the team down a little bit with how my body was reacting to the conditions,” said Maxwell on Monday, who was nicknamed “Big Show” for his all-action entertaining style of play.

“I had a good chat with [chair of selectors] George Bailey and I asked him what his thoughts were going forward.

“We talked about the 2027 [50-over] World Cup and I said to him, ‘I don’t think I am going to make that, it’s time to start planning for people in my position to have a crack at it and make the position their own’.

“I didn’t want to just hold on for a couple of series and almost play for selfish reasons.”

His last game was Australia’s Champions Trophy semifinal defeat to India in early March, after which fellow veteran Steve Smith also quit the 50-over format.

The mercurial Maxwell’s strike rate of 126.70 is the second-highest in ODI cricket, where he has crunched four hundreds and 23 half-centuries.

His rate of scoring is second only to West Indian heavy hitter Andre Russell. Maxwell has also taken 77 wickets with his off-spin.

An ODI career for the ages

In a career littered with many magic moments, perhaps his most memorable innings was at the 2023 World Cup against Afghanistan in Mumbai, when he was batting with Australia reeling at 91-7, chasing 293 to win.

In a high-pressure situation, and battling a severe cramp in searing heat, Maxwell took control, slamming 201 from just 128 balls to take his team to victory.

He scored 179 of those runs in an unbroken 202 partnership with Pat Cummins, who contributed just 12 after coming at number nine.

Australia went on to win the tournament, beating favourites India in the final at Ahmedabad.

Maxwell was also part of the Australia team that lifted the 2015 ODI World Cup.

“Glenn will be known as one of the one-day game’s most dynamic players, who had key roles in two ODI World Cup victories,” said Bailey.

“His level of natural talent and skill is remarkable. His energy in the field, under-rated ability with the ball and longevity has been superb.

“What else stands out is his passion for and commitment to playing for Australia.

“Fortunately, he still has much to offer Australia in the T20 format. All things going well, he will be pivotal in the next 12 months as we build toward the World Cup early next year.”

Seoul, South Korea – After six hours of emergency martial law, hundreds of days of protests, violence at a Seoul court and the eventual impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea is now hours away from choosing a new leader in the hope of restoring stability to an unsettled nation.

From 6am to 8pm on Tuesday (21:00 to 11:00 GMT), South Koreans will vote for one of five presidential candidates in a race led largely by the opposition Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung. He is followed in the polls by the governing People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo.

The election – involving 44.39 million eligible voters – is expected to see either of these two top contenders replace Yoon. The expelled former president last week attended his fifth court hearing where he faces charges of leading an insurrection and abusing power due to his failed imposition of martial law on December 3.

If convicted, Yoon could face a maximum penalty of life in prison or even the death sentence.

Participation in the election is predicted to be at an all-time high amid the political turmoil resulting from the brief imposition of military rule, which still resonates in every corner of society and has sharply divided the country along political lines. There are those who still support Yoon and those who vehemently oppose his martial law decision.

The Democratic Party’s Lee is currently the clear frontrunner, with Gallup Korea’s latest poll on May 28 placing his support at 49 percent, compared with People Power Party Kim’s 36 percent, as the favourite to win.

Early voting, which ended on Friday, had the second-highest voter turnout in the country’s history, at 34.74 percent, while overseas voting from 118 countries reached a record high of 79.5 percent.

Lee Jae-myung’s second chance

In the last presidential election in 2022, Yoon narrowly edged out Lee in the closest presidential contest in South Korea’s history.

After his crushing defeat in 2022 to a voting margin of just 0.73 percentage points, Lee now has another chance at the top office, and to redeem his political reputation.

About a month ago, South Korea’s Supreme Court determined that Lee had spread falsehoods during his 2022 presidential bid in violation of election law.

In addition to surviving a series of bribery charges during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi Province, which he claimed were politically motivated, Lee also survived a stabbing attack to his neck during a news conference in Busan last year.

Fortunately for Lee, the courts have agreed to postpone further hearings of his ongoing trials until after the election.

On the campaign trail this time around, Lee addressed his supporters from behind bulletproof glass, with snipers positioned on rooftops, scanning the crowds for potential threats, as counterterrorism units patrolled on foot.

Lee has also been joined on his campaign by conservative lawmakers, his former opponents, who have publicly supported his run for office numerous times during the past month, seeing him as a path back to political stability.

People Power Party candidate Kim was served an especially hard blow when his parliamentary colleague, Kim Sang-wook, defected from the party in early May to join Lee’s Democratic Party.

According to polling data from South Korea’s leading media outlet Hankyoreh, only 55 percent of conservative voters who supported Yoon in the 2022 election said they would back the People Power Party’s Kim this time around.

While such shifts represent the crisis that the mainstream conservative party is facing after the political fallout from Yoon’s botched martial law plan and removal from office, it also testifies to Lee’s appeal to both moderate and conservative voters.

Future president faces ‘heavy burden’

“The events of the martial law, insurrection attempt and impeachment process have dealt a heavy blow to our democracy,” said Lim Woon-taek, a sociology professor at Keimyung University and a former member of the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning.

“So, the new president will receive a heavy burden when assuming the president’s seat,” Lim told Al Jazeera.

Youth unemployment, social inequality and climate change have also become pressing issues that Yoon’s administration failed to tackle.

According to recent research, South Korea’s non-regular workers, including contract employees and part-timers, accounted for 38 percent of all wage and salary workers last year.

Lee has promised to champion business-friendly policies, and concentrate on investment in research and development and artificial intelligence, while refraining from focusing on divisive social issues such as the gender wars.

His stance has shifted considerably from his time moving up the political ranks when he promoted left-wing ideas, such as a universal basic income.

Events on the night of the declaration of martial law on December 3, also helped cement Lee’s image as a political freedom fighter. A former human rights lawyer, Lee was livestreamed scaling the walls of the National Assembly as the military surrounded the compound, where he rallied fellow legislators to vote and strike down Yoon’s decision to mobilise the military.

Among Lee’s most central campaign pledges has been his promise to bring to justice those involved in Yoon’s martial law scheme and tighten controls on a future president’s ability to do the same. Lee also wants to see a constitutional amendment that would allow presidents to serve two four-year terms, a change from the current single-term five years.

While Lee’s closest challenger, Kim, has agreed on such policies and made sure to distance himself from Yoon, the former labour-activist-turned-hardline-conservative has also said the former president’s impeachment went too far.

Trump, tariffs and South Korea’s new direction

The election also unfolds as United States President Donald Trump has proposed a series of tariffs on key South Korean exports such as steel, semiconductors and automobiles.

In the face of those threats, Lee has promised to stimulate demand and growth, while Kim has promised to ease business regulations. Kim also emphasised his plan to hold an immediate summit meeting with Trump to discuss the tariffs.

Lee, on the other hand, has promised a more pragmatic foreign policy agenda which would maintain relations with the US administration but also prioritise “national interests”, such as bridging closer relations with neighbouring China and Russia.

On North Korea, Lee is determined to ease tensions that have risen to unprecedented heights in recent years, while Kim has pledged to build up the country’s military capability to counter Pyongyang, and wants stronger security support from the US.

Lee has also promised to relocate the National Assembly and the presidential office from Seoul to Sejong City, which would be designated as the country’s new administrative capital, continuing a process of city-planning rebalancing that has met a series of setbacks in recent years.

Another major issue that Keimyung University’s Lim hopes the future leader will focus more on is the climate situation.

“Our country is considered a climate villain, and we will face future restrictions in our exports if we don’t address the immediate effects of not keeping limits on the amount of our hazardous outputs,” Lim said.

“The future of our country will really rest on this one question: whether the next president will draw out such issues like the previous administration or face the public sphere and head straight into the main issues that are deteriorating our society.”

The results of Tuesday’s vote are expected to emerge either late on Tuesday or in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

In the 2022 election, Yoon was proclaimed the winner at 4:40am the morning after election day.

With Lee the clear frontrunner in this election, the outcome could be evident as early as Tuesday night.

But enhanced surveillance at polling stations this year due to concerns raised about counting errors may be a factor in slowing down any early announcement of the country’s next president.

These are the key events on day 1,194 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Monday, June 2:

Fighting

• Ukraine said it destroyed Russian bombers worth $7bn at air bases as far away as Siberia in an attack that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Kyiv’s “longest-range operation”.
• Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Moscow, said the “simultaneous large-scale attack” was “launched from inside Russia” and targeted “Russian planes that have been carrying out attacks on Ukraine”.
• An official at Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service told the Reuters news agency the operation involved hiding explosive-laden drones inside the roofs of wooden sheds and loading them onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases. At least 41 Russian warplanes were hit, they said.
• Russia’s Tass news agency said there were no military or civilian casualties and that “some of the participants” had been detained.
• The operation came as Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 472 drones at the country overnight, in the highest nightly total of the war. Moscow also launched seven missiles.
• This included a missile attack on a Ukrainian military training ground that killed 12 soldiers and wounded more than 60 on Sunday morning, according to Ukraine’s Land Forces.
• The assault led Ukrainian ground forces commander Mykhailo Drapaty to announce his resignation, saying he felt a “personal sense of responsibility” for the soldiers’ deaths.
• Meanwhile, in Russia, at least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a bridge in the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, collapsed onto a passing passenger train. Moscow Railway, in a post on Telegram, said the bridge had collapsed “as a result of an illegal interference in the operation of transport”.
• A second bridge collapse caused a freight train to derail in Russia’s Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine, injuring a train driver, according to the acting governor of the area.
• A Ukrainian drone attack on Kursk also sparked fires after debris from destroyed drones fell on private homes, the acting governor said.

Politics and diplomacy

• Zelenskyy confirmed Ukraine was sending a delegation led by Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov to a second round of peace talks that are set to begin today in Istanbul, Turkiye.
• Vladimir Medinsky, a former cultural minister who will lead Russia’s delegation in Istanbul, said Moscow has received Ukraine’s “version of the memorandum on a peaceful settlement,” the TASS news agency reported.
• However Zelenskyy said that Russia is yet to share its own memorandum. “We don’t have it, the Turkish side doesn’t have it, and the American side doesn’t have the Russian document either,” the Ukrainian president said in a post on X.
• TASS also reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart Marco Rubio spoke by telephone about “several initiatives aimed at a political solution to the Ukraine crisis”, including Monday’s talks. 
• An exit poll in Poland’s presidential run-off shows the two candidates are very close and that the race is still too close to call, in an election where aid to Kyiv, Ukraine’s potential membership of NATO, and Ukrainian refugees were key issues.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Police say man arrested following calls to police about someone ‘setting people on fire’.

Police said a male suspect has been taken into custody after an attack that injured multiple people in Boulder, Colorado, in what the FBI director described as a “targeted terror attack”.

While stressing that the information was “very preliminary,” Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said on Sunday that the man was apprehended following calls to the police dispatch of someone with a weapon who was “setting people on fire”.

Redfearn said he was not in a position to identify the suspect yet, noting that he had been taken to the hospital. He said there were multiple injuries among the victims, ranging “from very serious to more minor”.

The Boulder attack occurred in the vicinity of a walk to remember the Israeli captives who remain in Gaza.

FBI Director Kash Patel, in a statement, described the incident as a “targeted terror attack” and said agents were on the scene.

Redfearn, however, said it was too early to speculate about a motive.

“We are not calling it a terror attack at this moment,” he said.

“This was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in downtown Boulder on Pearl Street and this act was unacceptable … I ask that you join me in thinking about the victims, the families of those victims, and everyone involved in this tragedy.”

More to follow.