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Trump’s new tariff math looks a lot like ChatGPT’s — ‘extraordinary nonsense’

Trump’s new tariff math looks a lot like ChatGPT’s — ‘extraordinary nonsense’

The Verge reports: When President Donald Trump began yesterday’s announcement of the White House’s latest trade policy brandishing a novelty-sized cardboard sign labeled “Reciprocal Tariffs,” the immediate and nearly unanimous response was bafflement. Trump slapped a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports into the US, including from uninhabited islands, plus absurdly high rates on specific countries, supposedly based on “tariffs charged to the USA” — which didn’t match up to other, non-cardboard-sign-based estimates. Stock markets have plummeted and consumers…

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Macron calls on EU companies to freeze investments in America

Macron calls on EU companies to freeze investments in America

Politico reports: French President Emmanuel Macron wants EU businesses to stop investing in America in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s massive tariffs. “It is important that future investments, the investments announced over the last few weeks, should be put on hold for some time until we have clarified things with the United States of America,” Macron said on Thursday as he hosted a meeting with representatives of the sectors impacted and the government at the Elysée palace. “What message…

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Laura Loomer directs Trump to fire six National Security Council officials

Laura Loomer directs Trump to fire six National Security Council officials

The New York Times reports: President Trump fired six National Security Council officials after an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office with the far-right activist Laura Loomer, who laid out a list of people she believed were disloyal to the president, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter. The six officials were among those vilified by Ms. Loomer during the meeting on Wednesday, the official said. Ms. Loomer walked into the White House with a sheaf…

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What to know about Saturday’s nationwide ‘Hands Off!’ anti-Trump protests

What to know about Saturday’s nationwide ‘Hands Off!’ anti-Trump protests

Axios reports: A nationwide anti-President Trump movement on Saturday, “Hands Off!,” is expected to be the largest single-day protest since he entered office. Why it matters: The Trump administration’s wide-reaching and ground-shaking policies have mobilized a varied cross section of Americans affected by political, economic, social and legal changes. “This is not just corruption,” the Hands Off! website said. “This is not just mismanagement. This is a hostile takeover.” By the numbers: More than 1,100 rallies, visibility events and meetings were scheduled in all 50 states…

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Investors flee U.S. stocks as markets react sharply to Trump’s tariff plan

Investors flee U.S. stocks as markets react sharply to Trump’s tariff plan

NBC News reports: Global markets reacted sharply and swiftly after President Donald Trump revealed his much-anticipated tariff plans Wednesday, with investors fleeing U.S. stock indexes and companies that rely on global supply chains seeing their stocks plummet. S&P 500 futures, which indicate where it will likely open on Thursday, plunged 3.5%. Nasdaq 100 futures sold off by more than 4.3%, and Dow futures slid about 1,000 points or 2.3%. Those indices just endured their worst quarter in years in large…

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Musk’s anticipated departure comes as the tech mogul increasingly looks like a political liability

Musk’s anticipated departure comes as the tech mogul increasingly looks like a political liability

Rachael Bade writes: President Donald Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man. The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role,…

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BYD posts robust growth in car sales as it takes on Tesla globally

BYD posts robust growth in car sales as it takes on Tesla globally

CNN reports: Chinese electric vehicle champion BYD has reported a 60% surge in sales in the first quarter of the year as archrival Tesla stumbles. The EV maker based in the southern Chinese megacity of Shenzhen sold just over one million new-energy vehicles in the first three months of 2025 – including battery-powered cars, hybrids and commercial vehicles – according to a CNN calculation based on its latest stock exchange filing. Its sales of pure EVs soared 39% to more…

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Frank Luntz: Cory Booker’s Senate floor speech may change course of political history

Frank Luntz: Cory Booker’s Senate floor speech may change course of political history

  The Hill reports: Longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) “may have changed the course of political history” with his marathon speech breaking the Senate’s record for the longest floor speech in its history. “I want to emphasize what Cory Booker did over the last 24 hours may have changed the course of political history. I watched a lot of it. I listened to words.  I listened to phrases,” Luntz said during a Tuesday evening appearance…

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This is what a police state looks like

This is what a police state looks like

Masha Gessen writes: “It’s the unmarked cars,” a friend who grew up under an Argentine dictatorship said. He had watched the video of the Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction. In the video, which Khalil’s wife recorded, she asks for the names of the men in plainclothes who handcuffed her husband. “We don’t give our name,” one responds. “Can you please specify what agency is taking him?” she pleads. No response. We know now that Khalil was detained by Immigration…

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Trump’s Salvadoran Gulag

Trump’s Salvadoran Gulag

Adam Serwer writes: One thing that could be said about many—and possibly all—of the more than 100 men removed from the United States by the Trump administration under the archaic Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is that Donald Trump has been convicted of more crimes than they have. Trump, after all, was convicted of 34 felony counts by a jury of his peers in New York City for faking business records in order to cover up his hush-money payment to…

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Israel’s latest vision for Gaza has a name: Concentration camp

Israel’s latest vision for Gaza has a name: Concentration camp

Meron Rapoport reports: Two weeks ago, the right-wing Israeli journalist Yinon Magal posted the following on X: “This time, the IDF intends to evacuate all residents of the Gaza Strip to a new humanitarian zone that will be arranged for long-term stay, will be enclosed, and anyone entering it will first be checked to ensure they are not a terrorist. The IDF will not allow a rogue population to refuse evacuation this time. Anyone remaining outside the humanitarian zone will…

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Trump wants the Supreme Court to let him have black sites where migrants have no constitutional rights

Trump wants the Supreme Court to let him have black sites where migrants have no constitutional rights

Mark Joseph Stern writes: The Trump administration inadvertently revealed on Monday that it is attempting to trap Venezuelan migrants in a catch-22 that would effectively block them from challenging their deportation and detention in an El Salvador prison. In a court filing, the government acknowledged that it had deported at least one migrant to El Salvador due to an “administrative error”—but argued that the individual had no right to contest his imprisonment because he is in the custody of a “foreign sovereign.” This…

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All Americans should defend campus protesters

All Americans should defend campus protesters

Xochitl Gonzalez writes: One day this fall, while on campus at Brown University, I was met by two students—cellphones raised, cameras recording. They had spun off from a larger group protesting Brown’s decision not to divest from Israel. They recognized me as a trustee of the university and saw an opportunity to take me to task. They followed me for perhaps a block or two, calling me a hypocrite. For at least one of the students, the war in Gaza…

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Universities that fail to mount a united opposition are ‘about to cost us our democracy’

Universities that fail to mount a united opposition are ‘about to cost us our democracy’

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has turned campaign promises to target universities into devastating action, pulling hundreds of millions in federal funds from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. On Monday, the Trump administration went after Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, announcing that it would review about $9 billion in contracts and multiyear grants. It accused the university of failing to protect Jewish students and promoting “divisive ideologies over free inquiry.” Harvard had been bracing for…

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