Original Publish Date » April 3 , 2025
Last Updated » 2 weeks

» Entire staff is fired at the office that helps poorer Americans pay for heating » The move threatens to paralyze the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps to offset high utility bills for roughly 6.2 million people nationwide. (NYT)

» French President Emmanuel Macron called on European businesses to stop investing in America in response to Trump’s massive tariffs (Politico)

» The Trump administration threatened to withhold funding from K-12 public schools unless officials verified the elimination of all programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). (AP / NYT)

» Trump defying court order » Radio Free Europe says Washington shut off its Russian broadcast despite restraining order. Washington has switched off a satellite transmitting the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty into Russia, chief executive Stephen Capus said Thursday. (France 24)

» Stock markets fell sharply worldwide, especially in the US, after Trump enacted aggressive tariff measures as part of his broader trade war »

  • Markets close » Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) was down 3.78%; The Dow Jones industrial (DJI) was down 1679 points (3.98%) from yesterday’s close; Nasdaq was down 5.97%; S&P down 4.84%. The Canadian Dollar is up .89%
  • The US dollar, measured against six other currencies, slid to its lowest level since October 2024.
  • Stocks in major decline as Trump’s tariffs spark global trade war – Dow falls over 1,600 points as all 3 major US market indexes post their worst day since 2020  (CNN)

» Meanwhile, Trump claimed his tariff plan is “going very well” (CNBC)

» Penguins and polar bears outnumber people in some of Trump’s tariff-hit territories (Global News)

  • Why did Trump spare Russia from import taxes (NYT), while at the same time, imposed them on goods from two uninhabited, barren islands – Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean (Axios)

» Trump’s tariffs are an economic emergency. If implemented, the US’s average tariff rate would be higher than under Smoot-Hawley. They would constitute the largest tax increase since the 1968 levies to fund the Vietnam war. Our trade partners would retaliate. By raising taxes and prices, they would erode household income and spending. Business investment spending and US exports would be hit hard. If sustained, this trade war would be likely to cause a recession. (Financial Times)

» Chinese officials moved quickly on Thursday to align with other nations after Trump unveiled America’s steepest tariffs in a century. Trump’s decision to boost tariffs on almost every country is giving China’s Xi Jinping a rare opening to deepen relationships across the world, including with key US allies in Asia and beyond. (Bloomberg)

» The new tariffs are economically illiterate, self-destructive, top-to-bottom nonsense, imposed with no sense of rhyme or reason, assembled by White House staffers who do not know which territories have serious trade relationships with the U.S. and which ones are inhabited entirely by penguins.” (National Review)

» Dow drops 1,400 as US stocks lead worldwide sell-off after Trump’s import taxes (AP)

» Republicans plan to skirt Senate rules to push through more tax cuts (NYT)

» Every car is about to get more expensive. ‘It’s just math,’ former Ford CEO says (CNN)

» A US anti-Trump movement on Saturday is expected to be the largest single-day protest since Trump entered office. More than 1,100 rallies, visibility events and meetings were scheduled in all 50 states. (Axios)