February 5, 2025

Good morning. We’re covering China’s retaliatory tariffs and a campus shooting in Sweden.

Plus, the women reinventing Sri Lankan politics.

Yangshan Port in Shanghai. The New York Times

Beijing was swift to retaliate after Trump’s tariffs

China struck back yesterday against President Trump’s 10 percent tariffs on all Chinese products with tariffs of its own on U.S. coal and gas as well as restrictions on exports of some minerals.

China’s tariffs will not take effect until Feb. 10, according to the Chinese government, meaning there is still some time for negotiations. The White House press secretary said that a call between Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, was being scheduled and would happen very soon. Here’s the latest.

Details: China’s tariffs would cover about $20 billion of U.S. exports, compared with Trump’s tariffs on more than $450 billion of Chinese goods, economists estimated. Chinese authorities also started an antitrust investigation into Google.

Context: As Trump alienates allies and partners with the threat of tariffs, his actions give Beijing an opening to strengthen its global standing.

Catch up: The leaders of Canada and Mexico each negotiated a 30-day delay in U.S. tariffs. Our reporters looked at the different routes they took to arrive at the same outcome.

More on Trump Employees of the U.S. foreign aid agency, who were locked out of their offices for a second day, braced for potential job cuts. Trump signed an executive order calling for a review of the U.S. funding of the U.N., and withdrew from the Human Rights Council and UNRWA, the agency that supports Palestinians. The nominations of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence both advanced to the Senate for a vote. Elon Musk is storming through government agencies in what has been an extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual. The U.S. plans to begin flying migrants in military planes to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay. F.B.I. agents filed lawsuits seeking to prevent the Trump administration from disclosing the names of staff who investigated the Jan. 6 riot. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, warned that “a lot is at stake for both sides” in a possible trade war between the U.S. and Europe. Greenland’s Parliament banned foreign political funding in response to Trump’s stated intentions to acquire the country. Trump has left virtually no corner of Washington untouched in his effort to tear down the federal government and refashion it to his liking.

President Trump spoke to reporters at the White House just before the Israeli prime minister’s arrival.  Eric Lee/The New York Times

Trump was set to host Netanyahu in Washington

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was set yesterday to become the first foreign leader to hold an in-person meeting with President Trump at the White House since his return to power.

The meeting was expected to focus on negotiations for the second phase of the cease-fire in Gaza, Iran’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon, arms shipments and a possible deal with Saudi Arabia. Follow our live coverage here.

Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Trump said that Palestinians had no choice but to leave Gaza after the devastation wrought by Israel’s war with Hamas. He said he wanted Egypt and Jordan to take them in.

West Bank violence: Two Israeli soldiers were killed in a shooting attack in the northern West Bank as Israel pressed ahead with a military operation there.

The scene of the shooting in Orebro, Sweden, yesterday. Kicki Nilsson/EPA, via Shutterstock

A shooting in Sweden left 10 dead

At least 10 people were killed and a number of others were injured yesterday in a shooting at a center for adult education in Orebro, Sweden, the authorities said. The suspect, who was not immediately identified, was among the dead.

“We have seen a brutal act of violence,” Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said in a televised address. “This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history.”

Context: Shootings are rare in Swedish schools, but the country has been grappling with a steady surge in gun violence.