Blockchain.com scores payment license from Singapore central bank
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to “keep all options on the table” after Donald Trump imposed a “very concerning” 25% tariff on all imported cars into the US.
The president signed an executive order on Wednesday for the tax to kick in on 2 April – what he has called “liberation day”.
The move ratchets up the global trade war that Mr Trump promised he would ignite upon entering the White House for a second term.
Speaking in Paris on Thursday, the prime minister described the tariffs as “very concerning” and said the UK “will keep all options on the table” and “put the national interest first”.
“I think we need to keep, as ever, pragmatic and clear eyed. We are engaged, as you know, in intense discussions with the US on economic arrangements, on a number of fronts, including to mitigate tariffs,” the prime minister said.
“We will continue in that way because I think that, rather than jumping into a trade war, it is better pragmatically to come to an agreed way forward on this if we can.”
Earlier, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast that the UK does not want to “escalate” Mr Trump’s trade wars.
Politics latest: Treasury minister under fire for ‘spicy’ briefing
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the UK does not want to escalate Donald Trump’s trade wars
She said: “We’re not at the moment in a position where we want to do anything to escalate these trade wars.
“Trade wars are no good for anyone. It will end up with higher prices for consumers pushing up inflation after we’ve worked so hard to get a grip of inflation, and at the same time, will make it harder for British companies to export.
“So look, we are looking to secure a better trading relationship with the United States. I recognise that the week ahead is important.
“There are further talks going on today, so let’s see where we get to in the next few days.”
The chancellor’s answer does leave the door open to the UK potentially responding to the US president’s actions, which risks a huge impact for the UK’s car industry including manufacturers such as Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce.
However, the UK government has sought to maintain a positive relationship with Mr Trump in a bid to avoid further punitive tariffs that he maintains are necessary to grow the US economy by boosting domestic manufacturing and protecting jobs.
The president has already imposed tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to the US, which came into effect on 12 March.
The move has affected UK products worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
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Spring statement 2025 key takeaways
While the European Union has announced it will impose retaliatory tariffs on the US, UK ministers have only said they are “disappointed” to see the tariffs on steel and aluminium and that “all options are on the table”.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds previously said there would be no immediate retaliation by the UK government as negotiations continue over a wider trade deal with the US.
A lucrative trade deal with the US is all the more pertinent for Ms Reeves after she admitted during her spring statement that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had halved the UK growth forecast for 2025 from 2% to 1%.
However, the fiscal watchdog said that while growth had been downgraded for this year, it had been upgraded for every year after for the rest of this parliament – which is due to end in 2029.
Living standards, as measured by household disposable income, will fall after this year to almost no growth in 2027-28 before rising again due to firms rebuilding profit margins, wage growth slowing, taxes rising, and welfare measures taking effect.
Read more:
Spring statement 2025 key takeaways
How will Trump’s tariffs affect UK?
The chancellor said on Wednesday that she was “not satisfied with the numbers” for this year.
During the statement, Ms Reeves said she had restored the government’s £9.9bn fiscal “headroom” – the room she has to spend money before she breaks her fiscal rules.
However, the OBR has warned this could easily be jeopardised by global events.
“If global trade disputes escalate to include 20 percentage point rises in tariffs between the USA and the rest of the world, this could reduce UK GDP by a peak of 1% and reduce the current surplus in the target year to almost zero,” it warned.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has officially closed its investigation into Crypto.com, with no action taken against the crypto exchange, according to the firm’s CEO Kris Marszalek.
It comes around seven months after the SEC issued a Wells notice to the crypto platform in August 2024, signaling its intention to take legal action against the firm.
”They used every tool available to attempt to stifle us, restricting access to banking, auditors, investors, and beyond. It was a calculated attempt to put an end to the industry,” Marszalek said in a March 27 X post.
The SEC’s investigation into https://t.co/pFc4Pz9nFR has been closed with no action being taken against https://t.co/pFc4Pz9nFR.
— Kris | Crypto.com (@kris) March 27, 2025
”The fact that we not only persevered but became stronger is a testament to our vision and the community supporting it. Onwards!”
Crypto.com filed a lawsuit against the SEC in October, accusing the Gary Gensler-led commission of overstepping its authority and taking a “misguided” approach to crypto regulation.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
The US Justice Department (DOJ) seized more than $200,000 in cryptocurrency intended to benefit the militant group Hamas it said in a statement on March 27.
The cryptocurrency with a total value of $201,400 was traced to fundraising addresses allegedly controlled by Hamas and used to launder more than $1.5 million in digital assets since October 2024.
The laundering occurred through a series of “virtual currency exchanges and transactions by leveraging suspected financiers and over-the-counter brokers,” the DOJ said. The funds are currently held in a combination of at least 17 wallets.
Affidavit to seize the Hamas-linked cryptocurrency. Source: US DOJ
In January 2024, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, along with corresponding organizations in the United Kingdom and Australia, announced sanctions against networks and facilitators of crypto transactions linked to Hamas. Those sanctions were built on US Treasury sanctions from October 2023.
In January 2024, three families of victims of the Hamas attack against Israel sued Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao, alleging that the exchange had provided “substantial assistance” to terrorists. In oral arguments, a lawyer representing Binance claimed the exchange had “no special relationship [with] Hamas […].”
Binance has faced scrutiny from the US government over alleged shortcomings in its Anti-Money Laundering controls. The exchange settled with the DOJ for $4.3 billion in November 2023.
More regulation needed?
According to a December 2024 report by the Congressional Research Service, Hamas has allegedly sought cryptocurrency donations since at least 2019, although the “scale and effectiveness” of these efforts have been unclear.
Terrorist organizations using crypto for fundraising have increasingly drawn the attention of the US, with some officials questioning whether the industry needed more supervision or regulation to stop such behavior.
According to a 2023 Chainalysis report, terrorism financing accounts for a very small amount of crypto usage, with illegal groups sticking to using traditional, fiat-based methods to fund operations.
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