In the idyllic Cognac region of southern France, Trump’s tariffs threaten a centuries-old way of life
The impact of Trump’s tariffs is reaching deep into every economy.
We travelled into the French rural heartland, heading for Cognac – the home of French brandy.
It is only half the size of Surrey but its exports to America are worth €1bn a year and that trade is now severely threatened.
The first buds are out on the vines of Amy Pasquet’s vineyard.
An American, she has married into the industry and with her French husband owns JLP Cognac.
She knows more than most the bond brandy has formed between their two countries that goes back to the war.
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Ms Pasquet said: “A lot of the African-American soldiers had really loved their experience here and had brought back the cognac. And I think that stayed because this African-American community truly is a community. and they want to drink like their grandfather did.”
The ties remain with rappers like Jay Z’s love for cognac.
However, Ms Pasquet adds: “There’s also this other community of people who have been drinking bourbon for a long time, love bourbon, but find the prices just outrageous today. So they want to try something different.”
Amy Pasquet owns JLP Cognac with her husband
JLP’s products were served at New York’s prestigious Met Gala.
They were preparing to launch new product lines in the US. But now that’s in doubt.
It is hard being an American in France now, Ms Pasquet says.
Her French neighbours are appalled by what US President Donald Trump is doing.
She continues: “They’re like, okay, America’s forgotten how close France and America are as far as (their) relationship is concerned. And I think that’s hurtful on both sides. I think it’s important to remember that the US is many things, and not just this one person, and there are millions of inhabitants that didn’t vote for him.”
A fresh challenge for a centuries-old tradition
Making cognac takes years, using techniques that go back centuries. In another vineyard we met Pierre Louis Giboin whose family have been doing it for more than 200 years.
In a cellar dating back to the French Revolution, barrels of oak sit under thick cobwebs, ageing the brandy.
The walls are lined with a unique black mould that thrives off the vapours of cognac.
They have seen threats come and go over those centuries, wars, weather, pestilence. But never from a country they regard as one of their oldest allies and best of customers.
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Pierre Louis Giboin’s cellar dates back to the French revolution
Mr Trump’s tariffs, says Mr Giboin, now threaten a way of life.
“It’s at the end of like very good times in the Cognac region. It’s been like 10 years when everything’s been perfect, we have good harvest, we sell really easily all the stock, but now I mean it’s the end.”
Ms Pasquet and Mr Giboin are unusual.
Most cognac makers sell their produce through the drink’s four big houses, Hennessy, Remy Martin, Martell and Courvoisier.
Some have been told the amounts they can sell have been drastically reduced.
Independents though like them must find new markets if the tariff threat persists.
Confusion away from the chaos
Outside in the dappled light of a Cognac evening Mr Giboin and I toast glasses of pineau – the diluted form of cognac drunk as an aperitif.
In this idyllic corner of France, a world away from Washington, Mr Trump’s trade war on Europe simply makes no sense.
“He’s like angry against the whole world and the way he talks like that Europe the EU was made against the US to cheat on the US. It’s just crazy to think like this,” Mr Giboin says.
It’s not just what Mr Trump’s done. It’s how Europe now strikes back that concerns the French. And it’s not just in Cognac where they’re concerned
France exports more than €2bn worth of wine to America.
In the heart of the Bordeaux wine region, Sylvie Courselle’s family have been making wine since the 1940s at their Chateau Thieuley vineyard.
It’s bottling season but they can’t prepare the wine headed for America while everything is up in the air.
Showing me the unused reels of US labels for her wine she told me she was losing sleep over the uncertainty.
Later she was meeting with her American distributors.
Gerry Keogh sells Ms Courselle’s wine across the US.
He says the entire industry is reeling
Sylvie Courselle with distributers
The Chateau Thieuley vineyard in the Bordeaux wine region
“I think it’s like anything. You don’t really believe it’s happening. And even when you’re in the midst of it, it was kind of like 9/11.
“You’re like… This is actually happening. It’s unbelievable. And when you start seeing the repercussions from the stock market, et cetera, and how it’s impacting every level, it’s quite shocking.”
They know the crisis is far from over and could now escalate.
“We feel stuck in the middle of this commercial war and we don’t have the weapons to fight, I think,” Ms Courselle said.
It is, she says, very stressful.
Gerry Keogh
The histories of America and France have been intertwined for centuries through revolutions against tyranny and two wars fighting for liberty.
America used to call France its oldest ally, but under Mr Trump it is now being as turned on, as France, along with the rest of Europe, finds itself in what many would argue is a reckless and unjustified trade war.
It is all doing enormous harm to relations between the US and its European allies.
How Europe now decides to retaliate will help determine the extent of that damage.
Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, according to a commission established by the United Nations.
The report claims “it is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza” and says Israel’s actions meet the criteria set down for defining a genocide.
It is the first time that such an explosive allegation has been made publicly by a UN body, and is likely to be greeted with fury by the Israeli government.
Follow live updates: ‘Gaza is burning’ after overnight strikes
Israel‘s Foreign Ministry said it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report” and called for the commission to be abolished.
“Three individuals serving as Hamas proxies, notorious for their openly antisemitic positions – and whose horrific statements about Jews have been condemned worldwide – released today another fake ‘report’ about Gaza,” it said in a statement.
“The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others. These fabrications have already been thoroughly debunked.”
The accusation of genocide is made by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion. Pic: Reuters
The commission, which has been studying the conduct of Israel since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, has concluded that Israel has committed four of the five acts laid out in the Genocide Convention.
It alleges Israel has been killing Palestinians or forcing them to live in inhumane conditions that led to death; causing serious bodily or mental harm, including through torture, displacement and sexual crime; deliberately imposing inhumane conditions, and fourthly, imposing measures intending to prevent births.
This final claim is linked to an attack on the Al-Basma IVF clinic, which the commission claims destroyed around 4,000 embryos and a further 1,000 sperm samples.
The report claims Israel has “flagrantly” ignored “numerous warnings” over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and has set out to “destroy the healthcare system in Gaza”.
It also alleges that Israeli military personnel have carried out sexual and gender-based violence, including “rape and sexualised torture”, as part of “a pattern of collective punishment”, and accuses Israeli forces of deliberately targeting some children “with the intention to kill them”.
Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Pic: AP
Although other UN bodies and personnel have previously linked Israel’s actions with allegations of genocide, this is the first time that any UN body has claimed to have made a definitive judgment.
“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with the Israeli authorities at the highest echelons,” said Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission.
Within the report, it concludes that “Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, have incited the commission of genocide”.
Nearly 65,000 people are now believed to have died, according to figures collated by Gaza’s health ministry. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
The commission claims that a majority of these are women, children and elderly people.
The commission says it is now looking at further evidence against other individuals accused of inciting genocide.
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Last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant for allegedly committing the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare and also for war crimes during the Gaza conflict.
Mr Netanyahu described the warrants as “antisemitic”, while a sense of outrage echoed across much of the political spectrum in Israel.
Then US President Joe Biden called the warrants “outrageous”; his successor, Donald Trump, issued an executive order to introduce sanctions against personnel from the ICC, while inviting Netanyahu to the White House.
It is hard to believe that either Israel or the US will be any more accepting of this report. Israel has long claimed that the UN is biased against it and is more liable to criticise Israel than any other nation.
Marco Rubio speaks to media as he leaves Tel Aviv for Qatar. Pic: Reuters
The US, which offered a rare, if mild, rebuke to Mr Netanyahu after he launched an attack on Hamas officials in Qatar last week, has since sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Jerusalem as a sign of solidarity.
The commission has asked for nations to stop supplying Israel with weapons and says states have a “legal obligation” to do everything within their power “to stop the genocide in Gaza”.
It also calls on Israel to immediately allow “unhindered” access for internationally recognised aid agencies, including the UN.
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Does the UK think there’s a genocide in Gaza?
It wants the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), set up earlier this year by Israel with American help, in order to distribute aid, to be shut down.
Hundreds of people have been killed around GHF sites, while a separate UN-backed body has said that parts of Gaza have been designated as suffering from famine.
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Israel denies this – a senior military leader told me that “it is a pure, total lie – there is enough food for everyone”. It claims that the UN relied on faulty data and Hamas propaganda.
This latest UN report is likely to be met with similar claims.
Earlier this month, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution stating that Israel’s conduct passed the threshold of committing genocide.
However, a report from the British government said it had “not concluded” that Israel intended to “destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a “clear position” from Donald Trump to stop Vladimir Putin and end the war in Ukraine.
In an exclusive interview with Sky News’ lead world presenter Yalda Hakim, the Ukrainian president said the only way for the fighting to stop was for defined security guarantees to first be put in place.
And that, he said, could only come if Mr Trump was bold.
He told Sky News he hopes UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer would drill into the detail of securing Ukraine’s future with the president during his state visit to Britain this week.
He said: “I very much hope he (Starmer) will be able to have a very specific discussion on the security guarantees of the US for Ukraine.
“Before we end the war, I really want to have all the agreements in place. I want to… have a document that is supported by the US and all European partners. This is very important.
“To make this happen, we need a clear position of President Trump.”
Zelenskyy and Trump have endured a sometimes testy relationship. Pic: Reuters
‘Make Putin afraid’
Mr Zelenskyy also urged the US leader to take “strong personal steps” to “stop Putin”, after Mr Trump urged NATO allies to stop buying Russian oil and put tariffs on China to pressure Moscow.
“I believe that the US is strong enough to take decisions of their own,” he said. “I believe Donald Trump can give us air defence systems in quantity and US has enough.
“I’m sure the US can apply enough sanctions in order to hurt the Russian economy, plus Donald Trump has enough force to make Putin afraid of him.
“Europe has already introduced 18 sanctions packages against Russia. And all that’s lacking now is a strong sanctions package from the US.”
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Russia rehearses for war
His comments came following criticism in his interview with Sky News – at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv – of the recent Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.
He said Mr Trump “gave a lot to Putin” and that “he should have paid more” for it.
“I believe, if it was a trilateral meeting [with Ukraine included], we would have some result,” he added.
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Sky News exclusive interview with Zelenskyy
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Putin ‘testing NATO’, warns Zelenskyy
As news broke that British fighter jets were flying air defence missions over Poland after a Russian drone incursion, Hakim asked the Ukrainian leader what message he thought Putin was sending to Europeans.
“He’s testing NATO,” he said. “He wants to see what NATO is ready for, what they’re capable of, both diplomatically and politically, and how the local population will respond to this.”
“Also, in my opinion, the other message they are sending is, ‘don’t you dare to give Ukraine additional air defence systems, because you might need them yourself.'”
Bristling with frustration – Zelenskyy’s message is clear
Ukraine’s president has a very clear message for Trump – you alone have the power to stop Putin, and the time to act is now.
Meeting with me in Kyiv on the eve of the US president’s state visit to Britain, Zelenskyy bristled with frustration at the failure of the Western powers to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin, even as the Russians escalated their attacks on Ukraine.
Asked if the summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska has proven a mistake, he responded without hesitation that Putin is clearly not paying a price for his actions.
Zelenskyy believes Trump is reluctant to put pressure on Putin because it might jeopardise attempts to end the war.
But the Ukrainian leader argues this isn’t the way to handle the Russian president.
Zelenskyy also argued Trump’s emphasis on getting the Europeans to ratchet up economic pressure – foremost by stopping their purchases of Russian energy and tariffing other buyers like China and India – was understandable, but that the world’s sole superpower shouldn’t wait for others to act.
Trump has called on EU countries to end all Russian oil and gas purchases – and only then will he consider imposing sanctions on Russia.
Mr Trump arrives in the UK today for an unprecedented second state visit, following an invitation from King Charles.
He and First Lady Melania will stay at Windsor Castle and be treated to a flypast by the Red Arrows as well as UK and US F-35 military jets on the east lawn, and a special Beating Retreat military ceremony.
They will also visit Chequers, the prime minister’s official country residence in Buckinghamshire, though details of what they will discuss – and whether it will include the situation in Ukraine – have not been revealed.
Ukraine’s president has a very clear message for Donald Trump – you alone have the power to stop Vladimir Putin, and the time to act is now.
Meeting with me in Kyiv on the eve of the US president’s state visit to Britain, Volodymyr Zelenskyy bristled with frustration at the failure of the Western powers to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin, even as the Russians escalated their attacks on Ukraine.
Asked if the summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska has proven a mistake, he responded without hesitation that Putin is clearly not paying a price for his actions.
“He should have received a setback in this war and stop. Instead, he received de-isolation,” he said.
“He definitely wants to trick the US. He is doing everything he can to avoid sanctions, to prevent the US and Trump from putting sanctions on him.”
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month. Pic: Reuters
Zelenskyy believes Trump is reluctant to put pressure on Putin because it might jeopardise attempts to end the war.
But the Ukrainian leader argues this isn’t the way to handle the Russian president: “He understands force. That’s his language. That’s the language he understands. He doesn’t speak many languages, but that’s the language of force he understands – just like Russian, you know, his mother tongue.”
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Russia rehearses for war
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Zelenskyy also argued Trump’s emphasis on getting the Europeans to ratchet up economic pressure – foremost by stopping their purchases of Russian energy, and by putting tariffs on other buyers like China and India – was understandable, but that the world’s superpower shouldn’t wait for others to act.
Trump has called on EU countries to end all Russian oil and gas purchases, and only then will he consider imposing sanctions on Russia.
“I think the US is strong enough on its own,” Zelenskyy said.
“They can make this happen quicker and all that’s lacking now is a strong sanctions package from the US.”
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