Friday Briefing: A shock to the auto industry

Plus, a stunning spiced beef stew.

View in browser|nytimes.com March 28, 2025 By Natasha Frost Good morning. We're covering the sweeping Trump car tariffs and protests against Hamas in Gaza. Plus: The sound of sharks. A BMW factory in Munich. Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times U.S. auto tariffs raised the risk of a global trade war President Trump's plan to impose a 25 percent tariff on cars and parts has sent a shudder through the global auto industry. Markets in Asia, Europe and the U.S. wobbled yesterday as many automakers' share prices fell. Trump has threatened to target the E.U. and Canada if they band together to retaliate. The tariffs on all cars, and some auto parts, exported to the U.S. are set to take effect next Thursday. Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Canada account for about 75 percent of U.S. vehicle imports. Here's how major car companies will be affected. The tariffs put Trump's unorthodox trade theory to the test. To the president, tariffs encourage companies to move factories to the U.S., creating more American jobs. Economists say their effects are more complicated and that they could cause significant collateral damage. Reactions: Mark Carney, Canada's leader, said the U.S. was "no longer a reliable partner" and that his country would announce retaliatory tariffs next week. In Germany, whose auto industry is a huge exporter to the U.S., the economy minister, Robert Habeck, said it was "crucial that the E.U. delivers a decisive response to the tariffs," adding, "It must be clear that we will not back down." More on the Trump administration The administration said it would lay off 10,000 employees at the Health and Human Services Department. A federal judge ordered officials who'd participated in a leaked Signal group chat about military plans to preserve their messages. (Signal messages can be set to automatically disappear.) U.S. fighter pilots were angry about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's disclosure of secret attack plans. Trump asked Elise Stefanik to stay in Congress rather than become the U.N. ambassador, citing the narrow Republican majority in the House. Track Trump's actions since he took office. The leaders of Ukraine, France and Britain met in Paris yesterday. Pool photo by Ludovic Marin A murky vision of a postwar Ukraine European leaders in Paris yesterday discussed a French proposal to send a "reassurance force" to help safeguard an eventual peace in Ukraine. But Emmanuel Macron, France's leader, said the specifics of such a force were still being ironed out. Russia has called the proposal unacceptable. The meeting followed three days of U.S.-brokered talks in Saudi Arabia this week that yielded deals, with caveats, between Russia and Ukraine to halt attacks on energy infrastructure and fighting in the Black Sea. Russian aims: Moscow wants relief from restrictions on shipping, insurance and banking that have complicated its agricultural exports. "Russia also wants sanctions lifted on the state agricultural bank, and for it to be reconnected to the international payments system Swift," my colleague Paul Sonne, who covers Russia, said. "But that would require agreement from European allies who have been cut out of the talks." At the front: Journalists for The Times were embedded with Ukrainian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine. Amid drones, mines and snipers, peace talks seemed a world away. Gazans chanting anti-Hamas slogans in the city of Beit Lahia on Wednesday. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times Anti-Hamas protests in Gaza grew Rare public protests in Gaza for an end to Hamas's rule — and to the war — have spread to a number of towns over the past three days. While most of the demonstrations have been small, they represent the boldest challenge to Hamas's authority since the war began in 2023. Hamas has brutally clamped down on protests in the past. This time, its security forces have been largely absent, most likely because of the group's delicate position with Gazans and the difficulty of mobilizing under the threat of Israeli airstrikes. Quotable: "Hamas needs to go away," said Ahmad al-Masri, who helped call for the demonstrations. "If it doesn't, the bloodshed, the wars and the destruction won't stop." Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition gave itself more power to pick judges, resuming a judicial overhaul that divided the country before the war. Yemen: Middle East experts said the Iran-backed Houthis wouldn't be easily defeated, despite the intentions disclosed by U.S. officials in their Signal chat. MORE TOP NEWS Chang W. Lee/The New York Times South Korea: Wildfires have burned 88,000 acres and two 1,000-year-old Buddhist temples, forced 37,000 people from their homes and left 27 people dead. Egypt: A submarine carrying Russian tourists sank off the Red Sea coast. Six people died and rescue workers scrambled to pull others from the water. Turkey: The BBC said its journalist Mark Lowen had been detained in Istanbul and deported after covering antigovernment protests. U.S.: A Times investigation looked at the rise of "pedophile hunters," online vigilantes who attack their targets in videos. Royals: King Charles III was briefly hospitalized after experiencing side effects from cancer treatment. He has since returned to his London residence. France: French prosecutors requested a seven-year prison sentence for former President Nicolas Sarkozy. He is accused of accepting illegal campaign financing from the Libyan government in 2007. U.S.: A court blocked Texas from filing a summons against a New York doctor for prescribing and sending abortion pills to a Texas woman. South Sudan: Vice President Riek Machar has been placed under house arrest, a move that threatens a fragile peace agreement. Algeria: Boualem Sansal, an Algerian French writer, was sentenced to five years in prison, angering authors around the world. Archaeology: The huge tomb of an unknown pharaoh, estimated to be 3,600 years old, was unearthed south of Cairo. And in England, archaeologists can finally talk about the highly significant Iron Age artifacts they have been excavating since 2021. Social media: Facebook will introduce a new Friends Tab for posts shared by people's friends and family, which was the app's original mission. SPORTS NEWS Tennis: Iga Swiatek received additional security at the Miami Open after her team reported that a man had harassed her. Soccer: Chelsea set a Premier League record that may never be broken. Only Chelsea themselves have ever come close. Formula 1: The roaring of V10 engines was once an F1 trademark. Now, as calls rise to bring back those loud engines, some in the sport are concerned. MORNING READ Paul Caiger Whales sing. Fish grunt. But sharks had been silent to our ears, until scientists in New Zealand recently heard a rig shark making a clicking sound, most likely by snapping its teeth together. Listen to a recording. Lives lived: David Childs, an architect who crowned the New York City skyline with the shimmering new 1 World Trade Center, replacing the twin towers destroyed on 9/11, died on Wednesday at 83. CONVERSATION STARTERS Are you smarter than A.I.?: Solve this puzzle to find out. Copying Studio Ghibli: An update to ChatGPT made it easy to simulate the studio's beloved style of animation. Should it? Egon Schiele's final years: Some of the artist's most insightful work came just before he died in a pandemic. From Opinion: Why do we do unpleasant things? When it comes to things we care about, David Brooks writes, we operate by "the logic of passionate desire and often painful effort." ARTS AND IDEAS Antoine d'Agata/Magnum, for The New York Times The remains of the Third Reich Europe is strewn with human remains from two world wars that killed tens of millions of people. Many simply vanished into rubble, while others were hastily buried in unmarked graves. In Germany, where memory and forgetting are bound up with vast guilt, the question of how to handle these remains is especially fraught. Confronting the issue head-on is the Volksbund, an organization tasked with finding the graves of every German who died in the country's many wars and giving each a decent burial, no matter who they were or what they did. (Auf Deutsch lesen.) We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. RECOMMENDATIONS Mark Weinberg for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Michelle Gatton. Cook: This slow-cooked spiced beef stew is meltingly tender. Serve with roti or naan. Watch: Here are three great documentaries to stream. Travel: Spend 36 hours in Budapest, a beautiful Old World metropolis. Trim: The best hair styles from recent fashion shows can offer inspiration for your next cut. Beautify: Wirecutter spent nine months testing 128 skin-care products. Here are the winners. Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today's Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here. That's it for today's briefing. See you next week — and thank you to those who let us know that yesterday's subject line incorrectly suggested that it was Monday. Happy Friday, and have a great weekend. — Natasha Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Morning Briefing: Europe Edition from The New York Times. To stop receiving Morning Briefing: Europe Edition, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018