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Recent Editions

Human Times
North America
A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration cannot swiftly terminate thousands of probationary federal workers across 19 states and Washington, D.C. U.S. District Judge James Bredar said that federal agencies must adhere to proper procedures for mass layoffs. The administration previously fired around 24,500 employees in February without prior notification to state and local governments. Bredar's ruling only mandates the reinstatement of employees in the states involved in the lawsuit. Bredar last month had already ruled that the firings were likely illegal and ordered 18 agencies to reinstate workers who had been fired pending further litigation. Yesterday's decision will be in place pending the outcome of the lawsuit, which could take months to resolve.
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Human Times
UK
Annual pay growth for low-wage positions in the UK slowed to 6.2% in February, the lowest since February 2022, according to jobs website Indeed. Jack Kennedy, a senior economist at Indeed, said: “For some time now, low-paid sectors have been seeing significantly stronger pay growth than the rest of the market . . . That gap is starting to close.” Kennedy said that a wave of costs this month, including a change to national insurance contributions, a payroll tax, and a higher minimum wage, may force companies to hold down salaries across the board. Mohammad Jamei, director of economic policy at the Confederation of British Industry, said some employers are halving pay rises from around 5% to 2% to help offset the government's cost increases.
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Human Times
Europe
The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has vowed Europe will stand together in response to US tariffs, warning of further countermeasures if negotiations fail. Von der Leyen also spoke of the "immense consequences," of the tariffs, labelling them as a "major blow" to the world economy. She said there was “no clear path through the complexity and chaos that is being created as all US trading partners are hit,” but she insisted the EU’s unity “is our strength” and the bloc would be prepared to respond with calibrated countermeasures. Meanwhile, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni called the introduction of US tariffs “wrong” as she vowed to “do everything we can to work towards an agreement with the United States, with the aim of avoiding a trade war that would inevitably weaken the West in favour of other global players.”
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Human Times
Middle East
Gulf Co-operation Council countries have been largely spared Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs - but analysts say the indirect effects of the tariffs are likely to have the biggest impact on GCC members. The US president announced 10% reciprocal tariffs on the UAE and Saudi Arabia, while other Middle East countries that were hit with reciprocal tariffs included Israel (17%), Jordan (20%), and Egypt (10%). “Given the global nature, the GCC probably got the best outcome they could've got,” observed Rachel Ziemba, founder of Ziemba Insights, who added: “It's not a good outcome that universal tariffs are now part of how the US is financing itself, but [Gulf] leaders may take it as a partial success that they ended up in [the] lowest tier of most friendly countries in this new rubric.” But much more important to the GCC, she said, are the indirect effects of reciprocal tariffs on the US economy and global trade flows.
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