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CSMS # 64724565 - UPDATED GUIDANCE - Reciprocal Tariff Exclusion for Specified Products; April 5, 2025 Effective Date — The purpose of this message is to provide further guidance on the additional duties due on imported merchandise which were imposed by Executive Order 14257, issued April 2 …
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NPR, HotAir, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, TechCrunch, CBS News, Politico, Tom's Hardware, Fortune, Raw Story, Federal Register, The Gateway Pundit and Mediaite
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Apple, Nvidia Score Relief From US Tariffs With Exemptions — President Donald Trump's administration exempted smartphones, computers and other electronics from its so-called reciprocal tariffs, representing a major reprieve for global technology manufacturers including Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp. even if it proves a temporary one.
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USA Today, The Verge, Fox Business, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, CNBC, RedState, NBC News and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »


Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from new tariffs … Smartphones and computers will be exempted from President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs, according to new guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. — The guidance comes after Trump earlier this month imposed 125% tariffs …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Axios, New York Post, UPI and The Post Millennial


Trump excludes smartphones from reciprocal tariffs — Tech including routers and selected computers get reprieve after a week of turbulence in US markets — The Trump administration has excluded smartphones from its steep “reciprocal” tariffs as it battles to calm global markets by tempering …


Trump Administration Live Updates: New Rule Exempts Smartphones and Computers From Most Tariffs — Where Things Stand — Smartphone reprieve: The Trump administration published a rule late Friday night that appears to exempt many electronic parts and devices from most of the president's punishing tariffs …
Discussion:
Mostly signs


Smartphones and computers are now exempt from Trump's latest tariffs
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Scripps News, ABC News, Business Insider, One America News Network, Mediaite, Forbes and Wired


Trump administration overrode Social Security staff to list immigrants as dead — A senior executive who objected was marched out of his office and put on leave, while earlier warnings about the agency's deaths database were ignored. — Just now — Two days after the Social Security …
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Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador — Trump officials are talking internally about denaturalizing American citizens — and potentially sending some to El Salvador — Donald Trump and his White House have moved to deport green-card holders for espousing pro-Palestinian views …
Discussion:
Twitchy and New Republic
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Trump's Horrifying Removal of Man in “Error” Takes an Even Darker Turn
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New York Times, Associated Press, Vox, Law & Crime, Scripps News, WHDH-TV and Politico

Supreme Court avoids confronting Trump so far, even when it rules against him
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Mother Jones, Bloomberg, NPR and Washington Post


Staffers Walk Out of RFK Jr.'s Slur-Ridden Speech About Deep State — LOSING HEARTS AND MINDS — In Kennedy's bonkers speech to FDA employees on Friday, he accused agency employees of being shills for the industries they regulate. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stunned FDA staff Friday …
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HHS officials did not know how many people have been fired
Discussion:
Politico

FDA to replace laid-off employees with contractors, sources say
Discussion:
Politico, STAT and TechCrunch


Musk's Latest Fraud Finding Isn't What It Seems — His team found cases of seemingly fake people receiving unemployment benefits. But that fake data exists for a reason. — Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency announced this week that they had found something especially startling …
Discussion:
Boston Herald


‘Why are high fertility people always so weird?’: A weekend with the pronatalists — CNN's Meena Duerson travels to Austin to join roughly 200 “pronatalists” for the second-ever Natal Conference, an event devoted to discussing the world's declining birth rates and potential solutions.


Trump grants military control over strip of federal land along US southern border — It marks an escalation in the president's use of the military to facilitate his sweeping immigration agenda. — A 60-foot wide strip of land along three southwestern border states will be placed under …
Discussion:
Raw Story
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Donald Trump authorizes U.S. military to take control of land on southern border
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The Independent, Bloomberg, KRDO and CBS News

Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions
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The Guardian, UPI, Baltimore Sun, Axios, The Federalist, New York Post, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, The Gateway Pundit and Migrant Insider


“Slow Pay, Low Pay or No Pay” — Uncovered: How the Insurance Industry Denies Coverage to Patients — Shortchanged: Blue Cross Louisiana OK'd mastectomies and breast reconstructions for women with cancer but refused to pay a hospital's full bills. For some claims, it paid nothing.


Trump Cuts Funds for Boston's Museum of African American History — When people ask me to take them to the most important historic site in Boston, I take them to the Museum of African American History (MAAH) on Beacon Hill. The museum, located in Smith Court along Joy Street …
Discussion:
The Chicago Crusader and Vanity Fair


Trump Wants to Be Impeached Again — It's already in the cards thanks to his ill-founded trade war, no matter how that war plays out. — This week the system worked. Donald Trump blinked. The unwinding is still just beginning. It will be painful and tumultuous.
Discussion:
Raw Story


USDA's $1B bird flu plan uses money intended for schools, food banks — The move tees up a major political fight over the Trump administration's priorities — and the small pot of money USDA has to spread around. — Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' $1 billion plan for fighting bird flu …
Discussion:
Carolina Journal


F.B.I. Suspends Bureau Employee on Patel's So-Called Enemies List — The employee was a longtime counterintelligence analyst who had worked on the F.B.I.'s investigation examining Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. — The F.B.I. has suspended an analyst on Kash Patel's …


US ‘demands control’ from Ukraine of key pipeline carrying Russian gas — Senior Kyiv economist describes latest postion of Trump administration in talks as ‘colonial-type’ bullying — The US has demanded control of a crucial pipeline in Ukraine used to send Russian gas to Europe …
Discussion:
The Kyiv Independent, KRDO and New York Times


‘Completely out of touch’: golf and dinners for ‘king’ Trump as economy melts down — Casual attitude as markets fall suggests man detached from anxieties of ordinary voters - and surrounded by yes men — After lighting a fuse under global financial markets, Donald Trump stepped back - all the way to a Florida golf course.
Discussion:
Raw Story


DOGE takes over federal grants website, wresting control of billions — A DOGE engineer removed users' access to grants.gov, threatening to further slow the process of awarding thousands of federal grants per year. — U.S. DOGE Service employees have inserted themselves …


For some students who protested war in Gaza, fear and silence is a new campus reality — Last spring, Cornell University was home to a student encampment, where dozens slept in tents on the quad to protest Israel's war in Gaza. The demonstration lasted more than two weeks.
Discussion:
The Independent Florida …, Raw Story, WBUR, New York Daily News and Semafor


Bessent Takes Tricky Center Stage as Trade Wars Roil U.S. Economy — The Treasury secretary received counsel and criticism from some of his predecessors over President Trump's policies. — The traditional gathering of former Treasury secretaries to welcome a newly minted one into the fold …


‘A new golden age’: how rightwing media stuck by Trump as global markets collapsed — Trump's tariffs were sometimes played down, sometimes cheered but rarely seriously questioned by the right — While Donald Trump recently instituted and paused hefty tariffs, sparking a trade war and chaos …


Canadians freeze visits to the US over Trump — Tourism from the north tanks amid annexation talk, tariff whiplash and border stops. — NEW YORK — Marketers for top U.S. destinations are trumpeting a reminder to Canadians amid a dive in tourism: You're welcome here regardless of who's president.


How the G.O.P. Fell in Love With Putin's Russia … In 1989, shortly before the fall of communism, Boris Yeltsin — the reformer who would soon become the first freely elected president of post-Soviet Russia — visited a supermarket in Houston, Texas, and was overwhelmed by the dizzying array of meats and vegetables on offer.


Trump Says He Aced a Cognitive Test During Physical Exam … President Donald Trump said he underwent and passed a cognitive exam during a roughly four-hour physical exam conducted on Friday by his physician. — “I took a cognitive test and I don't know what to tell you other than I got every answer right …
Discussion:
The Daily Wire, The Independent, New York Post, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Examiner, The Hill, CBS News, NPR, ABC News and Associated Press


Federal judge orders USDA to unfreeze funds to Maine — A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funding that was allocated to Maine from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — funds that had been withheld following President Trump's clash with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the issue of transgender athletes.