First Thing: New Trump tariffs come into force against dozens of countries

Latest wave of US levies has left governments around the world racing to try to reach deals to avoid job losses. Plus, former Superman actor Dean Cain says he is becoming an Ice agent

Good morning.

Dozens of countries have been hit with higher taxes on their exports to the US after Donald Trump’s latest wave of tariffs came into effect on Thursday morning.

The levies announced by the White House a week ago came into force at a minute past midnight Washington time on Thursday, shortly after Trump claimed on social media that the tariffs would send billions of dollars into US government coffers. The rates, which range from 41% for war-torn Syria to 10% for the UK, are being levied in addition to the usual tariffs applying to US imports.

Since last week’s announcement, governments around the world have been scrambling to try to make deals to avert tariffs they fear could scare off investors and lead to job losses. Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, said it expected its operating profits to drop by 16% in its financial year to March 2026 due to the levies.

• Has anyone been spared from double tariffs? The EU is the only trading partner whose baseline rate – fixed at 15% after a deal – will include previous tariffs.

Trump could meet Putin for Ukraine war talks ‘as soon as next week’

Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine war as early as next week, White House officials have said, although senior aides warned that significant “impediments” remained to securing a ceasefire.

Asked late on Wednesday when he would meet the leaders of Ukraine and Russia, the US president told reporters at the White House: “There’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon.” But he added that there was no specific advancement leading to talk of a meeting.

The New York Times and CNN, citing sources familiar with the plan, reported that Trump planned to meet Putin as soon as next week. Trump reportedly then wants a three-way meeting with the Russian leader and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

• When did the US and Russian leadership last meet? In June 2021, in a Geneva meeting between the then president, Joe Biden, and Putin.

Assault on Sudan’s Zamzam refugee camp may have killed more than 1,500 civilians

More than 1,500 civilians may have been killed in an attack on Sudan’s largest refugee camp in April, in what would be the second-biggest war crime of the country’s devastating civil war.

A Guardian investigation into the 72-hour attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on North Darfur’s Zamzam camp discovered repeated testimonies of mass executions and abductions. Hundreds of civilians remain unaccounted for in the attack. The war between the Arab-led RSF and the Sudanese military, which has been raging since April 2023, has been characterised by repeated atrocities.

• How has the number been arrived at? A committee created to investigate the death toll has so far counted more than 1,500 killed in the attack, in which it was previously believed that 400 non-Arab civilians had been killed.

In other news …

• The former Superman actor Dean Cain has said he has enlisted to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in support of Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

• JD Vance’s team raised the water level of a lake in Ohio to accommodate the vice-president’s recent boating vacation with his family, the Guardian can reveal.

• US police have charged a British man with the attempted murder of his daughter-in-law after he allegedly tried to drown her in a swimming pool in Florida.

Stat of the day: Only 1.5% of Gaza farmland left for starving Palestinians due to Israel’s war, UN says

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has left starving Palestinians with just 1.5% of farmland that is accessible and able to be cultivated, figures from the UN show. This has fallen from 4% in April, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), indicating that Israel has continued to target Palestinian croplands since it began its total blockade in early March, while Gaza is now on the brink of a “full-scale famine”, the FAO director general said.

Don’t miss this: Catastrophe! Heroism! Paranoia! The dangerous romance of survivalist stories

From Silicon Valley billionaires to posters on Reddit’s r/collapse forum, survivalism, or prepping, is undeniably having a moment. The term “survivalist” goes back to a 1975 novel by the same name – but authors have been telling the stories of those who persist against the odds for centuries. “The difference between a survivor and a survivalist is that one is a temporary condition and the other a permanent identity,” writes Dorian Lynskey as he charts their depiction in culture.

Climate check: What recreating Scott’s Antarctic trip reveals about our seas today

In January, scientists traced the route charted by Carsten Borchgrevink’s Southern Cross, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Discovery and Capt Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition between 1898 and 1913. Aiming to measure how global heating is affecting the marine life in the world’s southernmost waters, their findings contained a mix of “sweet and sour”, the lead oceanographer said.

While they recorded “crazy levels” of wildlife, including 150 whales, in the world’s only area largely untouched by plastic pollution and the fishing industry, planetary heating means waters are increasingly acidic. As a result, the sea urchins they collected were fragile and crumbled easily – a worrying indication for marine life.

Last Thing: Rugby player selected to play for All Blacks has passport eaten by dog

Leroy Carter was happily surprised to get the news that he had been selected for the All Blacks squad to play in Argentina in the opening rounds of the Rugby Championship. But soon after, he made a less-than-ideal discovery: his dog had eaten his passport. Luckily, he seems to have sorted out an emergency one and kept a cool head: “I thought it would happen to me, something like that, so no point getting stressed about it.”

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