Flagship

Bessent at odds with Trump over tariffs

The new US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants to enact 2.5% tariffs on all US imports, according to reports, a position which may put him in conflict with his more hawkish boss. Sources told the Financial Times that Bessent wants to start with low tariffs and gradually raise them, giving businesses time to adjust and countries time to negotiate. But President Donald Trump, when asked about the report, said he wanted a “much bigger” rate: He has already threatened 25% duties on Canada and Mexico, and stricter controls on semiconductors, metals, and pharmaceuticals, undermining speculation that he would soften his protectionist stance upon taking office.

Trump orders a flurry of activity

US President Donald Trump pushed forward his agenda with a series of pronouncements. He ordered a pause in all federal grants and loans, fired the prosecutors who worked on prosecuting him, and signed executive orders focusing on the military, ending DEI practices and changing the legal status of transgender servicepeople. The sheer amount of activity is “impressive,” wrote an international relations scholar in Foreign Policy, but it could mark the president’s “highwater mark”: “Making lavish promises is easy; delivering positive results is a whole lot harder.” So far Trump has not “shown much talent for… running a government,” the scholar wrote, and his policy platform is full of tensions between a desire for peace and threats of force, and promises of growth and threats of tariffs.

US deports migrants to Guatemala

The US deported 64 Guatemalan migrants, the first such flight to the country under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migration. Trump has vowed to impose tariffs of up to 25% on Latin American countries that fail to stem migration flows. Regional leaders will hold an emergency summit Thursday to coordinate their response to the threat from Washington. Meanwhile, migrants in the US fear being deported to countries they haven’t lived in for decades, if at all, and where some of them may be at risk from powerful crime groups. “There is a lot of alarm among the Latin American embassies in Washington,” a diplomat in Washington told the Financial Times. “We seem to have gone back to 1897 and the era of President [William] McKinley.”

DeepSeek’s uncertain impacts

Chinese startup DeepSeek’s new artificial intelligence model continued to rock global markets, but its long-term impact is still unclear. The model appears to achieve similar results to cutting-edge US-made AIs, but at a fraction of the cost and computing power. It may drive Western firms to greater efforts: US President Donald Trump called DeepSeek’s success a “wake-up call,” and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman vowed to respond with “better models.” Some analysts worried the model’s success shows that Big Tech has plowed unnecessary billions into scaling AI, but, one tech writer wrote on Platformer, that infrastructure will still be useful — companies can use the same computing power to do more work with more efficient models.

Using AI to automate boring jobs

Artificial intelligence is coming for clerical work. While Silicon Valley is aiming for superintelligence, smaller firms and investors are focusing on automating administrative tasks in apparently unglamorous professions such as accounting and customer services, by providing AI tools that would boost their profitability. Many such companies “just barely break even,” one investor told The Wall Street Journal, but their backers hope that by automating repetitive tasks they can boost profit margins. Similarly, a London startup is creating ways of automating the restaurant supply chain, using AI to replace human staff in filling orders. AI “shouldn’t be making big decisions” yet, one CEO told Bloomberg: “It should be doing discrete tasks for which it is suited,” especially repetitive, low-stakes chores.

Heat deaths expected in warming Europe

Rising temperatures could cause millions of extra deaths in Europe by the end of the century if preventive measures are not taken, a new climate model suggested. Cities are hotter than their surrounding areas, and an aging population across the continent will leave more people vulnerable. At the moment, cold weather kills many more Europeans than heat does, but the study suggested that the growth in the number of hot-weather deaths would far outweigh any lives saved by a reduction in extreme cold. The worst-case scenario would mean an extra 5.8 million deaths between 2015 and 2099. Around 5 million people die in the EU each year, making this potentially a significant but not overwhelming contributor to overall mortality.

‘Whiplash’ weather’s impact on LA fires

Recent rains have slowed the Los Angeles fires, but debates over their origins continue. About 1.5 inches of rain fell over the weekend, enough to dampen the dry brush which allowed the fires to spread. A climate scientist wrote in The Conversation that Southern California had seen unusually wet winters in 2022-23 and 2023-24, leading to rapid vegetation growth, but that since last fall it received less than 10% of its usual rainfall. This “whiplash” created large amounts of flammable brush, creating the perfect tinder for fires. Similar whiplash effects fed devastating fires in East Africa last year, and the combination also leaves areas vulnerable to flash flooding, because rain runs off the dry-baked ground.

China pulls out of DRC dam project

A Chinese state-owned firm pulled out of a project to build the world’s biggest dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo, marking a significant setback for the African country. Authorities in Kinshasa have for decades promised to build the Grand Inga Dam on the Congo River. If built, the plant would generate enough electricity to power vast areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 600 million people lack access to electricity. However, investor interest has soured amid domestic turmoil, including a major conflict and humanitarian crisis in the east of the country. “It appears as though this project which has the potential to change the lives of millions of people in Africa remains just that — a grand vision,” the BBC reported.

Pakistan’s ‘disinfo’ crackdown

Pakistan passed legislation criminalizing online disinformation, a move critics say is aimed at cracking down on dissent. Under the bill those who disseminate information deemed to be false could be punished with up to three years in prison, AFP reported. Islamabad’s military-led government has ramped up its suppression of dissent, including jailing an opposition leader. Meanwhile the military has increased its hold on the country’s debt-burdened economy, adding to a climate of uncertainty and repression that has spooked investors. “We can’t lawyer up and go to arbitration,” a Pakistani energy executive said. “We have to live and do business in this country.”

Home of last Anglo-Saxon king found

The home of the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, shown in the Bayeux Tapestry, has been found. The Tapestry depicts the Norman conquest of England, which began with the Battle of Hastings in 1066. King Harold died at the battle, perhaps — according to the Tapestry, at least — with a Norman arrow through his eye. The Tapestry shows him feasting at a hall called Bosham before the battle and archeologists have long sought its location. New research confirms earlier suggestions that a private house in a coastal village stands on the site: The remains of a medieval complex have been identified under the home. It was identified partly because the ancient house had an indoor toilet, an extremely high-status convenience in medieval England.

• Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González meets Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa
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The year-on-year increase in air-source heat pump sales in the US. Heat pumps — which are cheaper to run and more efficient than traditional furnaces for heating homes, albeit bulky — are now the most popular heating appliance, selling 37% more units than gas furnaces. That stat should be interpreted cautiously, as many houses need more than one heat pump but could use a single furnace. Nonetheless, demand is rising rapidly, according to CleanTechnica. Heating and cooling buildings accounts for 35% of US emissions.

The Letters of Emily Dickinson, edited by Cristanne Miller & Domhnall Mitchell. The 19th-century US poet published just 10 poems in her lifetime, although 900 more were found after her death. But she was a prolific writer of letters: This “monumental” work contains 1,304 of them, but still “represents just a fraction of Dickinson’s total correspondence,” Literary Review noted. It reveals “a young woman made of highly flammable material… always ardent and often theatrical,” even when writing a Valentine or a description of having a cold. Buy The Letters of Emily Dickinson from your local bookstore.

Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong has found his MAGA whisperer, reports Semafor’s Max Tani. According to a Times insider, Soon-Shiong has increasingly solicited advice from Eric Beach — a veteran of California GOP politics and the former head of Great America PAC — in the pharmaceutical billionaire’s quest to shape the newspaper’s internal culture and political leanings. Soon-Shiong also recently appointed pro-Trump CNN commentator Scott Jennings to an advisory role at the paper, Tani noted.