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Wolfsburg (Germany) (AFP) – Veteran auto workers who spent decades at the plants of German giant Volkswagen in Wolfsburg fear the worst for their city since US President Donald Trump’s ramping up of import tariffs, sparking global market turmoil. Volkswagen, a 10-brand group which also includes Audi and Porsche as well as Seat and Skoda, sold just over one million vehicles in North America last year, 12 percent of its sales by volume.

Dundalk (Ireland) (AFP) – For an Irish whiskey producer in the town of Dundalk, near the UK border with Northern Ireland, tariffs of 20 percent on EU alcoholic drinks are an unexpected “curve ball”. But for competitors across the border, the tariff rate is just 10 percent. “Distilleries in the north of Ireland have an advantage. And in business, when you have an advantage, you take advantage,” says whiskey producer Tony Healy.

London (AFP) – In an era where computer algorithms automate trading at breakneck speeds, a dwindling number of London’s metal traders still conduct business in-person by shouting orders across Europe’s last so-called open-outcry trading floor. The nearly 150-year-old tradition takes place in a circle, or pit, of red-leather benches, called the ‘Ring’, where the daily global prices of copper, nickel, aluminium and other metals are set at the London Metal Exchange (LME). “All the shouting and screaming that we do here is used by the whole world,” says Giles Plumb, a veteran financial services trader.

Athens (AFP) – Protesters take to the streets of Athens to demand wage increases amid rising cost of living in Greece. More than 15,000 people have taken to the streets in demonstrations, according to police, part of the second 24-hour general strike in the country this year.

Images of rescue teams rushing to find survivors as the death toll in the collapse of the roof of a packed nightclub in the Dominican Republic increases to 124, according to emergency services. Rescue workers are pressing on with the search effort, now limited more to recovering bodies from the rubble over a day after the roof caved in. IMAGES

Panama City (AFP) – The United States does “not seek war with China” but will act to deter Chinese “threats” in the Americas, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warns in Panama. “We do not seek war with China…But together, we must prevent war by robustly and vigorously deterring China’s threats in this hemisphere,” Hegseth says on the second day of his visit to Panama, whose canal is at the center of a row between China and the United States. SOUNDBITE

Beijing rejects as “absolutely groundless” claims by Kyiv that “many” Chinese citizens are fighting alongside Russian forces against Ukraine. Zelensky told reporters including AFP on 8 April that Ukrainian troops had captured the two Chinese citizens fighting with Russian forces in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. The Ukrainian president said there was evidence that “many more Chinese citizens” were fighting with Russian forces, which China, which presents itself as a neutral party in the conflict, rejects.

Aerial shots show rescue teams rushing to find survivors after the roof of a Dominican Republic nightclub collapsed during a concert by popular singer Rubby Perez, one of more than 110 people killed in the disaster. Rescue workers are pressing on with the search effort, now limited more to recovering bodies from the rubble over a day after the roof caved in. IMAGES

As the trade war between the US and China escalates, Russia says US President Donald Trump’s imposition of sweeping tariffs shows “Washington no longer considers itself bound by the norms of international trade law.”

Tehran (AFP) – All of the women in Iranian model Azadeh’s family have had nose surgeries, each feeling the pressure to conform with Western beauty standards in a country where female bodies are heavily policed. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iranian women have been required to dress modestly and cover their hair, and the beauty industry has become almost entirely centred on the face.

Shanghai (AFP) – A lively group of elderly investors holds court at a Shanghai securities company, chatting loudly about stock prices in turbulent times. Asian and European equities have fallen sharply after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs against US trading partners, and China responded with its own retaliatory measures. ++ TO COMPLETE VIDI39GJ2G2_EN ++

Beijing (AFP) – China vows it will take “firm and forceful” steps to protect its interests, after steep US tariffs of 104 percent came into effect.