UK, US, France, 11 other nations condemn Iranian intelligence threats
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Diverging Reports Breakdown
Hungary government to draw up plans to protect jobs after US-EU trade deal
The U.S. and the EU announced a trade agreement on Sunday setting a 15% tariff on the bloc’s exports to the United States. The levy includes cars, a mainstay of central European exports, which previously incurred a tariff of 2.5%. Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Hungary’s total exports to United States were worth some $11 billion a year. Orban sharply criticised European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday for what he said was a poorly negotiated deal.
BUDAPEST – Hungary’s government will draw up plans to protect the country’s jobs and manufacturing after the trade deal between the United States and the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public radio on Friday.
The U.S. and the EU announced a trade agreement on Sunday setting a 15% tariff on the bloc’s exports to the United States. The levy includes cars, a mainstay of central European exports, which previously incurred a tariff of 2.5%.
Orban said Hungary’s total exports to the United States were worth some $11 billion a year.
“We have to draw up two action plans, one is an action plan to protect jobs, to make sure that foreign companies working in Hungary do not react by laying off people. Or, if they do, we need to offer those people jobs immediately,” Orban said.
The second plan was needed to make sure no manufacturing plants were shut down as a result of the tariffs, said Orban, who has struggled to revive Hungary’s economy from the EU’s worst inflationary surge following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Orban, who faces what political analysts say will be a closely-fought election next year, sharply criticised European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday for what he said was a poorly negotiated deal.
Hungary’s government has not published an estimate about the tariffs’ impact on growth, although the economy ministry slashed its 2025 economic growth forecast to 1% on Tuesday from the 2.5% it expected at the start of the year.
Concordia, Romania’s largest employers’ association, has estimated the tariffs could shave up to 0.2% off the country’s growth while the Czech finance ministry said tariffs would slow expansion there by 0.2 percentage points for the remainder of the year.
For neighbouring Slovakia, whose share of goods’ exports as a percentage of national output is the highest in the EU, Societe Generale economists have estimated the tariff impact at 0.87% of gross domestic product.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland, the EU’s largest economy outside the euro zone, could lose around 8 billion zlotys ($2.14 billion) due to the new U.S. import tariffs. REUTERS
Two-year-old among 28 dead in Thursday’s Russian attack on Kyiv
A two-year-old child was found dead in the rubble after Thursday’s sweeping Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv. The toddler was the third child to have died in the attack, in which Russia launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles. The other two underage victims were six and 17 years old, the head of Ukrainian presidential office Andriy Yermak said.
KYIV – A two-year-old child was found dead in the rubble after Thursday’s sweeping Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s prime minister said on Friday, taking the death toll to 28, with over 150 wounded.
The toddler was the third child to have died in the attack, in which Russia launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles in the early hours of Thursday morning. The other two underage victims were six and 17 years old, the head of Ukrainian presidential office Andriy Yermak said.
The rescue service said 16 of the injured were children, the largest number of children hurt in a single attack on Ukraine’s capital since Russia started its full-scale invasion almost 3-1/2 years ago.
City authorities declared Friday a day of mourning as rescue operations continued.
“This morning, the body of a 2-year-old child was pulled from the rubble, bringing the total dead to 28, of which 3 are children,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X, adding that over 150 people had been wounded.
“The world possesses every instrument required to ensure Russia is brought to justice. What is lacking is not power — but will,” Svyrydenko said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, sharply criticized Russia’s “disgusting” behavior against Ukraine but said he was not sure whether sanctions would deter Russia.
He has given Russian President Vladimir Putin until August 8 to make a deal or else he will respond with economic pressure. REUTERS
Europe Inc wakes up to Trump’s new tariff reality
The United States will impose a 15% tariff on most European exports from Friday. While down from even more elevated threatened rates, the tariffs are the highest since the 1930s. At least 99 out of nearly 300 companies monitored have announced price hikes in response to the trade war, most from Europe. Higher-end luxury brands have more pricing power to adapt to the tariffs. Big companies can swallow some margin loss or shift some production into the United States, though often not all of it. The International Chamber of Commerce is seeing shipment delays and companies reassessing supply chain strategies. Trading with the U.S. is now “hellishly more difficult,” a chamber official said, adding that the complexity of doing business with the country has gone to levels “nobody could have imagined” The tariffs are a response to persistent U.s. trade imbalances and declining U.N. manufacturing power, Trump has said. The tariffs will bring jobs and investment to the nation, and that the moves will bring economic growth.
Companies European companies face shipment delays and reassess supply chains
Luxury brands and big firms adapt with pricing power or production shifts
Smaller firms struggle with tariff impact, seek new markets or strategies
Trump tariffs highest since 1930s, impacting global trade
Champagne and perfume producers face unique challenges due to tariff constraints
LONDON/MARSEILLE, France, Aug 1 (Reuters) – As U.S. President Donald Trump’s new tariff regime clicks into gear on Friday, producers around Europe are feeling the impact, some holding back shipments, others hiking sticker prices or taking a hit to margins. Some fear they won’t survive at all.
The United States will impose a 15% tariff on most European exports from Friday, part of a wider barrage of levies set to redraw global trade. While down from even more elevated threatened rates, the tariffs are the highest since the 1930s.
Sign up here.
“Companies are waking up to the fact that we’re dealing with an historically higher tariff rate,” said International Chamber of Commerce Deputy Secretary General Andrew Wilson.
“It’s difficult to see that moving unless there are catastrophic consequences of the U.S. economy.”
He added the chamber was seeing shipment delays and companies reassessing supply chain strategies. Trading with the United States was now “hellishly more difficult.”
“The complexity of doing business with the U.S. has gone to levels nobody could have imagined,” he said.
In Germany’s Moselle Valley, winemaker Johannes Selbach said tariffs were damaging for the industry on both sides of the Atlantic. They had been hoping for zero-for-zero tariffs, but face 15% for now, with sector specific talks ongoing.
“The tariffs hurt the Americans and they hurt us,” Selbach said in a warehouse surrounded by crates of wine with “USA” written on them in black letters.
“Thousands of families who produce wine in Europe and thousands of families in the importing, wholesaling, retailing, restaurant business in the U.S. are dependent on the flow from both sides,” he said, adding jobs and profits would be hit.
Different sectors face varying degrees of pain. Higher-end luxury brands have more pricing power to adapt to the tariffs. Big companies can swallow some margin loss or shift some production into the United States, though often not all of it.
Reuters’ global tariff tracker shows at least 99 out of nearly 300 companies monitored have announced price hikes in response to the trade war, most from Europe.
Trump has said the tariffs are a response to persistent U.S. trade imbalances and declining U.S. manufacturing power, and that the moves will bring jobs and investment to the nation.
This range plot displays U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff rates for the economies which reached deals with the U.S., or received Trump’s letter on July 7 or later, or have special situations.
WE CANNOT RELOCATE CHAMPAGNE VINES
Diverging U.S. tariffs globally remain a challenge, however, with big manufacturing centers like Mexico, Canada, India and Vietnam having higher rates than others like South Korea or Europe.
Smaller players often can’t make quick changes to production and supply chains.
Hugo Drappier, a champagne maker who runs his own firm Champagne Drappier, pointed out that the bubbly beverage could only be produced in a particular region of France.
“It’s an industry that employs a lot of workers who can’t be relocated, precisely because the work is done here. We don’t have the option of relocating champagne vines elsewhere in the world,” he said.
He said some orders had been held up due to tariff uncertainty, though he retained hopes that trade talks were becoming more positive, with the 15% rate better than previous threats of 30%.
Laurent Cohen, CEO of family-owned perfumery Corania, based in a northern suburb of French city Marseille, is scouring for new markets and ways to maintain business in the United States, which accounts for a quarter of sales.
That may mean a hit to margins and higher U.S. prices, he said.
“I praise the fact that we are no longer in a state of uncertainty,” he said, referring to the U.S. trade deal.
“But with 15% customs duty on our products – which are affordable perfume products – we will now have to show immense ingenuity to keep on going in the U.S. market.”
A bar chart showing the top exported goods from the European Union to the United States in 2024.
Reporting by Josephine Mason and Adam Jourdan in London; Clotaire Achi and Michaela Cabrera in Urville, France; Manon Cruz in Marseille; Stephane Nitzschke, Andreas Kranz and Swantje Stein in Zeltingen, Moselle Valley, Germany; Ardee Napolitano in Paris; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by XX
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab
Share X
Link Purchase Licensing Rights
UK, US, France, 11 other nations condemn Iranian intelligence threats
Britain and 13 allies condemn what they call a surge in assassination, kidnapping and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services. Iran’s foreign ministry rejected the accusations as “blatant fabrications and a diversionary tactic” The governments called on the Iranian authorities to immediately stop such illegal activities. In October, Reuters reported that Iran was behind a wave of attempted assassinations and abductions across Europe and the United States.
LONDON – Britain and 13 allies including the United States and France condemned on Thursday what they called a surge in assassination, kidnapping and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services targeting individuals in Europe and North America.
“We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty,” the countries said in a joint statement.
The governments – of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the U.S. – called on the Iranian authorities to immediately stop such illegal activities.
They said such actions were increasingly carried out in collaboration with international criminal networks.
Iran’s foreign ministry rejected the accusations as “blatant fabrications and a diversionary tactic, part of a malicious campaign of Iranophobia aimed at pressuring the Iranian people.”
“The U.S., France, and the other signatories of the anti-Iranian statement must be held accountable for their support and hosting of terrorist and violent groups, which constitutes a violation of international law and support for terrorism,” ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said in a statement on Friday.
He was apparently referring anti-Iran armed opposition groups based in Europe, such as the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, which was once designated as a terrorist organisation by the U.S. and EU and now operates freely in the West.
Since early 2022, Britain says it has disrupted more than 20 Iran-linked plots to kidnap or kill individuals in the UK, including British nationals and others Tehran views as threats.
In October, Reuters reported that Iran was behind a wave of attempted assassinations and abductions across Europe and the United States.
In March, the British government announced it would require the Iranian state to register all political influence activities, citing increasingly aggressive behaviour by Tehran’s intelligence services. REUTERS