Tariffs

 NBC News - President Donald Trump's promised 50% tariffs on India took effect on Wednesday, as the U.S. risks blowing up a relationship considered crucial in its effort to counter the rise of China.

Trump started the tariff rate at 25% but doubled it earlier this month as punishment for India buying Russian oil, making it one of the highest of the many tariffs imposed during the president's ongoing global trade war.

India, one of the world's fastest growing economies and a key partner for the West in the Indo-Pacific region, is heavily reliant on trade with the U.S., its largest export market.

The 50% levy risks decades of warming ties between Washington and New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to stand firm in the face of what he termed "the politics of economic selfishness" and to defend the country's farmers and small businesses.

Vice President JD Vance — whose wife is the daughter of Indian immigrants — told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the U.S. had applied "aggressive economic leverage" on India to "try to make it harder for the Russians to get rich from their oil economy.”

Stock markets in India remained closed on Wednesday due to a public holiday.  Read the full story here.