New York
CNN
 — 

Maroš Šefčovič, the European Union’s trade commissioner, said in an interview with the Financial Times Thursday that the bloc is making “certain progress” toward a trade deal with the United States, which would involve buying €50 billion more of US products.

This deal would address the “problem” in the two superpowers’ trade relationship, he said.

But Financial Times reported that Šefčovič suggested the Trump administration would need to abandon its 10% across-the-board tariffs on European goods as a precursor to any trade arrangement.

Last month, President Donald Trump put in place 10% universal tariffs on virtually all goods coming into the United States and enacted – then delayed – even more aggressive “reciprocal” tariffs of up to 50% on certain countries. The 10% tariff on all trading partners, including the European Union, remain in place.

Šefčovič told the Financial Times he spoke with US trade representative Jamieson Greer and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on closing the United States’ trade deficit with Europe by buying more liquefied natural gas (LNG) and agriculture.

“If what we are looking at as a problem in the deficit is €50 billion, I believe that we can really . . . solve this problem very quickly through LNG purchases, through some agricultural products like soyabeans, or other areas,” Sefcovic said to FT.

However, he added it would be “very difficult” to reach an acceptable deal for EU member states and parliament.

Trade between the EU and United States has been fraught since the Trump administration briefly placed a 20% reciprocal tariff on all goods from the bloc on April 2, which Trump refers to as “Liberation Day.” Shortly after, he paused those tariffs for 90 days.

The EU then announced its own 90-day pause on countermeasures against the United States. “We want to give negotiations a chance,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the time.

The bloc had announced those retaliatory tariffs in response to steel and aluminum tariffs announced by Trump in March.

The whipsaw turns have left markets, governments and consumers alike confused and worried about what’s next.

Trump had repeated false claims about the EU, saying it was “formed for the purpose of taking advantage of the United States.”

CNN’s Christian Edwards, Thom Poole and James Frater contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

CNN
 — 

Sometimes, the simplest dishes are the most satisfying.

Suquet, a traditional Catalan seafood stew, is that kind of dish.

Its origins are humble — fishermen on the crystal clear waters of Catalonia’s Costa Brava historically prepared it on their boats with the catch of the day, making for a quick and easy meal to fuel a hard day’s work.

Fishermen still make suquet on their boats today. Over the years, as Spanish cuisine underwent a gastronomic revolution, the dish has also come to embody a tension at the heart of Catalonia’s distinct culture: between el seny, the practical, and la rouxa, the innovative.

The acclaimed chef Ferran Adrià transformed the humble suquet into a gourmet experience at El Bulli, the avant-garde Catalan restaurant that was voted the world’s best a record five times and where Adrià served as head chef.

Suquet was the first dish that Adrià learned to cook professionally, infusing traditional ingredients and methods with the creative spirit of modern Catalan gastronomy. The version he served at El Bulli until it closed in 2011 was made with red prawns, potato balls and seawater from the neighboring Cala Montjoi.

But in the first episode of the CNN series “Eva Longoria: Searching For Spain,” Adrià returns to suquet’s roots and prepares the stew on a boat, with his signature elevated twist.

“That particular dish is so simple, but when you’re eating it, you’re like, ‘What’s happening in my mouth?’” Eva Longoria tells CNN. “It’s an explosion of flavors.”

What makes suquet stand out, Longoria adds, is the quality of the ingredients.

Even if you don’t have the saltwater and fresh fish of the Mediterranean Sea at your fingertips, you can still give Adrià’s adaptation a whirl at home. Just use the freshest seafood and produce you can find and maybe get a little creative — in the true Catalan way.

This recipe is courtesy of Ferran Adrià.

Makes 4 servings

For the shrimp, essence and broth

28 shrimp (2.5 ounces each)

Olive oil

For the potatoes

24 small potatoes

For the aioli

3 cloves of garlic

Salt

150 grams olive oil (5.3 ounces)

For the suquet

24 turned potatoes (from previous preparation)

20 grams aioli (0.75 ounces)

150 grams shrimp broth (5.3 ounces)

shrimp essence

4 cloves of garlic

20 grams chopped parsley (0.8 ounces)

1 ripe tomato, around 65 g (2.3 ounces)

5 grams sweet paprika (0.2 ounces)

100 grams saltwater (about 2/5 of a cup)

60 grams butter (about 1/4 cup)

50 grams liquid cream, 35% m.g. (1.8 ounces)

50 grams olive oil (1.8 ounces)

Salt

For finishing

24 sprigs of fresh parsley

Olive oil

Salt

For the shrimp

For the shrimp essence

For the shrimp broth

For the potatoes

For the aioli

For the suquet

To serve

CNN
 — 

In the small Norwegian town of Bodø, located just inside the Arctic Circle, the days can be short and the winters bitterly cold. It’s hardly the type of place you’d expect to find an elite soccer team, especially when shovels are sometimes needed to clear fresh layers of snowfall from the local pitches.

A certain kind of fortitude and tenacity is needed to withstand the howling winds and freezing temperatures which batter the town for many months of the year, but Bodø/Glimt is no ordinary team and its proud army of supporters is no ordinary fanbase.

Having recently won a fourth Norwegian league title in five years, Bodø/Glimt is now used to rubbing shoulders with Europe’s soccer elite. On Thursday, the club will travel to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – a stadium with a capacity of 62,850, almost 10,000 more than the entire population of Bodø – to face Spurs in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League semifinal.

“Luckily for us players, we are quite used to it now. We’ve been through a lot of difficult games in big, big stadiums. So we are quite used to it, but for the city and for everyone else, I think it’s a bit shocking,” winger Jens Petter Hauge told CNN Sports ahead of the match against Tottenham.

Earlier this month, underdog Bodø/Glimt became the first Norwegian team to reach the semifinals of a European competition after besting Lazio on penalties in the return leg in Rome.

Now, the town and its fans are gearing up for Bodø’s next showdown.

“It was chaos. With the tickets for the match, we only had a few hundred to sell, and it was a lot of people trying to get the tickets. And it’s all people speak about now in the city. And if you go for a coffee or go to the shop, everyone wants to speak about this match,” Hauge added.

“It means everything for this club and the players who are here. We really want to show that we can compete on the biggest stage against the best clubs in the world,” he added.

It’s perhaps fortunate for Spurs that the second leg match in Bodø is taking place in May; in the winter months, teams visiting the Arctic Circle can face unique and unforgiving conditions.

“For us, we train in it a lot, so we’re kind of used to it compared to maybe those who come from warmer places in January,” midfielder Håkon Evjen told CNN earlier this year,

Evjen, currently in his second stint at the club, can count among his recent career highlights a wonderful, edge-of-the-area strike into the top corner to equalize against Manchester United at Old Trafford in November.

Even more remarkable than that goal was the fact that Bodø/Glimt was cheered on by more than 6,500 fans at the game, around 12% of Bodø’s 55,000 inhabitants. If ever there was a sign of how one town had become so devoted to its soccer club, then this was it.

“We have so much support and the entire town is now almost a football town,” said Evjen. “It’s beautiful to see how football can change the city and how people look at it. To play here now, it’s so much bigger than how it was a few years ago.”

Bodø/Glimt – “glimt” means “flash” and the team accordingly plays in all yellow – used to bounce between the top four divisions of Norwegian football. Success is only a recent phenomenon in the club’s 108-year history.

Under manager Kjetil Knutsen, the team has reaped the rewards of disciplined training sessions, a new, high-pressing style of play, and a clever recruitment strategy, blossoming into Norway’s most decorated side across the past five years.

Saltnes, who arrived at Bodø/Glimt more than a decade ago, said that the club now feels “worlds apart” compared to where it was when he joined. “I will almost rank it as semi-professional when I came through, whereas now it’s a top, top professional level,” he added.

When Bodø/Glimt won its first-ever league title in 2020, it did so in historic fashion, finishing a huge 19 points ahead of runner-up Molde FK and ending the campaign with a record-breaking 103 goals across 30 matches.

“It is a team, a coaching staff and a club that has changed really a lot for the better,” said Evjen, who played in the Netherlands and Denmark in between his two stints with Bodø/Glimt. “It’s really more professional and more committed to trying to be the best team in Norway.”

Thursday’s stand-off with Tottenham is just one of many challenges awaiting Bodø/Glimt, whose wider goal is to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history.

“We’ve come so close twice to reaching the Champions League, and that would really be a bit statement,” veteran midfielder Ulrik Saltnes told CNN Sports earlier this year. “Financially, it’s a totally different league and also just for everyone in European football, it would really show that Glimt is here to play.

“It’s not like, in a couple of years, you will never hear about us again. I think reaching the Champions League would really be the next step for the club.”