Global News Podcast - EU and Mexico hit back at Trump's tariff threat

Episode Date: July 13, 2025

The EU and Mexico criticise Donald Trump after he says he will impose 30% tariffs on their exports to the US. Also: why Nicaragua is replacing pavements with concrete, and the British habit of saying sorry.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. deal ratings and price history. So you know a great deal when you see one. That's cargurus.ca. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Julia McFarlane and in the early hours of Sunday the 13th of July, these are our main stories. The European Union and Mexico have slammed President Trump's plan to impose 30 percent tariffs on their exports to the US from the beginning of August if trading deals can't be made in time. A hospital in southern Gaza says 24 Palestinians were killed near an aid distribution site on Friday. Witnesses say Israeli troops fired on people trying to get food. Meanwhile, the

family of a Palestinian American reportedly killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank are calling on the US State Department to investigate his death. Also in this podcast. Somebody calculated that in the UK we say sorry 368 million times a day and it's not the same in other languages than other parts of the world. Why are Brits always saying sorry? The US president has said the EU and Mexico will face a 30% tariff starting next month,

ramping up pressure for deals in his trade wars. Donald Trump said both sets of tariffs would come into effect on the 1st of August, blaming the US trade deficit with the EU and Mexico's role in the flow of illicit drugs into the US. The EU has been a frequent target of Trump's criticism. Here he is speaking to the World Economic Forum back in January. From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly. They have a large tax that we know about and a bad tax and it's a very substantial one. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, warned that the new tariff would hurt businesses on both sides of

the Atlantic and the French president Emmanuel Macron expressed his very strong disapproval of the announcement. Jacob Kierkegaard is an analyst at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. What it shows that Donald Trump thinks he can maybe get a deal by threatening to escalate but I think it will backfire. I think what he has signaled to the EU is that all the efforts that the European Commission has made to try to accommodate, try to negotiate a deal, meant nothing for Trump. He threatened the EU 30 percent. He threatened Japan, South Korea with 25. Mexico also got 30% threat today. So it basically means that all our efforts to try to find a deal seemingly has meant

nothing for Trump. Well, for more on President Trump's announcement and the fallout, here's the BBC's Arunadeh Mukherjee in Washington with this analysis. The US has always maintained when it comes to this issue and Donald Trump's administration that for years the European Union's trade relationship with the US has, according to him, been unfair. Earlier on, Donald Trump had threatened 20% tariffs and then when he expressed some sort of dissatisfaction and disappointment, he even threatened to increase that to 50%, after which there was a phone conversation between President Trump as well as the European Union Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, after

which they said that, well, we are looking to have positive dialogue, we're looking for progress, so that remain there. But now, given that it's been a while, it seems that this is the last bit of warning coming in from the US. The European Union has responded, clearly suggesting that these talks are not going to be easy and it's not going to be a complete walk over hinting at possibly retaliatory tariffs. Preempting that, Donald Trump has already said that if the European Union was to do that then he would raise the tariffs to 30% plus whatever tariffs these countries levy on them.

Clearly we're seeing a little bit of brinkmanship on both sides. If neither side backs down, we're likely to see huge economic turmoil. That's exactly what Ursula von der Leyen in her response had also said. We saw the kind of turmoil that was witness in the markets and upheaval and uncertainty when the threat of tariffs have been looming. So certainly this is going to be very difficult. And given the fact, especially and I'm talking in the context of the relations between European Union and the U.S., it's very important because the EU is the single biggest trading partner for the U.S. If you just go by official figures from the U.S. government data, last year the

European Union exported goods worth over $600 billion, imported goods worth over $370 billion, which is why it would have been very critical for both sides to actually come to an agreement. It would have been a milestone agreement given these kind of figures, but it still remains elusive. And clearly, while the US is talking tough, it's also very clear that other countries are continuing to play hardball as well. And Arunade, it's not just the EU that has seen these tariffs announced. Also, Mexico, what's the reaction been from there? So tough talk there as well. Donald Trump essentially talking about increasing tariffs, but also talking about some other

issues which he has spoken about in the past as well, where he's essentially talking about how Mexico has helped secure the border, but he seems to suggest that they haven't done enough to stop the flow of the drug fentanyl and the cartels. So his point is that if Mexico was to act on these challenges, then they could go ahead and make quote adjustments to this letter, but the threat of tariffs to Mexico also remain. Mexico on its part is saying that look, we're already in negotiations and the room now from today to the first of August is all we have that final stretch to see if either Mexico or the 27 nation block of the European Union are able to hammer something out.

Arunadeh Mukherjee in Washington. The Nasser hospital in southern Gaza has confirmed that 24 people have been killed near an aid distribution site on Saturday. Palestinians who were present say Israeli troops opened fire as people were trying to access food. The Israeli military denied causing casualties but said that troops had fired warning shots to disperse Palestinians they believed were a threat. Meanwhile, the family of a Palestinian American man who was beaten to death by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday are calling on the US State Department to investigate

his death. The man, who is from Florida, was visiting relatives when he was killed. Abdul Samad Abdul Aziz lives near where the attack happened. Settlers took control of land belonging to the village of Al-Mazra Al-Sharkia near the town of Sinjal. When the local residents went to their farms and homes to see what had happened, suddenly settlers arrived and sprayed them with pepper spray and started beating them with sticks. One young man was killed and approximately 30 others were injured. The young man was killed and approximately 30 others were injured. The young man was injured and remained so for four hours.

The army prevented us from reaching him and did not allow us to take him away. When we finally managed to reach him, he was taking his last breath. Tahani Mustapha is a senior analyst on Palestine for the International Crisis Group. Paul Henley asked her about the town of Sinjil, where the man died. Sinjil is in the north of the province of Ramallah, and it's a place that's been subject to constant settler attacks well before the 7th of October. It's one of many where many of its residents are based in the US. Many of them hold US citizenship.

And Sinjil is one of the towns that is very much on the front line when it comes to settlements, especially some of the most racist and far right extremist settlements and settlers. That kind of leaves a lot of its residents exposed within areas A and B, which are very much subject to Israeli security control, which again also adds to the vulnerability of the town where the Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction to protect its own citizens. It's one of the towns that have been very much sort of fenced in by the Israeli security establishment, which has made it even more vulnerable when settler hordes come in because they literally have nowhere to flee.

All exit and entry points are closed off. The town itself is completely engaged. What does that mean, fenced in? There's literally a high fence around it. That's right. The Israeli forces have been, since the end of January, building a wired fence literally around the entire town. And Sinjil isn't the only town. You're talking about other towns that have also been subject to some of the worst settler violence, including Turma Sayyya, which before the 7th of October, if some of your audience recall, when we were seeing what by all accounts the UN and other international organisations were describing as pogroms in the West Bank by settlers on

Palestinian towns like Hawara, Turma Sayyya, Sindjl is one of those neighbouring towns to Turma Sayyya. And the fences are built by the IDF, the Israeli army. Is there a heavy presence of the Israeli army there too? There definitely is a heavy IDF presence, but that really does nothing if we're talking about ensuring any kind of sense of security for Palestinian residents in these areas. Why not? They're there to protect the Palestinians.

Why not? What are you hearing about what the Israeli army does when there is an attack on Palestinian citizens? Well, often the Israeli army is very much complicit in these attacks, either directly by closing off the exit and entry points of these towns, which means that again the residents have nowhere to escape to when settler hordes come in. They very much keep a very close eye on any potential retaliation against settlers from Palestinians. And as soon as they see Palestinians responding in any kind of way, then often they will be the first to either arrest or shoot or physically attack. Sometimes a lot of these Palestinian residences that do try and either protect their property or

engage with the settlers themselves, often they'll make arrests of Palestinian residents. They're very, very unlikely to try and prosecute many of these settlers. They're very unlikely to even open up an investigation. In many cases, many of these settlers are repeat offenders. They are very well known to the IDF establishment, and yet they continue to allow them to go into these towns and harass local residences. And it's usually the IDF that will be the first to prevent first responders from attending to the scene. I mean, just

this year alone, the World Health Organization has recorded something like 108 attacks on health workers trying to access those during either Israeli security operations or in the middle of settler attacks. And when you talk about Palestinians defending their territory, what are they doing? Because IDF accounts point to Palestinians violently attacking Israeli settlers. We have to bear in mind that many of these Palestinian towns are not armed. Most settlers are very well armed. That's been a deliberate government policy, especially since the 7th of October, where you've had far-right ministers arming their settler communities to re-establish Israel's sense of security that it felt it lost after the 7th of October, where you've had far-right ministers arming their settler communities to reestablish Israel's sense of security that it felt it lost after

the 7th of October. Tahani Mustafa. The Israeli military said in a statement to the BBC that terrorists hurled rocks at Israeli civilians adjacent to Sinjil, lightly injuring two of them. It said a violent confrontation had developed between Israelis and Palestinians leading to soldiers and police being dispatched in response using riot dispersal means. The idea goes on to say that the security agency and police are looking into the reports of deaths and injuries. Now a preliminary report into the Air India crash that killed 260 people in June has been described as deeply concerning by the families of those on board. The initial findings suggest there may have been issues with the plane's two fuel switches which were

believed to have been in the cutoff position moments before the plane crashed. The report also highlights audio recordings from the cockpit which suggests confusion between the two pilots over what was happening on board. In the wake of the report, some of the grieving families have expressed a lack of trust in the investigation and feel that it has left them with more questions than answers. Samir Rafiq lost his cousin Faisan in the crash. I've just read the whole report. The report doesn't make any sense to me. Until and unless the government don't provide the cockpit recording to us, I'm not going to believe. Rhea's grandmother was another passenger on the Air India plane.

I need to know whether this was a gap in training with the pilots potentially? Is this something that Air India needs to have buttoned up on? Or is this actually more of a technical fault? I mean, sadly, it doesn't change the outcome of what's happened. My grandma still wasn't here today. For me and my sister, we hadn't had the chance to see her in 10 years. So this was the chance to reconnect with her. And knowing that we won't be able to see her again, it is really tough. Responding to the report, India's aviation minister, Kinjara Puneidu, urged caution until the full investigation has concluded. Justice has to be done. So I know it is a very difficult time for the family members. But from our side, whatever best we can do from the ministry, we are trying to assist in that.

I have to appreciate all the efforts the pilots and the crew in this country are putting into the aviation. They are the backbone of this civil aviation. So let's not jump to any conclusions at this stage. Let us wait for the final report. A spokesperson for Air India says the airline continues to fully cooperate with authorities as the investigation progresses. But Professor Graham Braithwaite, the director of aerospace and aviation at Cranfield University told us that families may be facing a long wait for answers. So the preliminary report is an obligation at 30 days for any state investigating an aircraft accident and it helps to rule a few things out. So some of the early theories

we heard people talking about have been ruled out by this stage and the focus of the investigation are on these fuel switches. Now it still opens or leaves open lots of possibilities for the investigators to go and analyse the evidence on and that might be quite difficult. They talk very carefully about transitioning from the on position to the off position in effect. They don't actually say that the crew did it. It may have been some other reason that they need to look at but that's clearly the area of focus and that's where the investigation will go over the next few months. And I think in an event like this, you often hear commentators rule things out without evidence and actually want the investigators to be led by evidence and then try and understand why. And in this case,

if we do look at something that might involve a human action, then we've only really got what was said and the actions. What we haven't got is what people were thinking or what they understood about a situation and trying to piece that together or at least develop a picture from it will take a long time. Professor Graham Braithwaite. Now contrary to the lyrics of the Elton John song, If You're British, sorry is probably not the hardest word. According to a survey for language learning website Babbel, Brits have at least 15 different uses of the word and only one of them actually expresses real regret. Linguists say it can cause confusion for tourists or foreigners who will usually take the word

literally as an apology rather than understanding the full range of possible meanings, like saying sorry when you're asking someone to repeat themselves. Tony Thorne is director of the Slang and New Language Archive at King's College London. Caroline Wyatt asked him why the word is so commonly used here. Somebody calculated that in the UK we say sorry 368 million times a day, and it's not the same in other languages and other parts of the world. First of all, it's increased in use tremendously over time. For example, Chaucer only used the word sorry 18 times, Shakespeare 90 times.

But nowadays in spoken English, most people apparently say it a minimum of nine times a day. So it's become much, much more common over time. And although societies change tremendously, we're much more brash now. We're probably much more in your face. We're probably less reticent. We don't have deference in the same way. But we're living in the UK in a very

complex society, lots and lots of social differences, differences in wealth, regional differences, and I think this makes people unsure about their identity. And one way of defending yourself, and the simplest way, is just to keep saying sorry, and that's what everybody does. You know, the Germans, the Finns, the Slovenians, the Dutch, and the Swiss all use our word. They borrowed our word, sorry, because it's so useful and it's fairly short. The Scots and Irish do use it a lot, a lot more than the equivalent words in French or German, for example. Je m'excuse, je suis désolé in French. It's a mouthful and they don't use it very often. The only people

in Europe who apologise a lot are the Czechs and they have a word prominté, which means sorry, which they do use a lot, but nothing like as often as we use the word sorry. How hard is it for, say, tourists or foreigners in the UK to understand what we actually mean? I think it's very tough and there's lots of testaments by people who've come to live here that they really found it difficult to work out what it meant and why they heard it all the time. And I think teachers, teachers of English to foreigners have to really help their students to understand that the word has multiple uses, interrupting, indicating you didn't hear something,

requesting repetition, disagreeing, showing regret. When you bump into someone, you apologize, even though they bumped into you. This is really quite complex for people from other languages and other backgrounds. I have been known to apologize to bits of furniture I bump into. There we go, Toni Thorne. Still to come. Once you have cancer it's not like it just goes away. A lot of people need this compensation just to get back up on their feet.

Seven decades after their city became a dumping ground for atomic bomb waste, we hear from St. Louis residents hoping for justice. To Nicaragua now, where back in 2018 protests against President Daniel Ortega ended in the deaths of more than 300 people as the security forces cracked down on the opposition. Now to quell further protests, the government has been replacing the pavement with concrete. I found out why from our Latin America editor, Leonardo Roscia. What is happening is that they are changing the paving stones, replacing them with concrete, hydraulic concrete, which is very durable, very strong,

and in theory is a good thing for the community. But what people noticed is that the areas that are being targeted, let's put it that way, are areas that were the hotspots of the protests in 2018 against Daniela Ortega. Many of these areas included are also indigenous communities and people say we're not being fooled. What they're doing here is basically preventing any possible barricades because what they did at the time and the pictures went around the world is they took those paving stones and blocked roads for weeks, months, about two months before the government intervened. And those protests started back in 2018. Why were the protesters so angry with the government?

Well it started with a minor protest against pension cuts by this left-wing government, they were basically doing what the IMF had asked them to do. And some students joined, that was on a Wednesday or Thursday, and by the weekend it was a huge protest. President Daniel Ortega is a former Marxist rebel, and he'd been in power for a long time, and people saying he's a dictator, he should go and just went out of control from there. In those protests, they were repressed with violence, more than 300 people were killed and since then hundreds of people have been arrested, expelled.

Many NGOs, including religious NGOs, have been expelled from Nicaragua and the government said basically we're not going to be taken by surprise again. They closed universities, they closed media companies and they took control of the situation and President Ortega has been in power now for 18 years and he doesn't look like he's going anytime soon. Leonardo Rosso reporting. To the US state of Missouri and the end of a seven-decade battle for justice for people in the city of St. Louis. Over the years, many residents have become seriously ill because of exposure to radiation as uranium was refined there and used to develop the atomic bomb back in the 1940s.

Well, now the city has been included in an expanded compensation scheme for people with illnesses tied to US nuclear programmes. It was signed into law by President Trump last week. Our reporter Sophie Williams has been to St. Louis. A great towering mushroom effect could be seen going higher and higher and reaching into the stratosphere. For people who live in a St. Louis suburb, the atomic bomb and its connection to the city has a much more sinister reality. For years residents of Florissant played in a nearby creek, fishing in its waters and eating berries from the side of the river. But what

they didn't know was that the area had been contaminated by nuclear waste. Nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project in the 1940s wound up in a waterway that snakes through St. Louis. Uranium was dumped nearby to the creek and was allowed to seep into the area. Decades later, residents say they have developed rare cancers and other illnesses from exposure to the material. Kim Vizentine is one person who has been affected. I had a son that was born with cancer and then many years later reconnected with several friends and we found out that we were all very sick or our loved ones were sick with cancers. I mean on my street alone, friend-wise, on a street of 20 houses, probably half of them have cancers.

Experts say they can't necessarily pin down the specific cause of the disease in a patient, but federal investigators have acknowledged an increased cancer risk for people who lived and played near the creek between the 1960s and 1990s. Dr. Gautam Agrawal is a cancer surgeon in St Louis. Over the last 10 years of practice I've taken care of sometimes husband and wife for leg cancer, which is obviously very odd. And as time went on most of those people were coming from that particular area. Are we ready?

We're ready! Are you ready? Yeah! We're ready! Yeah! Now that President Trump has signed the bill into law, there is hope on the horizon for Are you ready? Yeah. Are you ready? Yeah. Are you ready? Yeah. Now that President Trump has signed the bill into law, there is hope on the horizon for

locals who have long campaigned for action to be taken. Under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RICA, those who have lived in the affected area for a specific amount of time and have developed one of 21 types of cancers are eligible for a one-off payment of $50,000 or can choose to be reimbursed for medical expenses. Those who have lost loved ones can also apply for compensation. This week, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley held a celebration event to mark Rika's passing. For these communities, it represents decades of advocacy, it represents decades of work. He was joined by members of the community, including Karen Nickell, co-founder of the

group Just Moms St. Louis. They have been campaigning to be included in RECA and for a clean-up of the area for over a decade. So this is going to help a lot of people. It's going to save lives. It's going to help people that have gone through cancer in the past. Once you have cancer, it's not like it just goes away. A lot of people need this compensation just to get back up on their feet or to help with medical bills. Now with RECA passed, more people are coming forward claiming they could also have fallen sick from the radiation. But for campaigners, the work doesn't stop. They're now working

to help people apply for compensation. But with the scheme still in its early days, it's unclear yet how long it could take. Sophie Williams reporting from St. Louis in Missouri. The Italian city of Lucca in the region of Tuscany is cracking down on one of the more familiar and often frustrating sites in tourist hotspots. Restaurant staff trying to lure passers-by in with menus and persistent chatter. The city says the practice has become too aggressive and is now banning it in its historic centre.

And as towns across Italy grapple with the pressure of mass tourism, the BBC's Carla Conti explains why this specific practice has become so controversial. Well it really comes down to how the practice has evolved. The buttadentro, which literally means throwers in in Italian, started off as a a lighthearted, if pushy, way to entice tourists to come into restaurants. But over time, and especially in beautiful, historic places like Lucas Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, it's morphed into something far more invasive and often quite aggressive. And it's something I'm sure our listeners will recognize from their

holidays. You have stuff stationed outside with menus in hand, eagerly scouring the crowds and waiting to make eye contact with a tourist so they can pressure them into having something to eat, even if they're just trying to stroll and take in the town. And for a city such as Luka, which is known for its Renaissance walls and this tranquil historic charm. That kind of hustle feels very out of place and the authorities and indeed many residents feel that it undermines the city's identity and it disrupts both locals and visitors trying to enjoy the space freely. So Carla, what do these new rules say and how will they be enforced? Well, the rules are pretty tough actually. They ban any form of direct promotion outside of restaurants in Lucas' historic centre.

So no more staff approaching people on the street. And enforcement here is key. The local police and other authorities will carry out checks and those who break the rules will face steep fines and in some cases they will be more than $800. And if a business repeatedly flouts the ban, it could lose its license to use public space and in the worst cases be shut down for up to three days. And what's striking here is that even Luca's restaurant association is

back to the move. They see it as a way to uphold the city's image and ensure that hospitality is based on quality rather than pressure tactics. And this ties into much broader concern in Italy about over-tourism. Yeah, that's right, Alex. Luca is very much part of a growing trend. So across Italy, cities that heavily rely on tourism have been grappling with how to make it more sustainable. And last year, for example, Venice became the first major tourist city in the world to introduce an entry fee. So day trippers now have to pay as much as $12 if they want to visit during peak periods.

Then there's Florence, which has been cracking down on short-term rentals and its historic centre in an effort to protect housing for residents. And in the Cinque Terre, which is a string of five fishing villages along Italy's northwest coast, visitors must now pay to walk along the most famous coastal path, and it's only open in one direction to ease congestion. All these may seem like small measures, but collectively they reflect a deeper shift in that Italian cities want to preserve the quality of life for locals and make tourism feel less invasive, and Lucas Ben on the Buta Dentro, these restaurant touts fits neatly into the philosophy. Carla Conti speaking to Alex Ritzen.

And finally, a survival story in the Australian outback. A German backpacker has been rescued 12 days after getting lost. 26-year-old Carolina Vilga was found suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. Her vehicle had broken down in an area of the northeast Wheatbelt region of Western Australia and she had started walking from there. Terry Egan reports. Carolina Vilga had been touring Australia for the last two years. At the end of June, though, she went missing. She was last seen at a store in the little town of Beacon, more than 300 kilometres east of Perth, though she didn't stay there long, and then appears to have got lost, having

to survive for twelve days. The area is outback country, with large rocky outcrops. Although there are tracks, it's easy to become disorientated and, as the days mounted, fears over Carolina's life led to a massive rescue effort with members of the community helping out. Finally, her van was found, far from the dirt tracks in the Caroon Hill area. Having apparently suffered mechanical failure it was bogged down and there were signs she'd tried to dig it out. Here's Police Inspector Martin Glynn. The vehicle was bogged and was subject to extensive efforts by her to recover the vehicle. She'd used max tracks and pieces of wood to try to free the vehicle from its location. Soon after that, Carolina was spotted by a member of the public limping along a bush track at the

edge of the Coroon Hill Nature Reserve. But in a fragile condition and with significant minor injuries, not least from mosquitoes by which she was ravaged, she's now safe and is being treated in Perth. A great outcome then, but the rescue teams say she's likely to have suffered more than they know about, having to drink water from puddles and sleep in caves, and is sure to have a fascinating story to tell. Terri Egan reporting. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or any of the topics covered in it, you can

send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on x at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag global news pod. This edition was mixed by Jack Graysmark and the producers were Alison Davis and Stephanie Zachrisson. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Julia McFarlane. Until next time, goodbye.