Flagship

Harvard rejects Trump demands

Harvard University on Monday became the first college to reject the Trump administration’s requested policy changes, imperiling billions in federal funding. The Ivy League’s president suggested the demands — which include screening international students over antisemitism — were illegal and equated to government overreach. While Columbia University capitulated to President Donald Trump’s demands, Harvard’s defiance marks a major rebuke to his crackdown on higher education. Some law firms in Trump’s crosshairs have also pushed back, offering “the beginnings of a playbook for standing up to his attempts to weaken core tenets of American democracy,” The New York Times’ editorial board argued. Notably, the attorneys behind Harvard’s response include a former Trump-appointed prosecutor and the Trump Organization’s ethics adviser.

Stocks rise slightly amid tariff twists

US stocks climbed modestly Monday as investors waded through the confusion caused by US President Donald Trump’s tariff twists and turns. After the White House exempted a wide range of electronics from the “Liberation Day” duties, Trump suggested Monday that he could soon announce additional levies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, and floated tariff exceptions for auto parts. Even stock forecasters are struggling to predict where markets go from here, with Trump’s upheaval to global trade bucking all precedent, Bloomberg reported: “We were so wrong,” a Bank of America strategist said. “Tariff modeling is a fool’s errand.”

Apple’s challenges persist

Apple’s stock jumped Monday after it scored a US tariff reprieve through exemptions on smartphones, but uncertainty still looms over the tech giant. With White House officials saying the duties carveout for electronics is temporary, Apple — which is heavily reliant on Chinese production — is still at the mercy of US President Donald Trump, The Wall Street Journal noted: “Every administration utterance… will have the potential to rekindle the existential crisis that gripped Apple the past two weeks.” The company has begun taking steps to blunt the tariff impact. It reportedly told Indian and Vietnamese suppliers to ramp up production, and its first-quarter iPhone shipments surged 10% as part of a stockpiling effort, new data shows.

Tariffs dent China wholesale market

US orders for goods from the world’s largest wholesale market in China have dried up after US President Donald Trump raised levies on Beijing to 145%. It now makes little economic sense for American clients to buy from the Yiwu market — which houses the world’s “sock capital” — The Wall Street Journal reported: Socks are low-margin, so it’s not feasible for suppliers to lower prices to offset the tariffs, meaning Americans would either have to pay more for socks or buy from other countries. Still, sockmakers are confident they can survive: “We aren’t reliant on [Americans]. We are reliant on ourselves,” one said. Some suppliers, meanwhile, are mocking US tariffs in videos encouraging Americans to buy directly from Chinese factories.

Bukele says he won’t return US deportee

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said he would not return a wrongly deported migrant to the US following a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday. The US government argued it is not required to demand El Salvador bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back, after the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return — setting up a further test of Trump’s efforts to challenge federal judicial power. The case has become a flashpoint in Trump’s immigration crackdown, with Bukele playing an increasingly central role by agreeing to imprison hundreds of migrants and cementing his status as one of Trump’s closest foreign partners in his second term, CNN wrote.

Zuckerberg testifies in Meta antitrust trial

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand Monday in a US antitrust trial that could force the tech giant to split up, potentially reshaping the global social media landscape. The government alleges Meta amassed a monopoly by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, though the company argues it still faces plenty of competition from rivals. Meta has embarked on a recent lobbying blitz aimed at pushing US President Donald Trump to intervene and settle the suit. But some Trump officials have recently sought to stiffen the president’s spine against Meta, Semafor’s Ben Smith reported: “The rush by Zuckerberg — and other tech figures — to buy their way into the new administration has not always proven effective.”

Burner phones for EU’s US-bound staff

The European Commission is giving some of its US-bound staff burner phones and basic laptops to avoid cybersecurity risks, the Financial Times reported. Brussels typically reserves such measures for trips to Ukraine and China over fears of Russian or Chinese government espionage. Worries about American spying are the latest sign of worsening transatlantic ties in President Donald Trump’s second term: The White House’s dismissal of traditional alliances has prompted some commentators to argue Washington has effectively become Europe’s adversary. The continent must “rediscover its economic and military strength in order to survive in this new world – one defined by the naked pursuit of power,” a Der Spiegel editorial argued last month.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will join top global leaders at Semafor’s 2025 World Economy Summit, taking place April 23-25, 2025, in Washington DC. As the first major gathering since the new US administration took office, the summit will feature on-the-record discussions with 100+ CEOs.

Bringing together leaders from both the public and private sectors — including congressional leaders and global finance ministers — the three-day summit will explore the forces shaping the global economy and geopolitics. Across twelve sessions, it will foster transformative, news-making conversations on how the world’s decision-makers are tackling economic growth in increasingly uncertain times.

April 23-25 | Washington, DC | Learn More

Birds help with scientific research

Scientists are increasingly using birds as research assistants. Birds’ “perpetual movement and proclivity for remote locations” meant they used to pose many mysteries to science, Audubon reported, but growth in animal-tracking technology lets researchers not only learn about their movements and behaviors, but also use them to study other phenomena: High-flying frigate birds with GPS trackers uncover details about the upper atmosphere, cormorants are used to map the seabed, and seagulls reveal the movements of whales, which they follow to catch krill. Scientists are launching several small satellites to help track the movements of thousands of animals, and plan to use the data to create an “internet of animals” that can reveal the “living pulse of the planet,” one scientist said.

Debate over intimacy coordinators

Hollywood is split over the necessity of intimacy coordinators. The use of specialists who liaise between actors and production for scenes involving sex and nudity grew in the wake of the #MeToo movement. But some high-profile actors are rejecting their help, The Washington Post reported. Gwyneth Paltrow said she felt “stifled” as an artist and asked her intimacy coordinator to leave the set on a recent movie, while Kim Basinger, Michael Douglas, and Mikey Madison all either criticized their use or chose to forgo them. But others wished the role had existed earlier in their career: Kate Winslet said, “It would have been nice to have had someone in my corner.”

Teens should still learn to drive

It’s still worth teaching young people to drive even if autonomous driving makes it unnecessary, a Bloomberg columnist argued. Road accidents are the leading cause of death for US teens, something many hope the rise of self-driving cars will change. But just as learning other languages remains useful in an age of artificial intelligence translation, Joel Stein wrote, “learning is about more than acquiring a specific set of skills”: He made his teenage son take a high-speed driving course at a race track. American youths are driving less than ever — only 40% of eligible teens hold a license — but Stein figured it would be “great for [his son’s] confidence to know how to navigate a 2-ton vehicle at 90 mph.”

April 15:

• Former president of Peru Ollanta Humala and his wife are expected to be sentenced in their corruption case.
• Citigroup, Bank of America, and Johnson & Johnson report earnings.
• Jennie C. Jones’ Ensemble, a rooftop garden sculpture show, opens at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Six hundred previously stolen artifacts are on public display for the first time at Naples’ National Archaeological Museum, after being confiscated over decades by Italian police. Featuring ancient ceramics, coins, and bronze and marble sculptures — some of which were originally looted from shipwrecks and other submerged sites — Rediscovered Treasures: Stories of Crimes and Stolen Finds includes items dating from 650 BC to the Middle Ages. The exhibition “tells a beautiful story,” the museum’s curator told the Associated Press, “a story also of redemption.”

John Barrasso keeps a leather whip in his Senate leadership office, though he hasn’t needed it to corral Republican votes — yet, reports Semafor’s Burgess Everett.

“When he needs to be tough, he’s tough; when he needs to be soft, he’s soft,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. Barrasso isn’t a nationally known figure like Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, but his role is vital to clinching Trump’s agenda — and when a final tax bill comes to the Senate floor, it will be Barrasso’s job to find 50 votes.