As global stock markets fall, personal investments including pensions and stocks and shares could be affectedGlobal stock markets have been falling sharply for a second day running after Donald Trump's announcement that the US planned to charge tariffs on goods from around the world. A global trade war intensified when China responded on Friday by announcing tariffs of 34% on imports of US goods, accelerating the market sell-off. For people in the UK, there are reasons to be concerned about the falls: Continue reading...
Trump's moves have pushed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians into a state of insecurity after they were welcomed to a safe havenNot long after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Danyil packed everything he could in a bag and traveled 15 hours by bus from the Zakarpattia region in western Ukraine to the Czech Republic.He fled the war at 17, just as the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, forbade men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country. Now aged 20, he watches from the US as the war drags on. In December, Zelenskyy said 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another 370,000 have been wounded in the war. Continue reading...
Tournaments in 2031 and 2035 are likely to be great events but will be hosted by those who need them the leastThere is an abundance of reasons why staging the 2031 and 2035 Women's World Cups in the United States and UK respectively offers cause for delight. The countries have well-established and emotionally invested fanbases, a genuine buy-in to the women's game and huge, modern stadiums to choose from. These two summer parties will surely eclipse anything women's sport has seen and the countries, having invested in the women's game more than any others in modern times, have frankly earned this.Yet the news that the US and UK are bidding unopposed to host these tournaments is also sad for the women's game from a global perspective. The US's NWSL and England's Women's Super League are the two most-watched women's leagues in the world with the largest average attendances and the most professionalised facilities for players and therefore, while many will agree that means they deserve the Women's World Cup the most, they are also the countries who need the tournament the least. Continue reading...
We should all be worried that the rightwing organisation Alliance Defending Freedom has been increasing its activities in this countryI couldn't sleep the other night, because I made the fatal mistake of reading about US politics directly before bed, specifically the executive order calling for the removal of improper, divisive or anti-American ideology" from the Smithsonian museums. If US politics were a film, I'd say we're somewhere in between having read aloud from the book that summons demons as a joke, and the final bloodbath.If JD Vance rewriting history isn't sinister enough, then came the news that the US state department will be monitoring" a UK woman's abortion buffer zone case (why does everything they say always sound so creepy?) They are concerned", apparently, about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom". The case is that of Livia Tossici-Bolt - who held up a sign reading Here to talk if you want" outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic and was this morning convicted of breaching the buffer zone. Her case was being funded by the UK branch of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a rightwing organisation with links to the White House, which has increased its expenditure and activities in this country of late. It has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in the US.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
His failure in Wisconsin could provide a model for the defeatist Democrats. Instead of fearing him, they should make him a symbolIt's important to relish the little pleasures in life, like the knowledge that somewhere, Elon Musk is sad. On Tuesday, the world's richest person faced an unmistakable rebuke from the public when voters in Wisconsin rejected his preferred candidate for a vacant state supreme court seat there: Brad Schimel, the former state attorney general, on whose campaign Musk had spent more than $25m - lost in a landslide to the liberal Susan Crawford. He must have been devastated, a thought which liberal Americans greeted with relish. The Democratic party's official account on Musk's X posted a photo of Musk with the caption loser". All that money wasted. Maybe he cried.In addition to his lavish expenditures, Musk had made himself the center of the race in a deliberate and ill-advised fashion. He appeared at a rally in Green Bay wearing a cheese hat - a deliberately silly article donned by fans of sports teams in the dairy-producing state. He paid for in-person canvassers at a rate of $25 an hour, three times the minimum wage. And in an illegal gesture that the Wisconsin supreme court declined to stop, he handed out giant, novelty $1m checks to voters who signed a petition against activist" judges - a thinly veiled cash-for-votes scheme, something he also did in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 presidential election.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
The reason we don't see that person is because we're asking the wrong questionEveryone's waiting for that one person to stand up to Donald Trump. Not just that one person. There are a lot of such people. You can read about them in every newspaper. But that one person with real power who's willing to risk something costly in defiance. That one university president who'll say, fuck you and your money. That one Democrat who'll say, fuck you and your threat to my re-election or that of my party. Everyone's looking for our Tank Man, staring down a column of tanks, all by himself, in Tiananmen Square.Why don't we see that person? Where is our Tank Man? (And, no, I don't think Cory Booker doing a marathon-length filibuster counts.)When you're thinking of becoming a hero, you feel like a slob. You feel, do you really have a right to do that?Corey Robin is the author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump and a contributing editor at Jacobin. This piece originally appeared on coreyrobin.com. Continue reading...
All three major US index funds close down as Apple and Nvidia, two of US's largest companies, lose combined $470bnUS stock markets tumbled on Thursday as investors parsed the sweeping change in global trading following Donald Trump's announcement of a barrage of tariffs on the country's trading partners.All three major US stock markets closed down in their worst day since June 2020, during the Covid pandemic. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 6%, while the S&P 500 and the Dow dropped 4.8% and 3.9%, respectively. Apple and Nvidia, two of the US's largest companies by market value, had lost a combined $470bn in value by midday. Continue reading...
The island of Ireland faces a complex challenge with Trump's tariffs. But giving up on transatlantic relations is not the answerIreland believes in open, free trade and has build a strong, resilient economy by being the most globalised in Europe. We are a trading country. That is why last night's news on tariffs came as such a disappointment to us.Imposing tariffs to force companies to locate in the US will fundamentally change how the world sees it. US economic dominance has not been built on scale or purchasing power alone, but on relationships and alliances, something it is now damaging. Liberation day" risks forcing a realignment of how global trade operates, without the US at its centre, as countries rethink their relationship with the US and seek new, more reliable partners.Simon Coveney is a former deputy prime minister, foreign minister and enterprise and trade minister of IrelandDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
With populist leaders on the back foot and EU support at its highest in years, the US trade war could be an opportunity for the unionDonald Trump has unleashed a trade war on the world, and Europe, considered by Washington to be among the worst offenders", is a major target. After hitting European steel, aluminium and cars, this week Trump announced sweeping 20% tariffs on almost all EU imports. Europeans have seen this coming for a long time. Well before his re-election, officials in Brussels were drawing up plans on how the EU might respond to Trump 2.0 and a possible transatlantic trade war.What might the political fallout in Europe be? The good news is that Trump's trade war puts Trump-friendly far-right forces in Europe in a terribly uncomfortable position. It's one thing for the European far right to support Trump in principle, or to support the administration's tyranny over peoples it doesn't care about, be it Ukrainians, Canadians, Mexicans or Palestinians. It's quite another to defend Trump and his policies when the victims are countries that these far-right parties supposedly represent.Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...
by Amy Hawkins, Angela Giuffrida, Lisa O'Carroll, Joa on (#6WD0C)
From UK tailors to Australian farmers to Irish whiskey distillers, firms reveal the impact of US measuresDonald Trump's sweeping tariffs will upend global trade, adding costs and delays to businesses around the world and threatening a recession.The Guardian spoke to eight businesses about the impact. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Aquarium systems, Timberland boots and recycling plant parts were mislabelled as coming from remote Norfolk Island or Heard and McDonald islands
University says it has not yet been notified, but school was among dozens warned of academic crackdownThe Trump administration is taking aim at Brown University with threats to freeze $510m in grants, widening its promise to withhold federal funding from schools it accuses of allowing antisemitism on campus, according to multiple media outlets including Reuters and the New York Times.University officials said they had not yet been formally notified, but the school was among dozens warned last month that enforcement actions could be coming as the administration seeks to crack down on academic institutions . Continue reading...
President accused of overstepping authority with order requiring new proof-of-citizenship and mail-ballot rulesA coalition of 19 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday, arguing that a recent executive order signed by the president that seeks to overhaul the nation's elections was unconstitutional, anti-democratic, and un-American".The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, challenges several provisions of the far-reaching executive order issued last week, including the proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration and new rules requiring all mail ballots be received by election day. Continue reading...
Dow, S&P and Nasdaq among markets feeling share price pain while Trump insists markets are going to boom'. The key US politics stories from 3 AprilGlobal financial markets were roiled by Donald Trump's latest tariff announcement - with trillions of dollars knocked off the value of the world's biggest companies and heightened fears of a US recession.In the US, the main indices saw their worst one-day falls in five years as the president claimed that the markets are going to boom" in response to his sweeping tariffs. Continue reading...
Former TV pitchman has close relationship with boss RFK Jr but regularly encourages Americans to get vaccinatedFormer heart surgeon and TV pitchman Dr Mehmet Oz was confirmed on Thursday to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).Oz became the agency's administrator in a party-line 53-45 vote. Continue reading...
Trade Review Act would require greater checks on tariffs in further sign of congressional disquiet over president's plansSenior senators introduced new bipartisan legislation on Thursday seeking to claw back some of Congress's power over tariffs after Donald Trump unveiled sweeping new import taxes and rattled the global economy with sweeping new import taxes.The Trade Review Act of 2025, co-sponsored by Senator Chuck Grassley, a top Republican lawmaker from Iowa, a state heavily reliant on farm exports, and Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, whose state shares a border with Canada, would require the president to notify Congress of new tariffs, and provide a justification for the action and an analysis on the potential impact on US businesses and consumers. Continue reading...
by Graeme Wearden (now) and Helen Livingstone (earlie on (#6WC2F)
Worst day on New York stock market since Covid-19 crisis as US dollar falls to six month low after US President Trump's liberation day' tariffs fuel recession fears
Defense chief and others discussed US military operations on messaging app that included journalistThe inspector general of the Department of Defense (DOD) is launching an investigation into Pentagon secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive information about military operations in Yemen.The probe, announced on Thursday, follows a bipartisan request from the Senate armed services committee after allegations emerged that highly precise - and most likely classified - intelligence about impending US airstrikes in Yemen, including strike timing and aircraft models, had been shared in a Signal group chat that included a journalist. Continue reading...
by Lauren Aratani, Lucy Swan, Ana Lucía González Pa on (#6WCQX)
The US president's announcement has caused market chaos and threatens a trade war and US recessionDonald Trump's announcement of a long slate of new tariffs on the US's trading partners has caused chaos in global markets and threatens a global trade war and US recession.Long trailed on his election campaign, Trump's plans were even more sweeping than many had predicted: a baseline 10% tariff on all imports and higher tariffs for key trading partners, including China and the EU. Continue reading...
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, called the tariffs introduced by the US president, Donald Trump, 'brutal and unfounded'. Trump unveiled a 10% minimum tariff on most goods imported to the US, with a higher 20% rate for the EU. Macron said European countries must suspend planned investment in the US after the announcement
The US president has expelled his own country from the rules-based global trade system that America itself createdFor the world's already embattled trading system, it is as though an asteroid has crashed into the planet, devastating everyone and everything that previously existed there. But there is this important difference. If an asteroid struck the Earth, the impact would at least have been caused by ungovernable cosmic forces. The assault on world trade, by contrast, is a completely deliberate act of choice, taken by one man and one nation.Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on every country in the world is a monstrous and momentous act of folly. Unilateral and unjustified, it was expressed on Wednesday in indefensible language in which MrTrump described US allies as cheaters" and scavengers" who looted", raped" and pillaged" the US. Many of the calculations on which Mr Trump doled out his punishments are perverse, not least the exclusion of Russia from the condemned list. The tariffs mean prices are certain to rise in sector after sector, in the US and elsewhere, fuelling inflation and perhaps recession. Mr Trump will presumably respond as he did when asked about foreign cars becoming more expensive: I couldn't care less."Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Los Angeles children suffered traumatic disruptions to their education and social lives from the wildfiresThe Eaton fire that devastated Altadena in early January burned down Juan Carlos Perez's family home and the school where his younger daughter attended sixth grade.Losing both anchors at once, Perez said, has been traumatizing for the 12-year-old. As the family moved from hotel to Airbnb, his daughter has become increasingly withdrawn and too anxious to return to school, asking to finish the semester online. The only time she interacted with friends was during soccer practice, Perez said, but that routine was suspended last month when the family moved this month to a friend's house in Connecticut. Continue reading...
Conformity and fear of party leadership are impairing Democrats' ability to fight Trump and drive a progressive agendaJoe Biden's insistence on running for re-election was certainly disastrous. It kept credible contenders out of the Democratic presidential primaries and prevented the selection of a nominee who had gained momentum in the winnowing process. Even after his stunningly feeble debate performance on 27 June last year, Biden took several weeks before finally opting out of the race. That left Kamala Harris a mere 107 days between the launch of her campaign and election day.Ample evidence shows that the Biden team was riddled with obstinate denial and misrepresentation aimed at the public. But tales of tragic egomania in high places can take us only so far. What's essential is to scrutinize how - and why - the Democratic party, its leaders and its prominent supporters enabled Biden and his inner circle to get away with such momentous stonewalling for so long. Continue reading...
The amount of time, brain space and energy it takes to live not as yourself is remarkable - and drainingA few weeks ago while living through hell (moving house), I stumbled upon my late-90s high school diary, the one that I would take to class every day in regional Queensland. It is an artefact of its time, before newfangled technology like laptops and having the internet in other places besides one room of your school. It's also an artefact of its time in another important way: it is completely covered in images of hot guys of the time.Looking at it, you would assume that I was a regular horny straight teen girl, cutting out photos of Leonardo DiCaprio and Will Smith and Hanson to plaster all over my diary so the world could see my very-normal-don't-look-too-closely-ha-ha desire for men. Well, it may shock you to learn that I wasn't a normal straight teenage girl. I was a deeply closeted and sad teenage lesbian. I knew that something was different about me from about 11, even though at the time I hadn't met any gay people, there were no gay people in pop culture, and there was no Google to ask why am I weird". Continue reading...
Maga is coming after the House of Mouse with a cynical attack on its diversity policies. Disney can - and should - fight backI remember the moment I truly recognized the power Disney has to move young hearts and minds.It was when I attended a sneak preview of Disney's adaptation of the Chinese legend of Mulan, about a young woman who disguises herself as a man and takes up her wounded father's sword to defend her nation. Continue reading...
The country's so-called political centre has licensed a new era of authoritarianism - to the AfD's delightA crackdown on political dissent is well under way in Germany. Over the past two years, institutions and authorities have cancelled events, exhibitions and awards over statements about Palestine or Israel. There are many examples: the Frankfurt book fair indefinitely postponing an award ceremony for Adania Shibli; the Heinrich Boll Foundation withdrawing the Hannah Arendt prize from Masha Gessen; the University of Cologne rescinding a professorship for Nancy Fraser; the No Other Land directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham being defamed by German ministers. And, most recently, the philosopher Omri Boehm being disinvited from speaking at this month's anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald.In nearly all of these cases, accusations of antisemitism loom large - even though Jews are often among those being targeted. More often than not, it is liberals driving or tacitly accepting these cancellations, while conservatives and the far right lean back and cheer them on. While vigilance against rising antisemitism is no doubt warranted - especially in Germany - that concern is increasingly weaponised as a political tool to silence the left.Hanno Hauenstein is a Berlin-based journalist and author. He worked as a senior editor in Berliner Zeitung's culture department, specialising in contemporary art and politicsDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The administration has proposed no realistic settlement, leaving a void for Netanyahu. This is foolishness gone wildWhen I wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian a few months ago, anticipating Donald Trump's foreign policy regarding the Middle East, I made a big mistake.I thought that there would be diplomacy involved, even if it was ill-conceived. Instead, the complete lack of diplomatic rendering in this administration's foreign policy is already pointing in dangerous directions, especially regarding Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and Egypt. Saudi Arabia, the sleeping giant that's in a key position to provide a roadmap to a fair resolution for both Israelis and Palestinians, seems to be sitting on the sidelines now. Continue reading...
Tariffs will hit developing and wartorn nations particularly hard. Plus, Australia records hottest 12 months on recordGood morning.Donald Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs on the US's major trading partners on Wednesday, a move that puts the world at risk of a global trade war and that sent stocks and the dollar tumbling.How has Europe responded? Using its strongest weapon remains a last resort", the head of the European parliament's international trade committee has said. This refers to the anti-coercion instrument - a law passed in 2023 that allows the EU to impose commerce and investment sanctions.Have classified details been shared on Signal? The administration has insisted nothing classified was shared in the chat revealed by the Atlantic - but the former state department attorney Brian Finucane says operational details, such as launch times for jets and missiles, would typically be classified. Continue reading...
With lucrative NIL deals and championships to chase, the biggest names in the NCAA have something to think about being turning professionalOn UConn's senior night in February 2024, inside a packed Gampel Pavilion, Paige Bueckers took the mic. I know everybody wants me to address the elephant in the room," she told the crowd. Unfortunately, this will not be my last senior night here at UConn." With that, she confirmed her decision to return for a fifth and final year with the Huskies.Bueckers' extended eligibility comes from NCAA rules that grant student-athletes five years to compete in four seasons, with an additional year for those who played in 2020-21 due to the Covid-19 waiver. And a 2022 injury that led to a redshirt year gave Bueckers yet another season. While many speculate she stayed for lucrative NIL deals - estimated at around $1.5m this season - Bueckers insists her decision is rooted in loyalty to UConn, her teammates, and her coaches. Family camaraderie, loving it here, loving my teammates, and loving my coaches," she says. Continue reading...
Doctors in states with abortion bans say patients were not told of abortion care as option for fear of legal consequencesDoctors who practice medicine in states with abortion bans have described in a new study how three of their pregnant patients died, but likely could have been saved, if they had been able to receive abortion care.The doctors, who treat lung, respiratory and other critical illnesses, never raised abortion, including the option of traveling out of state for the procedure, out of fear of legal repercussions, according to interviews with the doctors in the study, which was published in Chest Pulmonary, a medical journal. No other information about the patients who died was published. Continue reading...
Ron Klain tells author Chris Whipple that Biden opted for Annie Leibovitz shoot at critical moment in campaignIn the aftermath of the disastrous debate against Donald Trump that ultimately ended his political career, Joe Biden skipped a White House meeting with the congressional Progressive caucus in favor of a Camp David photoshoot with the fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz, a new book says.You need to cancel that," Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff and debate prep leader, told the president, as he advocated securing the endorsement of the group of powerful progressive politicians perhaps key to his remaining the Democratic nominee. Continue reading...
There I was, lying in bed and worrying I'd lost a basic life skill. Can you blame me for putting it to the test?When I was in the first year at middle school, in Miss Hale's class, my parents returned from a parents' evening looking disappointed. My nine-year-old self picked up on this. It wasn't my schoolwork: that was OK. It was that the teacher had revealed that in PE I was the only one in the class who couldn't do a forward roll.This was true. It wasn't that I was physically incapable - I was in the school football team and, without wishing to boast, probably the ninth-quickest runner. I just had this mental block. I couldn't bring myself to do it. The idea of the world momentarily going upside down was too much for me. The prospect of such disorientation was unbearable. If only Miss Hale had taken me to one side and said: Look, you're overthinking this - and, believe you me, if you let it, overthinking will blight your life." But she didn't, because teachers didn't talk like that then (and probably don't do so now, either). Continue reading...
US president Donald Trump yesterday produced a chart of all the new tariffs he was announcing, affecting trade with countries across the world. Here is the list as he displayed itThe president displayed the top of his list from a podium in the White House Rose Garden, and later published a longer version. Note that the tariffs charged to the USA" in Trump's formulation include trade barriers" so don't necessarily align with the tariffs published by countries concerned. Continue reading...
Leftwing policies have mass appeal - what's needed is a figurehead who can bring back alienated voters and dodge culture warsTony Blair's devotees always had a stock response for their leftwing critics, and it went like this: your desire for political purity will render Labour unelectable, and the poorest will pay the price. A Labour party led by sensible moderates" may not be your first choice, but it is the only hope for the most vulnerable.As Labour imposes poverty on at least 250,000 people through cuts to disability benefits, according to estimates by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, this argument is submerged under a tidal wave of misery. The government has already robbed many pensioners of their winter fuel payments, and not only voted to keep a Tory two-child benefit cap that imposes squalor on hundreds of thousands of children, but suspended those Labour MPs who opposed it. A Labour party that knowingly imposes hardship on disabled people, pensioners and children has filed for moral and political bankruptcy.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Donald Trump has upended decades of US foreign policy by bringing in a vast array of tariffs that threaten to disrupt international trade. Here are some initial key points
It seems to me that whatever the charges facing the activists at the Quaker meeting house raid, their fundamental crime is dissentThe faces are different, but it's the same authoritarianism. Keir Starmer's team might not look or sound like Donald Trump's, but its policies on protest and dissent are chillingly similar. So is the reason: coordinated global lobbying by the rich and powerful, fronted by rightwing junktanks.Last week, six young women were having tea and biscuits in the Quaker meeting house in Westminster. Twenty police officers forced open the door and arrested them on conspiracy charges. Had the police discovered a plot to blow up parliament or to poison the water supply? No. It was an openly advertised, routine meeting of a protest group called Youth Demand, discussing climate breakdown and the assault on Gaza.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnistThe Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism, by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison, was published in paperback last weekDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Australian prime minister surprised after external territories - including tiny Norfolk Island and remote islands home to penguins - targeted by US presidentA group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, covered in glaciers and home to penguins, have been swept up in Donald Trump's trade war, as the US president hit them with a 10% tariff on goods.Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which form an external territory of Australia, are among the remotest places on earth, accessible only via a two-week boat voyage from Perth on Australia's west coast. They are completely uninhabited, with the last visit from people believed to be nearly 10 years ago. Continue reading...
Trump announces reciprocal' tariffs on largest US trading partners; Elon Musk may leave government role at end of 130-day cap. Here's your roundup of key US politics stories from 2 April 2025Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of its largest trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed liberation day".Trump said he will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods in addition to reciprocal tariffs" on a few dozen countries, charging additional duties onto countries that Trump claims have cheated" America. Continue reading...
by Cecilia Nowell, Maya Yang, Léonie Chao-Fong, Tom on (#6WBCK)
This liveblog is now closed. For continued coverage on the tariffs, head to the live business blog.Donald Trump's planned tariffs will be negative across the world, with the damage depending on how far they go, how long they last and whether they lead to successful negotiations, the European Central Bank head, Christine Lagarde, said on Wednesday.The Trump administration on Wednesday is set to announce reciprocal tariffs" targeting nations that have duties on US goods. That move would come after it slapped new import levies on products from Mexico, China and Canada - the top US trading partners - as well as on goods including steel and autos.Wisconsin beat the billionaire.Wisconsin cannot be bought. Our democracy is not for sale. And when we fight, we win. Congratulations, @CrawfordForWI Continue reading...
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