Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.
Trump delayed tariffs against Canada and MexicoPresident Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Canada struck last-minute deals today to postpone hefty tariffs that the U.S. planned to impose tomorrow on goods from the two countries. The agreements temporarily averted a North American trade war. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, announced this afternoon that Trump had agreed to postpone tariffs against Canada for 30 days as the two countries negotiate a border deal. Hours earlier, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico announced a similar pause after agreeing to a series of U.S. demands on border security, including a promise to send 10,000 more troops to the border. The U.S. is also expected to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons into Mexico. The last-minute maneuvering demonstrated Trump’s willingness to use tariffs as leverage against America’s most important trading partners. Imports from Mexico, Canada and China, another target of tariffs, account for more than a third of the products brought into the U.S. each year. Trump’s levies against China are still set to take effect tomorrow. He said he was planning to soon discuss the tariffs with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. However, the president described the 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports as an “opening salvo.” What’s next: Trump said he plans to soon turn his tariff threats toward Europe.
Aid agency staff members were shut out of their officesElon Musk declared early this morning that he and Trump had agreed to shut down the foreign aid agency known as U.S.A.I.D. Soon after, employees were told not to report to work today. And by midday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that he had taken over as acting administrator of the agency, which had been largely independent for decades. Senior officials have been suspended, and hundreds of civil servants and contractors have been iced out of U.S.A.I.D. systems without warning. Rubio said that many of the agency’s programs would continue, but blamed the change on its workers’ “insubordination.” More than 100 U.S.A.I.D. employees gathered in front of the agency’s headquarters in Washington with Democratic lawmakers to protest the moves. Democrats have denounced Musk’s planned shutdown as illegal because Congress created and funds the agency as a distinct entity. Here’s what U.S.A.I.D. does.
U.S. believes Iran is considering a faster, cruder nuclear weaponIran’s engineers are exploring how to rapidly turn their stockpiles of nuclear fuel into a workable, but perhaps crude, atomic weapon, according to U.S. officials. Iran’s leaders have not yet decided whether to pursue such a weapon, officials said, but as their proxy forces have suffered major losses, Iran has explored new ways to defend against an attack. The findings, based on intelligence collected near the end of the Biden administration, will almost certainly be discussed tomorrow, when the Israeli prime minister is set to meet with Trump. The question of whether to strike Iran’s facilities or negotiate with Tehran appears to be under debate. In other news from the Middle East, four models for Gaza’s postwar future are beginning to take shape.
Crews began clearing wreckage from D.C. plane crashSalvage crews lifted the first wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 from the Potomac River today. Officials hope that the effort will help investigators search for clues and give divers room to recover the remaining bodies of the 67 people who died in the midair crash between the jet and a U.S. Army helicopter near Washington. Investigators are focused, in part, on whether the military helicopter pilots were wearing night-vision goggles. More top news
For Beyoncé, the fifth time’s a charmBeyoncé was always an awkward underdog at the Grammys, having won more awards than any other artist in history but never securing one crucial victory. Last night, she finally erased that status once and for all, earning for the first time the top Grammy — album of the year. Earlier in the night, Kendrick Lamar won both of the top song prizes for “Not Like Us,” his Drake diss track. Chappell Roan capped a breakout year with a best new artist win. Odes to Los Angeles were woven throughout the show. For more: Here are the best and worst moments, and our favorite looks from the Grammys.
An L.A. artist was chosen to help rebuild Notre-DameOfficials in France have asked the artist Claire Tabouret to create several stained glass windows for the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Her designs, which she has laid out on paper and on plexiglass, will introduce a contemporary touch to the almost 1,000-year-old cathedral. The restoration project, which began after a devastating fire in 2019, now has parallels in Tabouret’s adopted hometown. She’s a native Frenchwoman who for a decade has lived in Los Angeles, not far from where wildfires broke out last month.
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