First Thing: Biden announces 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles

Increased levy to protect US makers from cheap imports likely to worsen trade tensions with Beijing. Plus, chaos on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis

Good morning.

Joe Biden has announced a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) as part of a raft of stringent policies developed to shield US manufacturers from cheap imports.

The move is likely to intensify trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies, and carries risks of retaliation from Beijing. But the US president said the increased levies – which hikes tariffs from 25% to 100% on EVs – were a proportionate response to China’s overcapacity in the EV sector. Levies will also increase on related goods such as lithium batteries and solar cells.

How significant is this? At the moment, it’s largely symbolic – Chinese EVs have already been virtually excluded from the US market by tariffs previously introduced by Donald Trump.

On the other hand … Lobby groups have suggested Beijing could pose a future threat by using exports to make up for a frail domestic economy, which the Alliance for American Manufacturing claims would result in an “extinction-level event” for US carmakers.

At least eight Israeli strikes on Gaza aid groups since October, says report

Israeli forces have executed at least eight strikes on humanitarian convoys and their facilities in Gaza since October, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which said that in every case aid organizations had shared their coordinates with Israeli authorities.

HRW said the Israel Defense Forces did not warn the organizations before the strikes, which killed or injured at least 31 people. The report comes after a UN vehicle came under fire in Rafah on Monday, leading to the death of one employee and another being injured as they were travelling to a hospital.

How is this affecting aid? It’s having a real impact. The HRW report found: “These attacks are having a chilling effect on efforts to provide life-saving aid in Gaza.”

Michael Cohen to continue testimony at Trump hush-money trial

Donald Trump’s longtime ally and ex-fixer Michael Cohen will resume his testimony on Tuesday in the former US president’s hush-money criminal trial.

Cohen is considered crucial to the case where Trump faces charges of allegedly falsifying records of payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels to cover a sexual liaison. The prosecution is arguing the payment represented an election expense.

Cohen told the Manhattan courtroom on Monday that Trump had asked him to keep stories about sex out of the press as he ran for president. Damning testimony included Cohen saying: “What I was doing was at the direction of and benefit of Mr Trump,” and later: “Everything required Mr Trump’s signoff.”

How is this affecting Trump’s 2024 campaign? The criminal trial has mostly kept him off the campaign trail, except for at weekends, but it doesn’t seem to have hurt his ranking in the polls.

In other news …

Joe Biden has signed into law a bipartisan bill prohibiting the import of enriched uranium from Russia in Washington’s latest sanction against Moscow, which is the world’s main supplier of enriched uranium.

A cluster of EU states are racing to save the bloc’s nature restoration legislation from being abandoned, with Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy opposing it at the last summit in March. Failure to pass it would be a “carte blanche to destroy nature”, Ireland’s environment minister said.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has been accused of intimidation tactics in India’s election, withopposition parties and activists in the state of Gujarat claiming it is using party workers and police to harass and coerce rival candidates into withdrawing.

Stat of the day: Conflict has forced a record of more than 68 million people to flee their homes

Conflicts including those in Gaza, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have forced more than 68 million people around the world to become internally displaced as of the end of 2023. It is the highest number recorded since data collection began 15 years ago.

Don’t miss this: ‘Has this guy ever made a movie before?’ chaotic scenes reported on Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis

Francis Ford Coppola is finally making Megalopolis, the movie he has wanted to make for more than four decades. But reports from the set paint a picture of chaos – one bizarre detail is that Coppola decided to renovate an entire motel for his family’s accommodation – and clashes between his “old-school approach” and modern digital film-making methods.

This turbulence doesn’t sound far off from the set of Apocalypse Now, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1979 – but will the result match it?

Climate check: Fossil fuel firms are ‘forcing countries to compensate them’

Fossil fuel firms are forcing governments to pay them for lost revenue in the transformation to a low-carbon global economy, and harming the world’s ability to curb their impacts, former top UN officials have warned.

The former Irish president and UN climate envoy, Mary Robinson, warned that companies were making governments sign “investment treaties” that pay them with billions in compensation when nations limit their reliance on oil, gas and coal.

Last Thing: UK woman who punched crocodile among those on King Charles’s first civilian gallantry list

A woman who punched a crocodile in the snout to save her sister will receive a bravery award on King Charles’s first civilian “gallantry” list.

Georgia Laurie, 31, thumbed the reptile when it went for her twin, Melissa, while they were swimming in a lagoon in Mexico in June 2021. Georgia was candid about the award, saying: “I feel like I have to share it with my sister because let’s face it I don’t think I would have been nominated for it if she didn’t survive.”

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