Flagship

Trump creates tariff confusion

Mexico and Canada’s currencies strengthened Wednesday after US President Donald Trump appeared to delay the March 4 deadline for tariffs against the countries. It was unclear if Trump’s announcement meant he was giving Mexico and Canada more time, or conflating the duties with his separate plan for global reciprocal tariffs. The remarks were the latest instance of Trump’s seemingly contradictory statements and changing timelines that are confounding global markets, Bloomberg wrote, with one strategist saying he “is losing credibility.” The president also threatened the European Union with 25% tariffs, further raising the prospect of a trade war with the bloc — and possibly creating a “fantastic opportunity” for China to act as an economic lifeline to the EU, an expert told Foreign Policy.

Impact of Trump’s China ship fees

President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose fees on Chinese-made ships arriving at US ports would have widespread economic ramifications, experts said. An analysis from the Cato Institute found the proposed fees of up to $1.5 million per ship would add billions in new costs to American imports and exports; the top carriers accounting for 81% of US imports all have Chinese-built vessels in their fleets. The potential levies — which would also affect ships operated by a Chinese company — mark a “rebuke of the trading system constructed by the United States and its allies after World War II,” The New York Times wrote. It’s been replaced by “hostility toward globalization in favor of the pursuit of self-sufficiency.”

Nvidia beats revenue forecasts

Nvidia’s revenue surged at the end of 2024, the US chip giant reported Wednesday, beating Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts closely watch the company’s quarterly earnings reports: Nvidia has grown massively amid the artificial intelligence boom, and it has become something of a barometer for AI — and even the health of the larger market. Investors have questioned how long the salad days will last, and in particular, if cloud companies will keep spending on Nvidia’s high-powered chips to power their AI services. The release of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s low-cost model, and its subsequent toll on Nvidia’s stock price, “opened our eyes to the fact that Nvidia is not invincible,” one analyst said.

Musk attends Cabinet meeting

Elon Musk attended — and dominated — US President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting of his term, despite growing resistance to the tech billionaire’s aggressive cost-cutting efforts across government. During Wednesday’s gathering of agency heads, Trump backed Musk’s push to slash the federal workforce through mass firings, despite pushback from some officials and congressional Republicans, as well as 21 tech staffers who resigned Tuesday from the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency in protest of his changes. Musk, who is not a Cabinet member, addressed the meeting and acknowledged getting a lot of “flak,” while Trump said that even though some “disagree” with Musk, “for the most part, I think everyone’s not only happy, they’re thrilled.”

US considers importing more eggs

The US is looking to import more eggs to bring down prices, and plans to invest up to $1 billion to combat bird flu. The government is in talks with several countries to buy more eggs, the US agriculture secretary said, adding that prices are likely to continue rising, but will “hopefully” decrease by summer. Even as the US is funding biosecurity efforts to curb the bird flu outbreak, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s attempts to cut government spending are depleting teams of federal workers that respond to such crises, The New York Times reported. Officials have tried to reverse the firings of some employees who were working to stem the outbreak.

Iran expands uranium stockpile

Iran has expanded its stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium by more than 50% since December, according to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, defying international pressure to rein in its nuclear program. Iran now has enough fissile material to make roughly six nuclear warheads, although experts believe Tehran would need months to create a deliverable weapon. Increasing its stockpile is a way for Iran to “raise the threat level without trying to necessarily provoke Washington,” an Iran expert told Semafor. US President Donald Trump has re-imposed a maximum pressure campaign on Tehran, but has said he prefers a nuclear deal. So far, Iran has sent mixed messages about the prospects for negotiations, with the foreign minister ruling out any talks “under pressure.”

‘Putin’s brain’ calls for reshaping education

A prominent Russian philosopher is pushing Moscow to purge its higher education system of “Americacentrism” and promote the “values and interests of the Fatherland.” Aleksandr Dugin, an ultraconservative political thinker widely referred to as “Putin’s brain,” has long called for a rejection of US-led “neoliberalism,” criticizing its focus on “individualism, cosmopolitanism, permissiveness, and the rejection of the ideals of patriotism.” Instead, he argues, humanities schools should push Russia as the ideal state in political science. The Russia-focused outlet Meduza reported that Dugin has written a major lecture series, as well as a presentation for the Russian government, extolling how to reshape the education system to best instill and promote these values.

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‘Fish disco’ row stalls nuclear plant

A row over a “fish disco” at a long-delayed British nuclear plant could further slow the project. Hinkley Point will be the UK’s first nuclear power station in 30 years, but environmental activists are pushing the energy company not to scrap a plan to install nearly 300 underwater loudspeakers that would deter fish being sucked into its cooling systems. The company argued that the fish harmed yearly without the deterrent would only amount to an annual catch of one fishing boat. Environmental regulations have also led to the £100 million construction of a “bat tunnel” over a high-speed rail service, while the planning document for a tunnel under the Thames is 360,000 pages long and the application process has cost £297 million.

Canada is pushing to sell maple water

Canada, the world’s biggest producer of maple syrup, is hoping to sell maple tree sap as a refreshing natural drink. The syrup is made by boiling the sap down to a thick goo. But the sap, watery and slightly sweet, can also be drunk straight. The country is hoping to emulate the success of coconut water — a $7.7 billion global industry projected to reach $22.9 billion by the end of the decade, the BBC reported. Canada, which produces 80% of the world’s maple syrup and holds a vast “strategic reserve” like a sweet-toothed OPEC, wants a piece of the action: Maple water sales reached $506 million last year. The drink has perceived, but likely apocryphal, health benefits.

‘Careless’ AI translations hurt anime

An anime industry group wants the Japanese government to fix the problem of bad artificial intelligence translations. The “careless” translations of films and shows are “directly linked to a decline in the reputation of Japanese media content abroad,” the worker advocacy organization argued, calling for more regulation. The issue could take on greater import as Japan looks to quadruple its exports of anime and other entertainment content by 2033, the Animenomics newsletter wrote. More media companies are turning to advanced AI tech to replace human translators and voice actors: One recent report found that globally, translators and dubbing artists could lose more than half of their revenue to AI by 2028.

Feb. 27:

• The US issues revised fourth quarter GDP figures.
• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
• American historical drama series House of David premieres on Amazon Prime Video.

North America’s first and only Leonardo da Vinci Museum will focus on the Italian artist’s engineering accomplishments. The Mona Lisa painter also produced groundbreaking innovations in science and engineering, and the Colorado museum, set to open later this year, will showcase interactive exhibits and life-sized machine replicas of his drawings and sketches. The museum’s approach is to focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) as an educational problem-solving guide. “It’s a great day for the young kids of southern Colorado who are going to learn about a guy that maybe they can’t pronounce his name but that might inspire them to do great things like he did,” the project’s mastermind told The Pueblo Chieftain.

The owners of Donald Trump’s former Washington hotel are quietly shopping the rights to the property, which has become a re-emergent watering hole for the MAGA crowd and those looking to influence it, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman reported.

“Wall Street thrives on volatility, and Trump brings plenty of it,” Hoffman wrote, noting that while the president’s self-monetization has expanded since 2021, buying a $120 (pre-inflation price) seafood platter called the “Trump Tower” is a cumbersome way to curry favor.