Britain’s government is hoping to reach a last-minute post-Brexit trade agreement with Washington to avoid — or at least mitigate — more tariffs set to be announced on Wednesday by US President Donald Trump. – Current position? -Britain has set out to strike a trade deal with the United States since departing the European Union at the start of the decade, but had been unsuccessful under the previous Conservative government.Prime Minister Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour party that won power in July, visited Washington at the end of February and came away hopeful an accord could be reached.Trump himself held out the prospect of a “great” deal that could avoid tariffs on Britain, hailing Starmer as a tough negotiator.Talks have continued, with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds recently visiting Washington, while Starmer and Trump took up the baton in a phone call earlier this week.It is thought that the UK government wants to agree some kind of trade deal ahead of April 2 — termed “Liberation Day” by Trump, when he is set to unveil supposedly “reciprocal” tariffs, tailored to different trading partners.It would follow Trump’s announcement this week of imposing steep tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts, vowing retaliation as trade tensions intensify and price hikes appear on the horizon.”We’re engaged in discussions with the United States about mitigating the impact of tariffs,” Starmer said heading into the weekend.Finance minister Rachel Reeves on Thursday said Britain would not seek to “escalate” trade wars, in contrast to strong comments by other major economic powers that hinted at retaliation in response to the auto-sector tariffs.- What kind of deal? -Downing Street has described a potential agreement as an “economic prosperity deal”, indicating it will fall short of a free trade deal ultimately sought by London.As it stands, the United States is the UK’s single largest country trading partner.”Some type of arrangement that might let the UK escape some tariffs is possible but it would not be a full-scale trade deal,” Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London, told AFP.”Brexit is a double edged sword — it gives us more flexibility and we can negotiate with a view to our own interests. “But equally, it means we have less weight than as part of the EU and moreover we cannot afford to agree to anything that complicates our trading relationship with the EU,” Portes added.- What could the UK concede? -UK media has reported that London may scrap a tax on tech giants to avert US tariffs under Trump and clear a pathway to a trade deal.Starmer in response stressed that “in the end, our national interest has to come first, which means all options are on the table”.His spokesman added that the UK will “make sure that businesses pay their fair share of tax, including businesses in the digital sector”.The digital tax is currently worth about £800 million ($1 billion) annually to the UK Treasury.Reynolds conceded that the digital tax is not “something that can never change or we can never have a conversation about”.Portes, along with David Henig, director of the UK Trade Policy Project, pointed to the risk of altering Britain’s tax policy in return for a promise from Trump over tariff exemptions.”If Trump keeps his word and the UK gains significant benefits as a result, then eliminating a tax could be a good deal,” Henig told AFP. “That, however, is quite a gamble.”

Skygazers across a broad swathe of the Northern Hemisphere will have a chance to see the Moon take a bite out of the Sun on Saturday when a partial solar eclipse sweeps from eastern Canada to Siberia.The partial eclipse, which is the first of the year and the 17th this century, will last around four hours from 0850 GMT to 1243 GMT. Curious observers making sure to protect their eyes might be able to see the celestial show in most of Europe, as well as in some areas of northeastern North America and northwest Africa.Eclipses occur when the Sun, Moon and Earth all line up. When they perfectly align for a total solar eclipse, the Moon fully blots out the Sun’s disc, creating an eerie twilight here on Earth.But that will not happen during Saturday’s partial eclipse, which will instead turn the Sun into a crescent. “The alignment is not perfect enough for the cone of shadow to touch the Earth’s surface,” Paris Observatory astronomer Florent Deleflie told AFP.Because that shadow will “remain in space, there will not be a total eclipse anywhere” on Earth, he said.At most, the Moon will cover around 90 percent of the Sun’s disc. The best view will be from northeastern Canada and Greenland at the peak time of 1047 GMT.- Beware eye damage -It will be less spectacular in other areas. In France, for example, between 10 to 30 percent of the Sun’s disc will be obscured, depending on the region. Ireland will see around 40 percent, according to Sophie Murray of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. However rain is forecast.These smaller percentages of eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye.However, if the sky is clear, skygazers will be able to watch the eclipse through special viewers — as long as they take precautions.Looking straight at the Sun — during an eclipse or otherwise — can lead to irreversible vision loss.Skygazers are advised to buy eclipse-viewing glasses and ensure they are in good condition.Even a slight defect or “microscopic hole” can cause eye damage, Deleflie warned.Or, people could watch the eclipse at a local astronomy observation centre where “you can safely verify the precision of celestial mechanics and marvel at interesting details on the Sun’s surface, such as sunspots”, Deleflie said.Murray offered another option.”You can make a simple pinhole projector by poking a small hole in a piece of paper or cardboard and letting sunlight pass through it onto the ground or another surface, where you’ll see a small, inverted image of the eclipsed Sun,” she said.The partial eclipse will not turn up on a smartphone camera without a suitable filter, Deleflie added.The latest celestial show comes two weeks after skygazers across much of the world marvelled at a rare total lunar eclipse, dubbed a “Blood Moon”.These events often happen after each other because the Moon has “completed a half-circle around the Earth in the meantime, reversing the configuration”, Deleflie explained.A greater spectacle is expected on August 12, 2026, when a total solar eclipse will be visible in Iceland, northern Spain and parts of Portugal.More than 90 percent of the Sun will also be obscured in areas of Europe including Britain, France and Italy.It will be the first total solar eclipse since one swept across North America in April 2024.

Two leading US law firms sued the administration of President Donald Trump on Friday after he stripped security clearances from their attorneys and blocked them from doing business with the government.Jenner & Block and WilmerHale filed separate lawsuits after Trump signed executive orders this week sanctioning the firms.In two discrete rulings by US federal judges Friday evening, both were awarded temporary restraining orders blocking Trump’s executive orders from taking effect pending further review.Since taking office, the Republican president has moved to settle scores with the law firms that had represented his political foes in the past or helped bring him to court on civil or criminal charges.Trump has signed executive orders targeting five so-called “Big Law” firms so far. Two other firms have cut deals with the president.Trump signed an executive order on Thursday sanctioning WilmerHale, the former law firm of Robert Mueller, the special counsel who investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.On Tuesday, Trump targeted Jenner & Block, which once employed a prosecutor who was a key member of Mueller’s investigative team.In both cases, Trump suspended security clearances, ordered the termination of government contracts and limited access to federal government buildings for employees of the firms.Mueller worked at WilmerHale before being appointed special counsel and rejoined after the probe’s conclusion until his retirement in 2021.In its complaint, Jenner & Block called Trump’s executive order “an unconstitutional abuse of power against lawyers, their clients and the legal system.”It is intended to hamper the ability of individuals and businesses to have the lawyers of their choice zealously represent them,” it said.”And it is intended to coerce law firms and lawyers into renouncing the Administration’s critics and ceasing certain representations adverse to the government.”Another firm targeted by Trump, Perkins Coie, has also filed suit against the administration and obtained a restraining order from a judge temporarily blocking the sanctions.Two more firms — Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps — have entered into agreements with Trump to avoid sanctions.Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps both agreed to provide pro bono legal services to “support the administration’s initiatives” — $40 million in Paul Weiss’s case and $100 million for Skadden Arps.Announcing the Skadden Arps agreement on Truth Social on Friday, Trump said the firm will provide pro bono services to assist veterans and members of law enforcement, ensure “fairness in our Justice System” and combat anti-Semitism.

Washington’s Smithsonian is a sprawling chain of museums dedicated to both celebrating and scrutinizing the American story — and the latest cultural institution targeted by President Donald Trump’s bid to quash diversity efforts.His recent executive order to excavate “divisive ideology” from the famed visitor attraction and research complex follows a wave of efforts to keep culture and history defined on his terms, including his takeover of the national capital’s prestigious performing arts venue, the Kennedy Center.And it’s got critics up in arms.”It’s a declaration of war,” said David Blight of Yale University, who leads the Organization of American Historians.”It is arrogant and appalling for them to claim they have the power and the right to say what history actually is and how it should be exhibited, written, and taught,” Blight told AFP.Trump’s latest order also says monuments to the historic Confederate rebellion, many of which were removed in recent years in the wake of anti-racism protests, might soon be restored.His order even mentioned the National Zoo — which is operated by the Smithsonian and recently welcomed two pandas from China — as potentially needing a cleanse from “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology.” And Trump says a number of Smithsonian museums, including the distinguished National Museum of African American History and Culture, espouse “corrosive ideology,” and are trying to rewrite American history in relation to issues of race and gender.Critical observers say the exact opposite is true.Margaret Huang — president of the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate — called Trump’s order “the latest attempt to erase our history” and “a blatant attempt to mask racism and white supremacy as patriotism.””Black history is US history. Women’s history is US history. This country’s history is ugly and beautiful,” Huang said.For critics like Huang and Blight, Trump’s push to tell a rose-tinted history of “American greatness” is a disservice to museum-goers in a complicated country built on values including freedom of speech — but whose history is rife with war, slavery and civil rights struggles.”What’s at stake is the way the United States officially portrays its own past, to itself, and to the world,” Blight said.- ‘Stories about ourselves’ -Trump is a 78-year-old Frank Sinatra fan with a penchant for Broadway — he’s spoken particularly fondly of the 1980s-era musical “Cats,” the fantastical tale of a dancing tribe of felines.But his brand of culture war is much bigger than personal taste: in his second term, the president appears intent on rooting out what he deems too “woke.”The executive crusade is part of a broader effort to strip American society of efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion that institutions nationwide have vied to incorporate in recent years, purging culture of anti-racism and LGBTQ+ support.Critics say Trump’s extension of his grip to the Smithsonian represents an eyebrow-raising incursion into the programming independence of the more than 175-year-old institution.Founded in the mid-19th century, the Smithsonian “has transformed along with our culture and our society,” said Robert McCoy, a history professor at Washington State University.The complex — including the zoo, 21 museums and 14 education and research centers — is approximately two-thirds federally funded, with the rest of its approximately billion-dollar-budget stemming from sources including endowments, memberships and donations.Its Board of Regents includes the vice president. But, similarly to the Kennedy Center, until now it operated largely above political lines, especially when it came to programming.- ‘Meaning and belonging’ -“It’s become more diverse. The stories it tells are more complicated. These are people who are attempting to help us broaden what it means to be an American — what it means to tell us stories about ourselves that are more accurate and include more people,” McCoy told AFP.”When you lose that, you begin to marginalize a lot of different groups.”McCoy fears the White House’s bid to clamp down on the Smithsonian’s work could prompt resignations, a concern Blight echoed: “If they stay in their jobs, they’re in effect working for an authoritarian takeover of what they do. That will not be acceptable.”Trump’s attempts at cultural dominance in federal institutions are part of a broader package of control, McCoy said, a pattern that echoes research on how authoritarian regimes seize power.”It’s not just political and economic institutions,” he said. “It’s also the institutions that provide people with a sense of meaning and belonging — that they’re American.”