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At the moment’s prime tales
President Trump has granted automakers a one-month reprieve from the import tariffs he imposed on Canada and Mexico. The automaking business is a big supply of cross-border enterprise. It’s normal for elements to cross the border a number of occasions because the automobiles are assembled. U.S. automakers warned that tariffs would increase the value of their automobiles by 1000’s of {dollars}.
Lars Hagberg/AFP through Getty Photographs
Lars Hagberg/AFP through Getty Photographs
- 🎧 The Massive Three automakers, Ford, GM and Stellantis, have been lobbying for months asking that these tariffs not apply to elements or automobiles that meet the strict necessities of the USMCA, NPR’s Camila Domonoske tells Up First. That is the commerce settlement that Trump negotiated between the U.S., Canada and Mexico to exchange a earlier one. Most automobiles made in North America meet USMCA necessities. The reprieve provides auto firms time to determine logistics however not sufficient to maneuver a manufacturing unit to the U.S. to keep away from tariffs.
Almost 6,000 fired U.S. Division of Agriculture workers are returning to work at this time. An impartial federal board ordered them to be reinstated for 45 days whereas an investigation into the firings continues. The workers had been let go on Feb. 13. Tens of 1000’s of probationary workers have been fired throughout the federal authorities for the reason that center of final month.
- 🎧 Most of the individuals fired had wonderful efficiency critiques, NPR’s Andrea Hsu says. Investigators discovered that the company did not take a look at their efficiency, which is required when dismissing staff throughout a probationary interval. The particular counsel investigating the firings stated the dismissals seemed to be a part of an try to shrink the federal government. Administrations are allowed to do that, however they should undergo a number of procedures — together with giving individuals 60 days’ discover, which USDA did not do. The Advantage Programs Safety Board reviewed the findings and located that the firings had been most likely illegal.
European Union leaders are holding one other emergency summit at this time to plan assist for Ukraine and defend the continent in opposition to Russia. They purpose to do that with much less assist from the U.S. The U.S. stays a part of the NATO alliance and it has troops primarily based in Germany. Nevertheless, the U.S. has lately paused navy provides and intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
- 🎧 “You can really feel the worry here in a way I haven’t seen since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started three years ago,” NPR’s Teri Schultz says from Brussels. She says that is because of the fast deterioration of relations between the Trump administration and Ukraine. European leaders are anticipated to discover a approach to transfer ahead with a brand new bundle of proposals on the best way to provide you with 800 billion euros in protection spending.
Deep dive

A photograph illustration reveals a illustration of cryptocurrency cash with the $Trump meme coin (assortment coin) in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday.
Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto through Getty Photographs
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Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto through Getty Photographs
Trump has introduced plans for a “Crypto Strategic Reserve,” which might permit the U.S. to purchase and promote cryptocurrency. The president stated the reserve is within the works as a part of his govt order on digital property. The reserve would maintain 5 cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana and cardano. This transfer might revolutionize the business and is a step towards Trump’s plan to make the nation the crypto capital of the world.
- 💰 A reserve usually refers back to the authorities’s extra energetic asset administration function. Sustaining a federal reserve would contain the federal government actively shopping for and promoting cryptocurrency property.
- 💰 The U.S. is believed to carry round 200,000 bitcoin tokens from legal seizures, value over $17 billion in worth as of Monday, in keeping with the Coinbase trade.
- 💰 Throughout his marketing campaign final yr, Trump acquired hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in donations from crypto buyers and founders. Trump additionally launched a crypto “meme coin.”
Check out how a senator’s invoice describes the potential construction of a federal crypto reserve.
Image present

A bit of ice damaged off from the iceberg floats within the ocean.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR
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Grace Widyatmadja/NPR
The distant island of Greenland, dwelling to round 57,000 residents, will turn into extra accessible to worldwide vacationers than ever earlier than. As a territory of Denmark, Greenland has been increasing its airports and motels to spice up its financial system. Seasonal direct flights from the U.S. to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, will open for the primary time later this yr. “I’m welcoming people because I want to show my beautiful country to other people,” Jan Cortsen, a Greenland tour information, stated. See photographs from the island.
3 issues to know earlier than you go

Sesame Avenue characters pose underneath a “123 Sesame Street” signal on the “Sesame Street” fortieth Anniversary short-term road renaming in Dante Park on November 9, 2009 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Photographs)
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Photographs/Getty Photographs North America
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Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Photographs/Getty Photographs North America
- Sesame Workshop will downsize with layoffs, in keeping with president and CEO Sherrie Rollins Westin. The announcement comes a day after over 200 workers said they needed to kind a union.
- Prosecutors say 25 Canadians have been charged with defrauding a whole bunch of American seniors out of greater than $21 million by means of a scheme referred to as a “grandparent scam.”
- The Nationwide Park Service’s net pages devoted to transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, key figures within the Stonewall Rebellion, have disappeared. That is a part of an ongoing transfer by the federal authorities to change NPS’s net pages about LGBTQ historical past.
This text was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.