Trump delayed his 50% tariffs on E.U. imports
President Trump said yesterday that he was extending the deadline to impose a 50 percent tariff on the E.U. to July 9, from June 1, to allow more time for negotiation.
The announcement followed what Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said was a “good call” with Trump, during which she expressed that the E.U. needed extra time to reach a trade deal. She said that talks would advance “swiftly and decisively,” a promise that Trump echoed in a Truth Social post.
“The E.U. and the U.S. share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship,” von der Leyen wrote on X.
Context: On Friday, Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on E.U. imports beginning June 1, saying that trade talks with the bloc were “going nowhere.” The announcement raised the chances of a destabilizing trade war with one of the world’s largest economies.
Trump was ‘not happy’ about Russia’s latest bombardment
Russia unleashed one of its largest drone and missile barrages of the war over the weekend, killing at least 12 people in Ukraine and injuring dozens. President Trump said that he was “not happy” with Russia, and that he was considering more sanctions in response.
“He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” Trump told reporters. “We’re in the middle of talking, and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, cited the attacks as further proof that “Russia is dragging out this war and continues to kill every day.”
Details: This was Moscow’s second large-scale attack in two nights and the third in just a week, despite cease-fire talks. Russia appears to be targeting cities more intensively, and there has been a spike in civilian casualties.
Venezuela voted for another country’s land
Venezuela held an election yesterday for governor and legislators to represent Essequibo — a sparsely populated, oil-rich territory. But the area is internationally recognized as part of neighboring Guyana, not Venezuela.
Analysts say that Venezuela’s autocratic president, Nicolás Maduro, is seeking to legitimize his rule abroad and also within his deeply dissatisfied nation, where the military’s loyalty is reportedly fraying. Guyana’s national security minister has said that border security was tightened and that the authorities would arrest any Guyanese person supporting the election.
Context: Claims to the Essequibo region are deeply ingrained among many Venezuelans who believe the land was historically theirs under Spanish colonial rule. But most people who live in Essequibo speak English, identify culturally as Guyanese and say they want to remain part of Guyana.
MORE TOP NEWS
When Muhammad Ali knocked down Sonny Liston on May 25, 1965, a photographer named Neil Leifer was ringside. Decades later, the image he captured — of Ali standing, scowling above Liston — is considered by many to be the greatest sports photo ever made.
Leifer was just 22 when he took the picture. Now 82, he spoke with us about how the picture took on a life of its own. Read the interview.
Lives lived: Nino Benvenuti, an Italian boxer who won the welterweight title at the 1960 Rome Olympics, died at 87.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
The artistic eras of Mexico City
Mexico City is the largest metropolis in North America, and has been stratified with seven centuries of cultural history. Our critic Jason Farago points out five sites, some famous and some fairly obscure, that begin to map the city’s inexhaustible cultural prosperity.
Jason’s list includes a black-and-white whale inside a stupefying library, the extravagant beauty in one of the city’s underrated museums and a pseudo-Indigenous fortress. See his choices here.
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — Justin
Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
