Syracuse

Trump tariffs & viral penguins, Le Pen found guilty

Gavin LEE | Paul MOREIRA | Anne BAGAMERY | Steven ERLANGER | Eric RANDOLPH

Edité par France 24 - 2025

There's no denying the magnitude of a move that is causing international panic and a slump in the global stock markets. Any company making products outside of the US will now have to pay increased costs to export them – although notably, that doesn't include Russia. Western analysts say the maths behind the tariffs all seem a bit totted up on the "back of a fag packet". Trump claims it's about fairness for Uncle Sam, and is warning others not to strike back.

Meanwhile, it's been a surprising week in French politics. A criminal court in Paris has ruled Marine Le Pen ineligible to run for public office for the next five years, effective immediately, after being found guilty of embezzling €4 million of EU Parliament funds. The far-right opposition figurehead was, until now, the front runner in France's 2027’s presidential elections. "Unbelievable", Le Pen uttered, as she stormed out of court before the judge had even finished reading the sentence. With her political dreams upended, and now forced to wear an electronic tag for the next two years, her anger was visible on Monday night primetime television.

It's also been a week that’s seen Hungary roll out the red carpet for a leader wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu chanced his first European trip since being indicted in November, in the knowledge that his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban was withdrawing from the ICC and wouldn't be obliged to arrest him on arrival.

And it's been a week that’s seen a crisis on top of a crisis in Myanmar. The nation is suffering from the effects of the biggest earthquake in a century, and the military regime is using the aftermath of the natural disaster for military advantage: bombing rebel-held areas, according to the UN, as well as reportedly blocking the flow of humanitarian aid and firing on a Chinese Red Cross convoy that was trying to help victims of the earthquake. The overall death toll has now reached more than 3,000.

Produced by Ilayda Habib, Aurore Laborie and Alessandro Xenos. 

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