Global economic growth will slow amid Trump tariffs, IMF warns – as it happened

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that it expects much slower global growth – but not a recession – because of trade tensions amid Donald Trump’s tariff war.Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, said that the latest world economic outlook forecasts will include “notable markdowns, but not recession”, in a speech in Washington before its annual meeting starting on Monday.The forecasts will be closely scrutinised for judgments of Trump’s economic policy, after a fortnight of financial market chaos since his “liberation day” tariffs. Stock markets plunged after Trump raised tariffs on all goods imports, only to recover somewhat when he imposed a 90-day “pause” when turbulence spread to the bond market.The deep uncertainty over Trump’s plans have made it difficult for economists

BP suffers investor rebellion at first AGM since climate strategy U-turn

BP suffered an investor rebellion on Thursday after facing shareholders for the first time since abandoning its climate strategy at a meeting marred by protest.About a quarter of shareholders voted against the chair, Helge Lund, at the company’s annual meeting in Sunbury-on-Thames, on the edges of London, which attracted protest from several green campaign groups.The Guardian understands that five protesters were forcibly blocked from entering the meeting before the vote, which marked the first time in at least a decade that more than 10% of BP’s shareholders voted against the re-election of the chair.The activists from Fossil Free London and Energy Embargo for Palestine protested outside the venue, describing the board as “murderers, looters and genocide enablers”, before major institutional investors voted against the re-election of Lund.The shareholder meeting was held weeks after Lund, who presided over BP’s failed green agenda, promised to step down from the company by next year

Spotify running again after users around world report problems

Tens of thousands of Spotify users around the world reported being unable to stream music on the app, which was hit by several hours of technical problems on Wednesday.Downdetector, which tracks platforms, showed more than 48,000 outage reports for Spotify worldwide on Wednesday afternoon.In the UK, the number of people reporting that Spotify was not functioning peaked at about 1.30pm BST, after problems began 30 minutes earlier. By 3pm, the number had fallen to about 10,000

Google sued for £5bn in UK over allegations of shutting out rivals

Google is being sued in the UK for up to £5bn in damages over allegations it shut out rivals in the internet search market and abused this dominance to overcharge businesses for advertisements. A class action filed at the competition appeal tribunal on Wednesday argues that the US company has taken actions that enable it to charge higher prices for the promotions that appear in search queries than it otherwise could in a fair market. It is alleged that Google, which is owned by Alphabet, contracted phone makers to pre-install the Google search app and Chrome browser on Android devices and paid Apple to make it the default search engine on iPhones, with the intention of shutting out competition. The claim is filed by a competition law expert, Or Brook, on behalf of thousands of businesses and alleges Google ensured its search engine had better functionality and more features for Google’s own advertising offering than that of its competitors.A Google spokesperson said: “This is yet another speculative and opportunistic case and we will argue against it vigorously

Aaron Rodgers keeping options open: ‘Dealing with a lot off the field’

Aaron Rodgers isn’t in a hurry: not to retire, not to return and not to sign with another team.The 41-year-old quarterback, released by the New York Jets last month, said Thursday he’s not ready to make a commitment for the upcoming NFL season. Appearing on the Pat McAfee Show, the four-time MVP stressed that his current focus is on matters off the field, including a serious relationship and close friends facing personal challenges.“I’m in a different phase of my life,” Rodgers said. “To make a commitment to a team is a big thing

Max Verstappen insists he is happy at Red Bull despite concern over car

Max Verstappen played down concerns that he may leave Red Bull after the world champion was left frustrated and disappointed at the last round in Bahrain but reiterated that he was unhappy with the car and that as things stand it will be hard to defend his title this season.Verstappen finished sixth in ­Bahrain, unable to make any impression against the frontrunners McLaren, Mercedes and ­Ferrari. The car struggles with balance problems and is proving a handful to drive, with the team identifying a disconnect between their data from the wind tunnel and its real-world performance.After the race, Red Bull’s motorsport adviser Helmut Marko called the performance “very alarming” and warned that “the concern is great” Verstappen, who has a performance-related escape clause in his ­contract, could leave. Senior ­personnel, including Marko and the team ­principal, Christian Horner, held crisis talks after the race to consider how to address the car’s problems