The world in brief

America continued to walk back its tariffs by exempting Chinese electronic parts and devices, including phones and computers. Donald Trump has roiled markets and worried America’s tech giants, who produce many of their products in China. Earlier this week he paused “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries, leaving only a baseline levy of 10%. He raised taxes on Chinese imports to 145%.

Britain passed an emergency law giving the government control of a steel plant in Lincolnshire, in the East Midlands, to prevent its imminent closure. The plant’s Chinese owners, Jingye Group, had said that its blast furnaces were financially unsustainable; it rejected a £500m ($650m) rescue in March. British officials said that nationalising the plant was a probable next step.