How to describe Donald Trump’s tariffs agenda, let alone explain the gameplan? When the US president held up his scorecard of percentage levies on 2 April, a date he dubbed “liberation day”, stock markets trembled and governments panicked. But then a promised date for penalties on imports to the US was postponed, not once but twice, while a deal or two was done, but not the 200 Trump had said would be signed ahead of the 9 July deadline. So last Wednesday letters began to go out with newly calculated levies now postponed to 1 August. As our economics editor, Heather Stewart, explains, enduring confusion is the only certainty when it comes to Trump’s tariffs. While a threatened 30% is not the worst deal on offer, the EU – which thought neogotiations with Washington were on track – was, as Jennifer Rankin reports, momentarily blindsided but Brussels, like European markets, soon rallied. While the world may need to hold on to its hair in the face of Trump’s tariff tornado for a while yet, it’s very much, as Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, put it, “the weather of our time”.
As Trump continues to bluster, I hope some of my other selections from this week’s issue provide shelter from the storm.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Spotlight | A ‘concentration camp’ for Palestinians
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert explains to Emma Graham-Harrison his fears over plans for a so-called humanitarian city to contain the population of Gaza
Environment | A clean river runs through it
The Emscher was once Europe’s dirtiest river, little more than a sewer for Germany’s Ruhr industrial heartland. But, as Ajit Niranjan reports, it is becoming a nature haven and leisure destination
Feature | My fight to get justice for Jean Charles de Menezes
Yasmin Khan explains how a chance meeting at a vigil for the young Brazilian shot dead by police in the aftermath of London’s 7/7 bombings changed her life
Opinion | It’s time for Labour to tax the rich
Why doesn’t the party of the workers dare admit that Britain’s rampant inequality needs to be addressed through a proper redistributive policy, asks Andy Beckett
Culture | An all-nighter at the Albert Hall
Anna Lapwood explains why an organist’s life tends towards the nocturnal and tells John Lewis how she intends to keep a Prom audience from nodding off for her 11pm-7am gig next month
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What else we’ve been reading
I’m a tad jealous of Oliver Wainwright’s brief as the Guardian’s roaming architecture and design critic and a fan of his writing. This interview with Ievgeniia Gubkina, author of a new architectural guidebook to Kharkhiv, conveys his abundant enthusiasm for the poetry of the built enviromment.
Isobel Montgomery, deputy editor
Joanne Briggs grew up in 1960s England with a “dapper” scientist as a father. But he wasn’t the man she thought he was. This is the gripping tale of a fantasist who faked his research until he was unmasked in the British press. It’s also the memoir of a daughter trying to find out the truth about her mysterious father, asking whether this larger-than-life character was a spy who faked his own death. Anthony Naughton, assistant editor
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Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Audio | Ulaanbaatar: a warning from the coldest capital on Earth – podcast
• Video | ‘Tourists go home’: Inside the angry protests on Spain’s holiday islands
• Gallery | ‘Beautiful form isn’t enough’: National Ballet of Japan – picture essay
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