Yesterday, President Trump said he would talk directly with Hollywood officials to see if they were “happy” with his proposal to put a tariff on foreign-made films entering the US. In the meantime, industry players shared their reactions.

What’s happening

On Sunday, Trump announced the tariff in a Truth Social post lamenting the dying US movie industry and saying foreign countries’ tax incentives for film companies amounted to a national security threat. In response, big entertainment stocks like Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Comcast saw sharp declines yesterday before stabilizing by the end of the trading session.

Why? Investors thought Trump’s plan spelled trouble for the film and TV industry. Netflix, for instance, produces an estimated ~75% of its total content internationally.

The president has a point

From 2021 to 2024, film and TV production spending in the US dropped 28%, according to research firm ProdPro. Tax incentives and lower labor costs have attracted the industry to Canada and overseas to countries like Australia and parts of the UK:

• Last year, about two-thirds of the money the UK film industry earned came from US studios and streaming platforms.
• Los Angeles just wrapped its worst year in three decades for on-location filming in the city aside from 2020.

There are still a lot of questions…industry experts and analysts say a blanket tariff, as opposed to some kind of federal film incentive, which unions have advocated for, is confusing and could end up harming the industry. For starters, tariffs are usually reserved for physical goods and enforced by border agents. You could put a tariff on DVDs, but it’s unclear what part of the production would get the levy. Some movies are filmed partly in the US and partly abroad, or a film could shoot in the US and then be edited in the UK.—MM

OpenAI’s nonprofit will remain in control of the company. In a blog post on Monday, CEO Sam Altman announced that the nonprofit organization that has been in control of the ChatGPT-maker since 2019 will remain so, while OpenAI’s for-profit LLC will be converted to a public benefit corporation. Altman’s U-turn on his plan to make the company a more traditional for-profit represents a win for those who openly opposed the proposal and called for the tech organization to remain true to its founding principles—most notably, Elon Musk, an OpenAI co-founder who now runs the competing company xAI. When asked about the feud with Musk on a call with journalists, Altman responded, “We are obsessed with our mission and what it takes to fulfill that. You all are obsessed with Elon, that’s your job—like, more power to you.” OpenAI was valued at $300 billion in a recent funding round led by SoftBank.

Air traffic controllers lost touch with all planes at Newark for 90 seconds. Bloomberg quoted anonymous sources as saying that the air traffic controllers who guide planes into Newark Liberty International Airport lost all radar and radio communication for about a minute and a half on April 28, which resulted in staff reduction and contributed to the week of delays the airport subsequently weathered. One of the sources said there is no backup for when those systems fail, and controllers can only wait for them to come back online. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union representing the ATCs, confirmed the incident happened and that members did not simply walk off the job, as United CEO Scott Kirby characterized in a statement last week. CNN reported that at least five FAA employees took 45 days of trauma leave following the incident.

Private equity is buying Skechers. And not just a few pairs—the entire company. The firm 3G Capital will take the sneaker company private in a deal valued at $9.4 billion, a 30% premium on Skechers’s current valuation. Founded by CEO Robert Greenberg and his son Michael in 1992, the shoe brand originally focused on grunge boots, but later expanded into family footwear and athletics. It went public in 1999, and today stands out as a go-to for light-up kids’ shoes and pickleball kicks made with Goodyear rubber. Under the deal, both Greenbergs will stay on to lead the company, along with their COO. The announcement did not mention any concerns over tariffs, although 66% of the company’s revenue comes from outside the US, and China accounts for 15%, according to FactSet.—HVL

Uncle Sam began collecting defaulted student debt yesterday for the first time since imposing a Covid-era pause in March 2020. Borrowers who have missed payments for more than 270 days will start getting their debt deducted from tax refunds, wages, and government benefits, the Trump administration said.

Among the 42 million Americans with federal student loans, a record share have missed payments, per TransUnion:

• Over 5 million borrowers are in default, meaning they are at least 270 days behind on payments, and 4 million more are in late-stage delinquency (90+ days behind).
• Only a third of Americans with federal loans have been making regular payments during the pause, according to the Department of Education.

Ending up in collections for student loan default is a credit score smasher, with defaulters’ ratings at risk of sinking as much as 171 points, according to the New York Fed, making it more difficult for them to take out future loans and rent housing.

How can you find out if you’ve defaulted?

Borrowers can check their federal student loan status at StudentAid.gov. Defaulted debtors will get an email from the Federal Student Aid office in the next few weeks referring them to the Education Department’s Default Resolution Group.

There are options for anyone with loan trouble, including income-driven repayment programs, consolidating loans to prolong repayment, or getting a loan payment pause through forbearance or deferment.—SK

Clear the roads for Transformers whose only form is truck: Self-driving semis are officially making long-haul deliveries in Texas without anybody onboard—an achievement expected to become more common over the next year.

Leading the charge: The autonomous freight firm Aurora is now hauling goods on a popular route between Dallas and Houston without a safety driver present, the company announced last Thursday, following four years of practice runs:

• Aurora said it had already logged 1,200 human-free miles.
• Its first customers are Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines.

Savor every chance you get to beg a truck driver to honk their horn. More than 1 in 10 freight trucks you see on US roads will be self-driven in 2035, according to a McKinsey analysis that also pegged a trucking company’s cost-per-mile savings at 42% if it automates an entire fleet. Truckers unions have generally criticized automation as a threat to their job security and public safety, since self-driving vehicles lack federal regulation.

Looking ahead...at least 10 more companies are closing in on their own self-driving truck tech, with most planning to launch commercially by next year, according to Axios.—ML

“Drippy Pope” was fake, but can “Influencer Pope” become a reality? ABC News took a look at the social media habits of some current members of the College of Cardinals, who will begin the process of selecting a new pope tomorrow.

Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, the archbishop of Tokyo, has a modest Instagram following of around 3,000 but is not afraid to post a selfie. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the former archbishop of the Philippines, has 642,000 followers on Facebook.

But it’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, who seems most at home in the digital age. He has almost 300,000 followers on X, where he has been posting videos from around Rome and even some news of the cardinals’ meeting locations leading up to the conclave.

Gustavo Entrala, a former communications consultant for the late Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, said he can’t imagine any of the cardinals are actively “posting for the fact that they want to be elected.” However, the next pope will lead the 1.4 billion members of the Catholic Church, so it makes sense that candidates would want to connect with them.—HVL