News

Sen. Ted Cruz has begged President Donald Trump to stop listening to the tariff hawks in his administration and “take the deal” countries are offering to lower trade barriers.

https://archive.ph/RBX67

Archived at https://archive.is/hJokJ

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250409111408/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/fbi-creates-multiagent-bodyguard-team-protect-dan-bongino-rcna199861

Summary

EU pharmaceutical companies warned of a potential investment exodus to the US after Donald Trump threatened major tariffs on drug imports.

Shares of leading firms like AstraZeneca and Sanofi dropped sharply, following newly imposed 20% “reciprocal” tariffs.

Industry group EFPIA—whose members include Bayer, Novartis, Novo Nordisk (maker of Ozempic), Pfizer, Lilly, Gilead, GSK, Teva, and Merck—met EU President Ursula von der Leyen hours before Trump’s remarks.

EFPIA said €16.5B in investment is at risk. Firms fear job losses and R&D shifts without urgent EU reforms.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250409105909/https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/04/07/international-student-visa-bu-harvard-tufts-umass

Related stories,

• Colleges around the US say some international students' visas are being revoked (archived)

• Visas revoked from several Johns Hopkins University students in Maryland, school says (archived

• U.S. government revokes visas of three international Duke University students, alumnus (archived)

• Several University of Wisconsin-Madison students, alumni have visas terminated by US government (archived)

• At least 50 ASU students have visas revoked by Trump administration, campus group says (archived)

• Penn State responds after international students’ visas revoked (archived)

• Seven international Ohio State students have had visas pulled by Trump administration (archived)

• UCLA, Stanford and other California universities reveal dozens of student visas were revoked (archived)

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250409110817/https://prismreports.org/2025/04/07/san-quentin-news-editor-in-chief-fired-for-prison-reform-efforts/

Davis Moturi lay awake in bed last October, eyes on the ceiling, unable to shake the burning image of his neighbor pointing a gun directly at him through the bedroom window.

The week before, that neighbor — a white man named John Sawchak — had brandished a large knife from his own upstairs window next door, where he often tracked Moturi. Sawchak had screamed racial slurs at Moturi, who is Black, threatening to kill him.

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He had been calling the police, pleading with them to do something for a year now, but they said they couldn’t do anything if Sawchak didn’t come outside. One officer suggested the couple move out, which Moturi later learned was what a Black family who previously lived in their house did, facing similar threats and no relief from the police.

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... days later, Moturi was shot while trimming a tree in his front yard. It took the police about five days after that to arrest Sawchak.

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MPR News combed through court documents and spent hours with Moturi, as he continues to recover from a year of torment police apparently couldn’t stop until after the trigger was pulled.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250409111223/https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/04/08/davis-moturi-reflects-on-being-shot-by-neighbor-john-sawchak-in-minneapolis

China announced retaliatory tariffs of 84% on imports of US goods on Wednesday, further inflaming a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

A Queens court’s failure to reveal a romance has sparked accusations of bias.

This year, the head of Connecticut’s Department of Motor Vehicles made a startling public admission, telling lawmakers that the agency, which regulates the towing industry, has never enforced a century-old law meant to protect drivers whose cars are towed.

Under that law, if vehicle owners don’t reclaim their towed cars or can’t afford the fees, towing companies can sell them, but they are required to hold onto the proceeds for a year so the vehicle owner can claim the money. Tow companies are entitled to subtract their fees. But, even if the owner still doesn’t come forward, the companies aren’t supposed to pocket the profits and must turn over any remaining money to the state.

DMV Commissioner Tony Guerrera told lawmakers the agency had never set up a process to accept deposits and wasn’t tracking whether any money had come in.

In fact, the DMV commissioner said he wasn’t aware of that part of the statute until The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica brought it to his attention last fall as part of an investigation into how Connecticut’s laws favor towing companies at the expense of drivers. After the story’s publication, the state treasurer’s office audited its deposits and determined that no tow truck company or the DMV had ever turned over money from sales in the history of the law.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250409111520/https://www.propublica.org/article/connecticut-dmv-towing-law-enforcement

It’s impossible to know exactly how many, since Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, only releases names in select cases. But the number of detentions of people with clean or old criminal records includes two Mauritanians seeking asylum after claiming to have been enslaved or beaten by police in their home country and a Mexican man who has worked for the same market off of Tower Road since 2016 with not so much as a traffic ticket. Supporters say it also includes an outspoken activist from Mexico with an old and minor criminal history. She was later named as one of the most influential people in the United States but remains a thorn in the side for immigration authorities.

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The immigrants interviewed by CPR News all have fates awaiting decisions by immigration judges, who are employees of the U.S. Department of Justice. Many of the new arrivals are in various stages of appeals and quests for asylum.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250409105904/https://www.cpr.org/2025/04/07/undocumented-immigrants-without-criminal-records-detained-by-ice/

Search efforts continued early on Wednesday after nearly 100 people died in a nightclub roof collapse in the Dominican Republic.

The popular Dominican merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was performing at the Jet Set nightclub before hundreds of people when the collapse occurred shortly after midnight on Tuesday, was one of those killed, according to his manager.

Relatives of clubgoers gathered around the disaster site in the capital, Santo Domingo, as rescuers ferried the injured to hospital and used a crane to remove debris.

“We have some friends here, a niece, a cousin, some friends, who are in the rubble,” said Rodolfo Espinal as he waited for information on his loved ones.

About 370 rescue personnel combed mounds of fallen bricks, steel bars and tin sheets for survivors.

Why the threat is far from over, regardless of state lines.

The US Department of State is "alarmed" by the Thai authorities' arrest of US academic Dr Paul Chambers, said department spokesperson Tammy Bruce in a statement issued today (9 April), and is closely monitoring the situation.

According to analysis conducted by Israeli human rights organisation, Yesh Din, published last year, the mechanism set up by the IDF’s general staff to investigate potential war crimes is designed to avoid responsibility while giving the impression that a process is taking place.

Of that, the organisation says, “542 (81.6%) incidents were closed without a criminal investigation, with “just 41 incidents (6%)” leading to a criminal investigation.

That led Yesh Din to conclude that “the results of Israel’s law enforcement mechanism’s work over the past decade shows that it rarely opens investigations against junior-ranking soldiers and completely refrains from investigating decision makers at the top command levels”.

Japan's Nikkei 225 dipped more than 5% and other Asian shares also sank Wednesday as the latest set of U.S. tariffs, including a massive 104% levy on Chinese imports, took effect.

Idaho police officers opened fire from behind a chain-link fence just seconds after exiting their patrol cars and critically wounded a teenage boy — described by his family as nonverbal, autistic and intellectually disabled — as he stepped toward them with a knife, video from a witness shows.

Seventeen-year-old Victor Perez, who also has cerebral palsy, remained hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday after having nine bullets removed from his body and having his leg amputated, Ana Vazquez, his aunt, told The Associated Press. Doctors were planning tests on his brain activity.

The shooting Saturday in Pocatello outraged the boy’s family and neighbors as well as viewers online who questioned why the officers opened fire within about 12 seconds of exiting their patrol cars while making no apparent effort to de-escalate the situation or use less lethal weapons. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the police department Sunday, eastidahonews.com reported.

April 8 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. will soon announce a "major" tariff on pharmaceutical imports. Speaking to an event at the National Republican Congressional Committee, Trump said the tariff will incentivize drug companies to move their operations to the U.S.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/28326728

Delaney Nolan in Jena, Louisiana
Tue 8 Apr 2025 17.04 EDT

"An immigration judge ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration has until 5pm on Wednesday to present evidence as to why Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate, should be deported. She said that if the evidence does not support deportation, she may rule on Friday on his release from immigration detention."

The UN Secretary-General on Tuesday warned that when it comes to trade wars, “nobody wins” and “everybody tends to lose.”