Back and Forth: President Trump has announced a 90-day pause on new tariffs against all countries except China, just a week after what experts called a "nuclear bomb" on global trade. Global reciprocal tariffs have been reduced to 10%, while anti-China taxes have surged to a historic 125%. The decision marks a sharp reversal from the steep tariffs the President announced on April 2, which included significant duties on imports from countries such as Japan (24%), Vietnam (46%), and Cambodia (49%). Last week's announcement sent markets into disarray: Nintendo delayed pre-orders for the recently announced Switch 2, customers rushed to Apple Stores fearing imminent price hikes, two laptop manufacturers paused US shipments, and Micron raised SSD prices, just to name a few. Alright, I think people knew of the tariff pause and traded it beforehand. You can see before Trump posted "buy" on Truth Social, traders opened $QQQ $TQQQ and $SPY calls RIGHT BEFORE THE NEWS, someone opened $SPY 509 calls, expiring TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those calls are up 2100% in one hour. [image or embed] – Unusual Whales (@unusualwhales.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 2:21 PM In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that the US has begun new trade negotiations with over 75 countries, framing the pause as a successful intimidation tactic. However, billionaire Elon Musk and members of the President's own party have criticized the tariffs, which far exceeded expectations. Some analysts are now questioning whether market activity surrounding the announcement points to deliberate stock manipulation. // Related Stories White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the current universal reciprocal tariff rate stands at 10%. However, The Washington Post noted that the total tariffs on Mexico and Canada remain unclear, possibly ranging between 10% and 35%. Trump appears to have stepped back from a full-blown global trade war just hours after the April 2 tariffs went into effect – but tensions with China are intensifying. The economic fallout could significantly impact prices and the availability of many goods. To recap: on April 2, the President raised anti-China tariffs to 54%, and later increased them to 104%. In response, China imposed an 84% tariff on US imports and began restricting exports of rare earth metals – a move that eerily mirrors the plot of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which was released in 2012 and set in the year 2025. The White House then retaliated with the latest increase to 125%. TL;DR: The new U.S. tariff rate against our two largest trading partners is either 10%, 25% or 35%, and so far no one I've reached out to at the White House is able to tell me which. [image or embed] – Megan Cassella (@megancnbc.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 2:38 PM The pause on most tariffs for countries like Vietnam and Cambodia will likely bring relief to companies such as Nintendo, which had already begun shifting manufacturing away from China. However, divesting from the country is difficult. A recent Bloomberg report highlights that products like laptops, smartphones, batteries, and other small appliances are still heavily dependent on Chinese imports. Even when devices aren't assembled in China, they rely on supply chains that run through China and many other countries.

If the most affordable laptop deals you’ve found are still beyond your budget, it might be time to consider going for a Chromebook. Check out this offer: a $50 discount on the Acer Chromebook 315 that brings its price down further from an already low $229 to just $179. We’re not sure how much time you’ve got until the stocks that are up for sale run out, so if you’re interested in this device, you’re going to have to push forward with your transaction for it immediately. Chromebooks are laptops that run on Google’s Chrome OS, which heavily depends on web-based apps. This dependency on the internet means they have low overhead, for quick startups and snappy performance even when the device comes with low-end hardware. That’s what you’ll get with the Acer Chromebook 315 — it’s equipped with the Intel Celeron N4500 processor and 4GB of RAM, which are a far cry from the specifications of the best laptops, but it will be quick enough to handle basic tasks for work or school. The Acer Chromebook 315 features a 15.6-inch Full HD screen, which is large and sharp enough so that you can clearly see what you’re doing, but not too big to drag down its portability. It’s still easy to carry anywhere, which will allow you to take advantage of its battery life of up to 10 hours. The Chromebook only has a 64GB eMMC for storage, but you can use any of the best cloud storage services for access to all of your important files from anywhere. Related For those who are searching for Chromebook deals, you should consider going for the Acer Chromebook 315, especially now that it’s even more affordable with $50 in savings from Walmart. From $229, it’s further down to only $179, but we don’t think this price will last long. There’s a chance that the stocks of the Acer Chromebook 315 sell out as soon as tomorrow, so if you want to take advantage of the discount, we highly recommend proceeding with your purchase of the device as soon as possible. Editors’ Recommendations

Remodeled by Selldorf Architects, the New York museum has gained space and free-flowing paths of movement through a series of humble but imaginative interventions.

Who needs science? Trump administration’s attack on university research accelerates With billions in grants put on hold, targeted universities will see research crippled. John Timmer – Apr 9, 2025 6:15 pm | 12 Credit: Bruce Yuanyue Bi Credit: Bruce Yuanyue Bi Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Shortly after its inauguration, the Trump administration has made no secret that it isn't especially interested in funding research. Before January's end, major science agencies had instituted pauses on research funding, and grant funding has not been restored to previous levels since. Many individual grants have been targeted on ideological grounds, and agencies like the National Science Foundation are expected to see significant cuts. Since then, individual universities have been targeted, starting with an ongoing fight with Columbia University over $400 million in research funding. This week, however, it appears that the targeting of university research has entered overdrive, with multiple announcements of funding freezes targeting several universities. Should these last for any considerable amount of time, they will likely cripple research at the targeted universities. On Wednesday, Science learned that the National Institutes of Health has frozen all of its research funding to Columbia, despite the university agreeing to steps previously demanded by the administration and the resignation of its acting president. In 2024, Columbia had received nearly $700 million in grants from the NIH, with the money largely going to the university's prestigious medical and public health schools. But the attack goes well beyond a single university. On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced a hold on all research funding to Northwestern University (nearly $800 million) and Cornell University ($1 billion). These involved money granted by multiple government agencies, including a significant amount from the Department of Defense in Cornell's case. Ostensibly, all of these actions were taken because of the university administrators' approach to protests about the conflict in Gaza, which the administration has characterized as allowing antisemitism. However, Princeton University ended up being targeted this week purely due to the results of its research. The Department of Commerce, which houses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), terminated $4 million in funding for climate research at Princeton. It accuses the research programs of fostering "climate anxiety" and, in a remarkable bit of candor, admitted that funding was being cut because it didn't produce results the administration liked: This cooperative agreement suggests that the Earth will have a significant fluctuation in its water availability as a result of global warming. Using federal funds to perpetuate these narratives does not align with the priorities of this Administration and such time and resources can be better utilized elsewhere. (Separately, the administration also ended funding for the US Global Change Research Program, which produces a congressionally mandated climate assessment.) While the $4 million hit to Princeton won't precipitate a crisis, the remainder of these actions—all in the neighborhood of $700 million to $1 billion—will lead to a crisis that no amount of university endowment can fix. If they go on for any length of time, researchers will have to be laid off, facilities closed, and populations of research animals will likely need to be culled. It's a series of events that will make it difficult for any university to re-establish a research program anytime soon. John Timmer Senior Science Editor John Timmer Senior Science Editor John is Ars Technica's science editor. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. When physically separated from his keyboard, he tends to seek out a bicycle, or a scenic location for communing with his hiking boots. 12 Comments

Allison Bailey/NurPhoto/Shutterstock What does science get us? That’s always the question from those who fund it, but not from those who do it. This tension is in full swing in the US right now, as the Trump administration takes a hacksaw to the scientific ecosystem. But it isn’t new. In 1969, as Robert Wilson was testifying before the US Congress to get funding for a new particle collider at Fermilab, he spoke on the topic. The senators were grilling him on how this scientific endeavour would contribute to national defence or help compete with Russia during the cold war. He answered: “It has nothing to do with the military… it has to do with: Are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets?… It has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to help make it worth defending.” The utilitarian view always misses that so many of the biggest and most important discoveries come from the unobstructed pursuit of knowledge. And the line from discovery to application to return on investment is rarely a straight one. Without Albert Einstein musing in the early 20th century on the weightlessness felt by a person in freefall inside an elevator, we wouldn’t have his theories of relativity and we wouldn’t have GPS – a technology that has revolutionised life around the world.Advertisement Many of the biggest discoveries come from the unobstructed pursuit of knowledge It is impossible to predict what purely scientific inquiry will lead to, which is why the destruction being done to science in the US is so short-sighted. But it is much easier to foretell what damage slashed funding will cause. Losing programmes to treat and prevent tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS will lead to preventable disease and death. Cuts at NASA, including vital climate studies on extreme heat and air pollution, will be felt for decades if not longer (see “Are Trump’s cuts to science the end of the endless frontier?”). After physicist J. J. Thomson discovered the electron in 1897, he famously said it was useful for nothing. What followed was the electric age, a century of unimaginable global progress built on this humble particle. What revolutionary age to come is being impeded now? Topics:

President Donald Trump said he would implement a 90-day pause on tariffs as a result of his negotiating strategy. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images 2025-04-09T22:27:47Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on tariffs for 75 trading partners. The move, which came with little warning, sent stocks soaring on Wednesday afternoon. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on X that "no one creates leverage for himself like @POTUS." Stocks took another dizzying turn on Wednesday afternoon after President Donald Trump announced an abrupt 90-day pause on his tariffs for 75 countries.According to Trump, his team, and some of his supporters: It's all part of his grand master plan."As I've said in the past, no one creates leverage for himself like @POTUS," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on X, following the tariff pause announcement.Bessent said in a press conference that the pause is the result of Trump's "successful negotiating strategy," which brought more than 75 countries to the table, repeating Trump's messaging on the reversal."Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately," Trump wrote on Truth Social.A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.Many CEOs and experts have said Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs are inflationaryLess than 24 hours ago, US stocks dropped for the fourth straight day.With Trump's 90-day tariff pause — leaving China with a whopping 125% tariff rate — the S&P 500 soared as much as 9%.Experts like Joanne Hsu, director of the University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers, would generally say market uncertainty is bad for the economy as it can result in negative consumer sentiment and reduced spending."If people both think the economy is deteriorating and they expect their own incomes to weaken as well, it's hard to imagine how robust consumer spending can really be under those circumstances," Hsu previously told Business Insider.For the President's team and supporters, that's just classic Trump."Many of you in the media clearly missed 'The Art of the Deal,'" press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday, referencing Trump's 1987 book. "You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here."Pershing Square founder Bill Ackman, who just days ago criticized Trump's tariff moves, said on X: "This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump. Textbook, Art of the Deal."Dan Scavino, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, simply posted on X: "THE ART OF THE DEAL."Trump's memoir, which was ghostwritten by Tony Schwartz and has sold over a million copies, goes into his career as a real estate developer and provides some insight into the president's business philosophy."Trump did his disastrous tariffs for one primary reason: he has a lifelong belief that he is being ripped off by everyone and a corresponding desire for retribution," Schwartz, who shadowed Trump for 18 months when writing "The Art of the Deal" in the '80s, said in an April 3 post on X.Schwartz did not respond to a request for comment.One of the lessons in dealmaking the book preaches is a simple approach: "Aim very high.""My style of dealmaking is quite simple and straightforward," he wrote. "I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing to get what I'm after. Sometimes, I settle for less than I sought, but in most cases, I still end up with what I want." Recommended video

Welcome to The Logoff: Today I’m breaking down President Donald Trump’s wild afternoon of trade moves.What is going on with tariffs? Last week, Trump announced two sets of tariffs: a minimum 10 percent tax on imports from all countries, and then a separate set of higher tariff rates that varied by country. Today, Trump said he was pausing those new country-by-country tariffs for 90 days, but he’s keeping the baseline 10 percent tariff rate in place.Trump also says he’s raising tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 percent as retaliation in an escalating trade war.Why did Trump change course? The White House is claiming the delay was a result of nations worldwide offering to negotiate new trade deals. We’ll see if those negotiations are really happening and what comes of them.What we do know is that financial markets crashed after Trump’s tariff announcement, sparking alarm around the world and even among some of Trump’s supporters. Trump acknowledged those anxieties in remarks on trade this afternoon, and stocks skyrocketed after Trump announced the 90-day delay.So what did we learn? Since Trump announced the tariffs, the big question has been whether they were a massive change in economic policy or a bluff aimed at getting other countries to negotiate new deals. Today’s answer is that they were a bit of both.We’re by no means back where we started: A 10 percent global tariff minimum and an economic war with China — one of our largest trading partners — will raise prices on imports and cost jobs that depend on international trade. And even with the pullback, the threat of tariffs have created new economic uncertainty at home and strained our relationships abroad.On the other hand, had Trump left the country-by-country tariffs in place, we were staring at a full-blown, self-inflicted economic crisis. Now the president says we get some relief — at least for the next 90 days.And with that, it’s time to log off…Forget everything you thought you knew about galactic formation. Okay, done? Good. Because a new discovery has scientists questioning their previous understanding of how galaxies are formed. You can read more about the “Big Wheel” galaxy here. It’s news you probably can’t use, but I think we all deserve a bit of fun.See More:

2025 could be one of the best years in gaming, with Bungie's Marathon tipped to join the likes of Switch 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, and maybe even GTA 6 – here's all we knowTech11:45, 09 Apr 2025Updated 11:45, 09 Apr 2025We're eager to get our first proper look at MarathonWhile Bungie is known for Halo and Destiny, with the latter proving divisive for some, the company's Marathon franchise predates them both.After fans completed a series of puzzles which confirmed a gameplay showcase is coming this week, the company is full speed ahead on its first release since 2024's Destiny 2 Final Shape expansion.‌Article continues belowWhile the studio has been working on Marathon for over a decade, fans are keen to hear more about the sci-fi, PvP extraction shooter, and now one longtime leaker has suggested it'll land sooner than you may think.Here's all we know about when we could be playing Bungie's Marathon.Content cannot be displayed without consent‌Posting on X (formerly Twitter), Insider Gaming owner Tom Henderson (who has a history of leaking information on unreleased games) joked about the "Marathon grind"."Told the missus I'll be on a Marathon grind later this year and she's only gone and signed me up the gym," he joked.When asked if this means Marathon will launch in 2025, though, his response was much shorter, simply saying "Yes".‌You can catch the latest video, setting the stage for the upcoming gameplay reveal, below.If Henderson's information is correct, then 2025 would surely have to be considered one of the biggest years in gaming history.‌While 2023 was considered a vintage year thanks to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Star Wars Jedi Survivor and Baldur's Gate 3 among others, 2025 is already off to a great start.Assassin's Creed Shadows, Monster Hunter Wilds, Avowed, and Split Fiction have all launched already, while the Switch 2 and GTA 6 are also pegged for this calendar year.Marathon was initially revealed at a PlayStation event in May 2023 and marks the first new game to be launched since Bungie was acquired by Sony in 2022 for $3.6 billion.‌Marathon certainly looks colourfulFear not though, Destiny fans. Bungie has committed to a revamped roadmap for the title, which means Destiny 2 will receive two mid-sized expansions each year, as well as additional free updates, rather than one major expansion each calendar year.Bungie's latest release was The Final Shape, a Destiny 2 expansion which launched to critical acclaim in June of last year, but wasn't enough to prevent the aforementioned layoffs at the fabled studio.Article continues belowDespite the Sony acquisition, Marathon is expected to be a multiplatform release across PS5, Xbox, and PC.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌

Making models less thirsty may not lessen their environmental impact

The Gundam franchise’s history with queerness is longer in the meta text than it has been in the text of the franchise itself. Shippers have been matching up same-gender characters with each other for generations before Witch From Mercury‘s first episode climaxed with its female deuteragonists getting engaged, kicking off a relationship that even Gundam‘s owners couldn’t deny was more than simply open to some level of interpretation. But it’s the energy in the wake of that that makes the arrival of Gundam GQuuuuuuX so interesting, because now the odds of that shipping hyperfixation being in fans’ favor are higher than ever. The first episode of GQuuuuuuX premiered around the world last night, and while all of its material was already covered by the compilation movie Beginning when it released a few months ago, the TV release did add one thing in particular: the show’s end titles sequence. Set to VTuber Hoshimachi Suisei’s track “I don’t care,” the ending sees protagonists Machu and Nyaan sharing a cozy, cluttered apartment together, living a quiet life quite unlike the ones we’re introduced to in the episode. There’s singing, there’s dancing, there’s pizza parties, and the girls are seen crashing out together side by side. It’s very sweet, but it’s sent any fans hoping a for a repeat of Suletta and Miorine’s relationship in Witch From Mercury into speculation overdrive. Of course, no amount of speculation over shared ankle bracelets and disco-filled domestic bliss can change the fact that, at the end of the day, an anime ending is not always entirely true to the text of the show itself (although it’s certainly fair to say in Witch From Mercury‘s case, both of its opening and ending sequences did play up Suletta and Miorine’s romance even before it was clearly established within the show). No matter the intentions or the interpretations of the sequence, GQuuuuuuX‘s ending might just be a cute what-if scenario that doesn’t pan out in the show. But that’s not to say that GQuuuuuuX itself isn’t at least projecting a lot of queer vibes to some people, in both Machu and Nyaan’s early encounters and even other potential pairings on the show. There’s an electric chemistry between the duo in their early encounters, one made all the more interesting when Machu tags along with Nyaan to drop off a smuggled piece of kit that will ultimately see the former wind up piloting the show’s new Gundam. At first, a tagalong is exactly what Machu describes herself as, but then she pointedly notes she could even be a Mav—in GQuuuuuuX‘s worldbuilding, the term for a duo in Mobile Suit combat tactics, pioneered during a prior war by the Zeon ace Char Aznable and his partner, Challia Bull. “Mav” is used multiple times in the series with a level of closeness that goes beyond simple wingman though, making Machu’s use of it (beyond her intrigue at potentially joining in on underground mecha fights) interesting. Challia’s relationship to Char—who went missing alongside the original Gundam at the end of the war, sparking a search that Challia has been conducting for five years since its end—is described at one point to him by a character early on in the episode as Char being “his friend, or rather, his Mav,” to suggest a bond even closer than that. Anyone who’s seen Beginning will also know that another character describes Challia as still being in the “thrall” of the Red Comet, Char’s nickname from the war. And all that’s even before getting into the fact that series writer Yoji Enokido (who has written on, among other things, the likes of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Evangelion, and FLCL, all series with varying levels of explicit and implicit queer intimacy) has said in press interviews that, despite it being a military term, it’s also one he could see as being used to refer to the bond between friends or romantic partners. © Prime Video/Sunrise Of course, all this remains open to interpretation (and not in the way Bandai wanted Suletta and Miorine’s marriage to be, for now at least). GQuuuuuuX could pair off any number of its characters, or the hints and details fans hoping for a Sulemio repeat could be nothing more than just that: hints. It would admittedly be very funny for Gundam to do back-to-back female protagonists who happen to be queer, a landmark first for the series in Witch From Mercury made even more notable by it happening immediately again from another, unconnected creative team, but we’ve simply not seen enough of the show yet to know if that’s going to be the case. That fact won’t stop shippers from hoping anyway. And if it doesn’t? Well, that’s the joy of fandom shipping, isn’t it—they’ll be able to create plenty of work imagining otherwise regardless. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is now streaming on Prime Video. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.