Good morning. Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret December meeting that Beijing was behind a widespread series of alarming cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring how hostilities between the two superpowers are continuing to escalate.

The Chinese delegation linked years of intrusions into computer networks at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports and other targets, to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan, the people, who declined to be named, said. 

The first-of-its-kind signal at a Geneva summit with the outgoing Biden administration startled American officials used to hearing their Chinese counterparts blame the campaign, which security researchers have dubbed Volt Typhoon, on a criminal outfit, or accuse the U.S. of having an overactive imagination.

U.S. officials went public last year with unusually dire warnings about the uncovered Volt Typhoon effort. They publicly attributed it to Beijing trying to get a foothold in U.S. computer networks so its army could quickly detonate damaging cyberattacks during a future conflict.

Investment firms are faced with a range of shifting risks, ranging from geopolitics to cybercrime and regulatory risk. Dow Jones Risk & Compliance will host a webinar on April 29 to discuss these risks with Scott Pomfret, a former chief compliance officer and Securities and Exchange Commission trial attorney. You can register here.

Senate confirms Paul Atkins as SEC chair.

The U.S. Senate confirmed President Trump’s nominee Paul Atkins to run the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

President Trump in December nominated Atkins to run the U.S. securities regulator, with expectations he would curb the agency’s enforcement division and ease oversight, particularly on cryptocurrency firms.

Nikhil Rathi reappointed to lead top U.K. financial regulator.

The U.K.’s top financial regulator has appointed Nikhil Rathi to a second term as its chief executive.

Rathi will now lead the Financial Conduct Authority until September 2030, according to the U.K. government. Rathi, who joined the FCA in October 2020, previously worked as private secretary for two British prime ministers and served in various roles in the U.K.’s Treasury, including as head of its financial stability unit.

• UBS Group Chair Colm Kelleher said Switzerland’s financial regulator and central bank set out additional capital requirements that would lead to a 50% increase compared with current levels.
   
• The Trump administration is planning to pursue a legal arrangement that would put Columbia University into a consent decree, according to people familiar with the matter, an extraordinary step that could significantly escalate the pressure on the school as it battles for federal funding.
   
• Japan’s Cabinet has approved amendments to its export control regulations, requiring licenses for a broader range of items that could be used in weapons development.
   
• Democrats in Congress on Thursday called for investigations into whether people close to the Trump administration profited by using non-public information to make trades in the hours before President Trump’s tariff policy change.
   
• President Trump underscored that U.S. Steel should remain an American company, but said he is open to Japanese steelmaking giant Nippon Steel investing in it.

The U.S. and China are going to economic war—and everyone will suffer.

The gloves are off. The next chapter of U.S.-China decoupling has begun. The pain will be felt everywhere.

In jacking up his tariffs on China—and pausing steep duties on dozens of other nations—President Trump is pushing the world’s two biggest economic powers into a battle that will leave neither unscathed and risks tanking the global economy.

​The total tariffs imposed on China in Trump’s second term now add up to 145%, the White House said Thursday, while China’s blanket tariff on American goods will rise to 125% on Saturday after the latest round of retaliation.

• China to Curb Imports of U.S. Films in Response to Trump Tariffs

Inflation eased in March, but tariffs threaten to stoke price pressures.

Consumer prices declined month-over-month in March for the first time in nearly five years, a welcome development for inflation-weary families but one that economists said is likely to be short-lived due to new trade tariffs.

The consumer-price index fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in March, the Labor Department said Thursday, the first time it recorded a month-over-month decline since May 2020. The drop was unexpected: Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 0.1% rise.

• President Trump’s immigration crackdown has spooked Latino shoppers, hurting sales of America’s No. 1 beer, according to Modelo brewer Constellation Brands.
   
• Free trade fueled the U.S.’s rise as an oil-and-gas hegemon. President Trump’s America First era is set to force a painful readjustment.
   
• There is a risk that U.S. authorities won’t cooperate as they have before to ensure the stability of the global financial system, Bank of England Deputy Gov. Sarah Breeden said Thursday.
   
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of systematically recruiting soldiers from China, warning that such efforts were expanding and prolonging the war.
   
• The European Union will suspend its first wave of retaliatory duties against the U.S. for 90 days to focus on negotiations, after the Trump administration paused some global tariffs, a top EU official said.

• Just how much of that car was made in America? Advertisers making “Made in the USA” claims face greater risks—and opportunities—as Trump tariffs rock the global economy.
   
• Public officials may separate their workplace and personal online lives, but hackers don’t care.
   
• WeightWatchers is preparing to file for bankruptcy as part of a plan to hand control of the business to its creditors.
   
• Nestlé-owned Coffee Mate had one response to “The White Lotus” season finale: “Well this is awkward.”

The bank tapped Blackburn about two months ago to serve in the role on an interim basis. He began working for HSBC more than 20 years ago, and most recently served as global head of traded and treasury risk management and global head of risk analytics.

• Tariff turmoil has rattled the market’s biggest individual investors: wealthy Americans.
   
• The egg market continues to sizzle, but is showing signs of cooling off.
   
• Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said generative artificial intelligence is going to reinvent virtually every customer experience and enable new ones.
   
• President Trump said his administration is planning to withhold all federal funding from cities and states that have policies limiting law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
   
• A helicopter crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday afternoon near New York City.

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