President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on higher targeted tariffs for most countries, excluding China, which now faces a 125% duty. The pause was due to over 75 trading partners not retaliating and seeking discussions. Canada and Mexico will maintain a 10% tariff, while the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will have no tariffs. The European Union plans to impose fresh retaliatory duties next week. Matt Gagnon criticized the inconsistency in the Trump administration’s tariff justifications, noting the shift from economic arguments to bilateral trade deals. He emphasized the need for clear objectives and consistent messaging.
Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill. This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash has already hit much of the East.
An inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved higher in January in the latest sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs.
A man with a rifle who crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials are saying was an attack had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official said Friday.
House lawmakers were digging into Jeffrey Epstein's sprawling financial portfolio on Wednesday as a committee deposed his former accountant and tried to understand his connections to some of the world's wealthiest men.
