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Good morning. The markets might have been closed over the weekend, but the break has offered little respite for those who might have hoped for some sign that Donald Trump would consider a change to his tariffs policy.

With White House officials and the president himself insisting that their plan was the right one despite the global economic meltdown it has induced, the market sell-off in response continued in earnest this morning in Asia – and traders in Europe and the US will be braced for more of the same later today.

The sharp market decline is not an abstract set of numbers – but a key indicator of how analysts see the impact of a new trade war playing out in the global economy. For the very latest, head to the business live blog. Today’s newsletter explains what’s happened this morning, and why it matters. Here are the headlines.

Five big stories

1. War crimes | A war crimes complaint against 10 Britons who served with the Israeli military in Gaza is to be submitted to the Met police by one of the UK’s leading human rights lawyers. Michael Mansfield KC is one of a group of lawyers behind a dossier alleging targeted killing of civilians and aid workers.

2. France | The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has told supporters in Paris she would fight “a political, not a judicial ruling” that could bar her from the next presidential election, as a rival rally denounced an “existential threat” to the rule of law after her conviction for embezzling public funds.

3. UK politics| Labour and the Tories have become embroiled in a war of words after the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, defended Israel’s decision to deny two MPs entry into the country and deport them. MPs from across parliament criticised Badenoch for her response to Israel’s decision to expel the Labour MPs Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed.

4. Deaths in custody | More than 100 relatives of people who have died after contact with the police in the UK since 1971 have joined plans for a class action lawsuit in pursuit of compensation and justice. Organisers had recorded 3,000 deaths involving the police in the UK over the past 50 years, during which time four police officers have been convicted over a killing.

5. Olivier awards| The play Giant, which portrays children’s author Roald Dahl amid an outcry about his anti-semitism, has triumphed at the Olivier awards on a star-studded night at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Among three awards for the production, US star John Lithgow took home the best actor prize for his performance as Dahl.

In depth: ‘A global recession is on the cards and coming on fast’

The early news from Asian markets is of a stock market rout. In Japan, the Nikkei index fell 6.5%, recovering slightly from an initial fall of nearly 9%. The main stock indices in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where markets were closed on Friday for a public holiday, both fell almost 10%. Stocks in banks were among the worst affected, as they were last week, in a key barometer of the mood: banks make fewer loans in tough economic times, and see more customers default on the loans they’ve already made. Japan’s huge sell-off was led by the country’s three largest banks. And in early trading in Hong Kong on Monday, HSBC fell more than 15%, and Standard Chartered by 18%.

What does all this tell us about the impact of US tariffs?

That many traders agree with what Keir Starmer wrote in a column for the Sunday Telegraph: “The world as we knew it has gone”. The markets are responding to the mood of absolute uncertainty about what happens next – other than that there is little sign that the crisis will be over soon, and that its impact will be far-reaching.

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p class=”dcr-16w5gq9″>Stephen Innes, head of trading and market strategy at SPI Asset Management, put it in blunt terms: “The market’s telling you in plain language: global demand is vanishing, and a global recession is on the cards and coming on fast.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/07/monday-briefing-asian-markets-slump-after-trump-insists-that-tariff-policy-will-not-change