Sobering stuff: UK alcohol industry reels from impact of Trump tariffs

To some extent, the US owes its very existence to the Welsh.Up to 18 of the 56 signatories of the 1776 Declaration of Independence claimed Welsh heritage, depending on which source you believe, including one delegate who was born in Llandaff.That is why Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day”, when he imposed “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly every country in the world, was such a sobering moment for the Welsh whisky maker Penderyn Distillery.In 2014, during a Nato summit in the UK, the distillery presented Barack Obama with a bottle of Penderyn Independence, celebrating America’s escape from colonial rule.Now that particular special relationship is hanging by a thread

‘In economic terms, Trump’s tariffs make no sense at all’

From world leaders, to the tiniest manufacturers thousands of miles from Washington, decision-makers across the global economy are racked with uncertainty as they scramble to come to terms with Donald Trump’s historic tariffs.Experts are all but unanimous that the impact on global growth of Wednesday’s extraordinary Rose Garden press conference will be negative – but just how bad remains highly uncertain.“In economic terms, it makes no sense at all,” said Jordi Gual, the former chair of CaixaBank, Spain’s largest domestic lender, who is now an economics professor at IESE business school in Barcelona. “It is hugely problematic, because we go back to a level we hadn’t seen since the 1930s.”Trump’s announcement that he would impose tariffs of 10% to almost 50% on the US’s largest trading partners – including a 34% additional border tax on Chinese imports and a 10% levy on the UK – was designed to encourage multinational companies to relocate their factories, jobs and supply chains to the US

Blanket ban on teen smartphone use ‘potentially detrimental’, says academic

A leading academic tasked by the UK government with reviewing the effects of smartphones on teenagers has suggested blanket bans are “unrealistic and potentially detrimental”.Amy Orben, from the University of Cambridge, will lead the work on children and smartphone use that has been commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) along with a team of other academics from a number of UK universities.Ministers have so far been resistant to implementing any new legal restrictions on social media and smartphones for children that goes further than the current Online Safety Act, which clamps down on harmful content.Some MPs have been pushing for further restrictions that go beyond harmful content – including on access to social media for those under 16, full bans on smartphones in schools or restrictions on social media algorithms that are able to train addictive content on young teenagers.In a paper Orben published this week with four co-authors in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), they said bans and restrictions were unlikely to be effective – though they did advocate for children and teens to have phone-free spaces

Meta faces £1.8bn lawsuit over claims it inflamed violence in Ethiopia

Meta faces a $2.4bn (£1.8bn) lawsuit accusing the Facebook owner of inflaming violence in Ethiopia after the Kenyan high court said a legal case against the US tech group could go ahead.The case brought by two Ethiopian nationals calls on Facebook to alter its algorithm to stop promoting hateful material and incitement to violence, as well as hiring more content moderators in Africa. It is also seeking a $2

Glazed Carlos Alcaraz perfect for the online world but still jarringly human

There’s a Carlos Alcaraz clip on YouTube that has to date been viewed 25m times. The whole thing is a seven-second loop of him catching a ball on his racket at Wimbledon. Currently it also has well over a thousand comments, engaged in a constantly shifting battle for most-liked, most-approved, most gushingly enthused-over.You probably shouldn’t click on it because it is also addictive, a perfect moment of perfect Alcaraz, another endlessly replicating needle-prod of pleasure into your overstimulated brain.But then you will also probably love it because, of all sports, tennis seems the most ideally suited to the online life

County cricket opening day: Cox stars for Essex v Surrey, Yorkshire skittled and more – as it happened

The first day of the cricket season in early April isn’t supposed to feel like this. T-shirts, ice-creams, arm-crispingly warm. At Chelmsford, where nearly 2,500 came through the turnstiles, feet in the queue before half past nine, the champions were in town.But Surrey, seeking their fourth title on the bounce, didn’t have things their way against Essex. They lost the toss on a flat pitch, and first Paul Walter, then Jordan Cox, batted with a bounce and a song