India downgrades relations with Pakistan

Good morning and welcome again to FirstFT Asia. In right this moment’s e-newsletter:

• India downgrades ties with Pakistan

• The US Treasury secretary’s remarks on China commerce warfare de-escalation

• Chinese language web customers mock Trump’s tariffs

India has downgraded diplomatic relations with Pakistan and suspended its participation in a vital cross-border water treaty, accusing Islamabad of being concerned in a lethal assault on vacationers within the disputed northern area of Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened senior ministers yesterday to resolve how to reply to Tuesday’s killing by suspected militants of 26 vacationers within the India-controlled territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Right here’s what to know concerning the simmering tensions between India and Pakistan.

India’s response: On the assembly, the “cross-border linkages of the terrorist assault have been introduced out”, India’s overseas secretary Vikram Misri informed a information briefing with out giving particulars of Pakistan’s alleged function. Misri stated the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, which governs the use by the 2 international locations of water sources within the Indus river system, can be held in “abeyance . . . till Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures assist for cross-border terrorism”. The overseas minister additionally introduced new journey restrictions.

Fears of a confrontation: Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh vowed to ship a “very loud response” to these behind the assault. New Delhi has lengthy accused Islamabad of supporting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and has beforehand staged army strikes on its nuclear-armed neighbour in response to militant assaults within the territory.

Pakistan’s overseas ministry didn’t instantly touch upon India’s allegations of involvement, saying in an announcement yesterday that it was “involved on the lack of vacationers’ lives in an assault in Anantnag district of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”.

Setback for Modi: The prime minister’s authorities has claimed to have introduced peace to Jammu and Kashmir since 2019 when it lowered what was India’s solely Muslim-majority state to a territory below direct federal rule. The assault was the deadliest within the area since a 2019 suicide bombing when 40 Indian paramilitaries have been killed — prompting India to launch an air strike inside Pakistan on what it stated was a terrorist coaching camp. 

Right here’s what else we’re holding tabs on right this moment:

• Financial information: Japan experiences March providers PPI inflation figures and South Korea publishes advance first-quarter GDP.

• Firms: Alphabet, SK Hynix, Tech Mahindra, Fujitsu and Hyundai Motor report earnings.

5 extra high tales

1. US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has cautioned that any de-escalation within the US-China commerce warfare must be mutual, denying experiences that President Donald Trump would unilaterally cut levies on Chinese goods. Bessent additionally informed reporters: “A break between the 2 international locations on commerce doesn’t go well with anyone’s pursuits.”

• Extra commerce warfare information: Trump is planning to spare carmakers from a few of his most onerous tariffs, following intense lobbying by business executives.

• China-EU relations: Beijing is getting ready to lift sanctions on European lawmakers because it tries to revive an funding cope with the EU after dropping most of its entry to the US market in Trump’s commerce warfare.

• Boeing confronts commerce warfare fallout: The US plane maker is ready to search for different patrons for its planes destined for Chinese airlines, its chief govt has stated.

2. Trump has attacked Ukrainian chief Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to recognise Russia’s occupation of Crimea, accusing him of harming peace negotiations with Moscow. His intervention got here days after the US floated concepts for a potential decision of the warfare that included Washington recognising Russian management over Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

3. World Financial Discussion board founder Klaus Schwab allegedly manipulated the organisation’s analysis to curry favour with governments, according to whistleblower claims that led to his resignation as chair of the organisation over the Easter weekend. In an announcement circulated yesterday, Schwab stated he was the sufferer of a “character assassination” and denied all of the claims towards him.

4. The British banker tasked with overhauling Nomura’s world funding operations after a $2.9bn hit from the collapse of Archegos has stated his merchants are lastly nearer to having the ability to go “max threat”. Christopher Willcox informed the FT he was more and more assured of taking daring, high-stakes bets in an interview at the bank’s Tokyo headquarters.

5. Jordan banned the Muslim Brotherhood yesterday, casting doubt on the way forward for the Islamist group’s political arm, which emerged because the nation’s largest opposition power in final 12 months’s election. The transfer comes every week after Jordanian authorities stated that they had arrested 16 members of the Brotherhood, whom they alleged had been skilled in Lebanon to hold out rocket and drone assaults throughout the kingdom. Read the full story.

Information in-depth

Web customers in China mocked Trump’s declare that “jobs will come roaring again” to the US on account of his tariffs with synthetic intelligence-generated movies depicting American workers sweating over trainer and smartphone assembly lines. The movies highlighted that there’s little probability of the US replicating the labour power benefits that turned China into the world’s manufacturing facility over greater than 20 years.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Maga Catholics: A rising variety of People hope Pope Francis’s loss of life will mark a decisive conservative shift and pave the way in which for a “Trump-like pope”.

• Banking on the seashore: Citigroup is closing its beachside Málaga office lower than three years after opening the hub to supply bankers a greater work-life stability.

• Tradwives: Home influencers have change into pin-ups of the non secular proper’s quest for higher birth rates, writes Chine McDonald of think-tank Theos.

Chart of the day

Jane Avenue’s buying and selling revenues nearly doubled final 12 months and boomed in the course of the tariff-induced turmoil of the primary quarter of 2025, because the secretive US firm generated profits rivalling these of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Take a break from the information

Are you a trend hoarder? Learn Alexa Chung’s guide to letting go of — a few of — the garments you not want.

Join Fashion Matters, your weekly e-newsletter concerning the trend business.