Ata mārie and welcome to your Friday recap of the main international business and political headlines.
In developing news, Al Jazeera reported on the crash of an Air India plane bound for London. It crashed into a medical college in the city of Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff, killing at least 240 people.
It was reported that there was one survivor among the passengers. That person was rushed to hospital for treatment. Officials said medical students at the college hostel were among the dead.
Air India said it was working with local authorities on the emergency response, while it was still too early to identify the cause of the crash.
Boeing, the manufacturer of the 787-8 Dreamliner, said it was in contact with Air India and “ready to support them”.
Elsewhere, China is ready to drop tariffs on imports from 53 African nations, the BBC reported.
China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 15 years. Africa’s exports to China were worth about US$170 billion in 2023.
A joint statement criticised "certain countries' [efforts to] disrupt the existing international economic and trade order" through the unilateral imposition of tariffs, the BBC noted.
Yesterday, it was reported that a trade deal between the United States and China had been “done”, according to US President Donald Trump.
Reuters reported that negotiators from both sides had agreed on a framework to get a fragile trade truce back on track and remove Chinese export restrictions on rare earth minerals and other critical industry components.
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
Meanwhile, pressure between Trump and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell intensified after Trump called him a “numbskull”, and repeated a call to cut interest rates, CNBC reported.
Trump claimed that lowering rates by two percentage points would save the US US$600b each year. “We can’t get this guy to do it.”
“We’re going to spend US$600b a year…because of one numbskull that sits here [and says] ‘I don’t see enough reason to cut the rates now,’” Trump said.
Staying with economics, the UK economy contracted by 0.3% in April, as businesses slashed jobs and shelved investment plans in response to higher taxes and global trade tariff uncertainty, the Guardian reported.
Official data showed the economy fell after expanding 0.2% in March and 0.5% in February.
The contraction was the worst monthly drop since October 2023.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves refused to rule out future tax rises and acknowledged the latest figures were “clearly disappointing”, she told the BBC.
“No chancellor is able to write another four years of Budgets within a first year of government, you know how much uncertainty there is in the world at the moment.”
Elon Musk.
Over the Ditch, the ABC reported that Tesla drivers had reported “phantom” braking in autopilot mode, with the electric cars slowing down for no particular reason while driving.
Allegations of phantom braking led to legal action overseas and the Australian class action against Tesla was due to return to the Federal Court later this year.
Tesla said autopilot mode was designed to make driving safer, but in the US, Tesla was sued over several deadly crashes after the system was enabled, the ABC said.
It was reported that Elon Musk’s company had settled some cases but not admitted wrongdoing and blamed driver error.
About 10,000 Tesla drivers in Australia had registered their interest in a class action against the company, with allegations that consumers were misled over phantom braking, battery range, and self-driving capability, the ABC reported.
