— As part of the physical, Trump's doctors assessed his cognitive abilities by administering the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and said he scored a "30 out of 30".
— An estimated 14,600 Afghans previously eligible for temporary protected status (TPS) are now set to lose it in May, while some 7,900 Cameroonians will lose it in June. It comes on the same day a US judge ruled that the Trump administration could deport a university graduate, detained last month over his role in pro-Palestinian protests.
— Last month, Trump's administration said it would similarly revoke the temporary legal status of more than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua and Venezuela. They were brought into the US under a Biden-era sponsorship process known as CHNV, which Trump suspended after taking office. More than 120,700 Venezuelans, 110,900 Cubans and over 93,000 Nicaraguans were allowed into the US under the programme before it was closed.
— OCHA will withdraw from or adjust operations in Cameroon, Colombia, Eritrea, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, and Zimbabwe.
— According to OneAid's data, the World Food Programme had at least $464 million in aid contracts cut over the weekend and then subsequently reversed for programs in Ecuador, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia and Syria. Aid contracts with other humanitarian groups were also canceled and then reinstated in the Marshall Islands ($1.6 million), Micronesia ($2.1 million), Palau ($2 million) and Papua New Guinea ($6 million).
— Many of the world's largest shipping nations decided to impose a minimum fee of $100 for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above certain thresholds, in what is effectively the first global tax on greenhouse gas emissions. WMO estimates $11 billion to $13 billion in revenue annually from the fees, with the money to be put into its net zero fund to invest in fuels and technologies needed to transition to green shipping, reward low-emission ships and support developing countries so they aren't left behind with dirty fuels and old ships. The thresholds set through the agreement will get stricter over time to try to reach the IMO's goal of net zero across the industry by about 2050.
— The settlement represented a landmark: the first time in U.S. history that federal civil rights laws were used to alleviate an environmental injustice. Following a visit to Alabama in 2017, Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, characterized the situation in the Black Belt as a result of racism and the demonization of the poor.
— Pamela Coke-Hamilton, ITC Executive Director: "Least developed countries, including Lesotho, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Madagascar and Myanmar, are most exposed to instabilities in the global trading system and least equipped to pivot as needed. The same goes for small businesses in those countries, which don't have the capacity to absorb additional costs or to navigate such changes, as their bigger counterparts do.
— "Some of these least developed countries rely heavily on the US market for their exports, using preferences such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act or AGOA, which has allowed imports from Sub-Saharan African countries to enter the US market duty-free, since 2000. Lesotho has been making use of AGOA, sending 60% of its apparel exports to the US market, exporting on average more than $230 million in apparel a year, over the past five years. Before the pause in "reciprocal" tariffs, Lesotho faced the highest rate of 50%. A 50% tariff would imply export potential losses of $210 million in the US market by 2029.
— "Bangladesh, the world's second largest apparel exporter, would face a reciprocal tariff of 37%, should it come into effect, which could lead to a loss of $3.3 billion in annual exports to the US by 2029.
— "A key part of the solution for developing countries to navigate any kind of global shocks — be it a pandemic, climate disaster or sudden changes in policies — lies in prioritizing three areas, something we've been saying for years: diversification, value addition and regional integration.
— "If ever there was a time to make this pivot to [...] what I call "strategic reglobalization" — this is it. It's characterized by mutually beneficial trade, rather than traditional development aid.+
— U.S. President Donald Trump's memecoin (TRUMP) will undergo a major token unlock next week, with the team behind the project set to receive $320 million, around 20% of the circulating supply. The unlock might be another blow for the thousands of investors who reportedly lost a collective $2 billion after purchasing the token in January.
— Cox estimates cited in the media claims that Tesla delivered 128,100 vehicles in the US in Q1 2025 — down 8.6% compared to Q1 2024. That's despite EV sales being up 10% overall in the first quarter. Registrations indicate Tesla delivered about 124,657 vehicles in the US and Canada (probably 5K) in Q1 2025. This means that Tesla is down closer to 15% than 8% in the US in Q1 2025.
— Nearly 1,000 Israeli Air Force reservists and retirees signed a letter, published in Israeli media on Thursday (April 10, 2025), demanding the immediate return of the hostages, even at the cost of ending the fighting.
— Bankman-Fried was detained at Federal Correctional Institution Victorville Medium II, which is known to be a very risky penitentiary for violent convicts. The 32-year-old was moved to Victorville after spending over a year and a half in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. His transfer took place after a brief period of time in a federal transfer center in Oklahoma. This preceded a high-profile interview with journalist Tucker Carlson. The disciplinary action was triggered by Bankman-Fried's interview, in which he detailed daily life at the Brooklyn detention centre. He was reportedly put in solitary confinement after giving an unauthorized interview to the media.
— Since shifting part of its production to Slovakia in 2023, Toblerone has no longer qualified to claim it is Swiss made. The iconic Matterhorn vanished from its packaging, replaced by a generic peak. Now, its owner, the US multinational Mondelez, plans to reconnect the product with Switzerland, reported SRF. After losing the right in 2023 to label the chocolate bar made in Switzerland with a Matterhorn logo, the triangular chocolate will soon feature the Swiss flag again on most of its packaging. The brand's Swiss identity will be further reinforced by a CHF 65 million investment in the Bern-Brünnen factory, where around 90% of Toblerone output is produced.
— The new tariffs imposed by the US particularly affect the Swiss watch industry (export value CHF4 billion), machinery (CHF3.1 billion), and medical technology sectors. Swiss food products such as chocolate and cheese are also affected, each with an export value of just over CHF100 million. Coffee products, primarily Nespresso capsules, account for CHF1 billion of Swiss exports to the US.
— The US originally imposed tariffs on Switzerland at 31%, much higher than on other European countries. European Union exports were subject to a 20% levy, while Great Britain's is subject to only 10%. The US calculations underlying these tariffs are strongly contested by Switzerland and other countries. Swiss exporters were facing a double burden of higher tariffs and competitive disadvantages compared to neighboring countries. Half of all Swiss export companies expect to be negatively affected, according to a survey by the business umbrella organisation economiesuisse.
— Nearly 17% of Swiss watch exports went to the US last year, making it the largest market by far. The US also absorbed 23% of exported Swiss medical devices. Medicines have been spared US tariffs so far. The Swiss pharmaceutical industry provided nearly half of the value of Swiss exports to the US last year (CHF31.2 billion).
— The House and Senate have passed different versions of the bill and now they need to merge them together into one final version which Trump can sign. Notably, the House's version includes bigger spending cuts and proposes around $5 trillion in tax cuts. But this could increase the national debt by about $5.7 trillion over 10 years. With the US government currently owing around $36 trillion, this plan could significantly add to the debt unless other savings or revenue sources are found.
— It is possible that Trump has based it on forecasts for the year ahead. The US imported $9bn (£7bn) worth of goods per day last year. Some analysts have calculated that the average rate of Trump's tariffs (as of 2 April) is 22%. Applying this to these import figures would get you to $2bn (£1.6bn) a day. But this calculation assumes that the volume of US imports would stay at this level.
— Last Friday, Harvard University received a letter outlining policy demands in order to keep $9 billion in federal funding. Some of the requests included the elimination of Harvard's diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a ban on masks at campus protests, student-run newspaper The Harvard Crimson and other outlets reported. Brown University also learned last week that $510 million in grant money was at risk as the Trump administration reviewed the university's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies and its response to antisemitism. Princeton University and Columbia University have also suffered funding losses in recent weeks. On Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce announced Princeton University would lose nearly $4 million in federal funding for climate research programs. The administration announced last week it has suspended research grants totaling $210 million to Princeton University as part of an ongoing investigation into antisemitism on campus.
— The order is limiting its attorneys from accessing government buildings, revoking security clearances and essentially making it impossible for it to represent anyone who has business before the federal government.
— Musk was recently awarded a mega contract by the US government to launch military satellites into space, and he's previously claimed that Starlink will be able to provide high-speed internet for the upcoming private space station.
— Those in Generation Z (aged 23-28), women, conservatives, and less-educated individuals were more likely to believe misinformation. Interestingly, many were accurate in assessing their own limitations: Gen Z and women, in particular, recognized their weaknesses, while those with more education tended to overestimate their skills.
— Tadesse Worede previously served as deputy president and was a commander in the Tigray People's Liberation Front during the 2020-2022 war with the federal government. Tadesse agreed to eight commitments, including the return of displaced people and demobilization of combatants, according to a letter from Abiy's spokesperson Billene Seyoum.
— Decision to accept the agency's deferred resignation offer comes on the heels of the IRS and Department of Homeland Security finalizing an agreement Monday to provide sensitive taxpayer data to federal immigration authorities to help the Trump administration locate and deport undocumented immigrants.
— Since October, the Dominican Republic has deported more than 180,000 suspected undocumented migrants, with plans to deport 10,000 per week.
— He sold off shares of his US companies when Trump took office, with the 94-year-old profiting as a result. While the likes of Elon Musk were $130 billion out of pocket, Buffett made $12.7 billion in profits. Buffett sold $134 billion (£105.2 billion) in equities in 2024 and currently has about $334 billion (£262.4 billion) in cash.
— The last bear market happened in 2022, but this decline feels more like the sudden, turbulent bear market of 2020, when the benchmark S&P 500 index tumbled 34% in a one-month period, the shortest bear market ever. It took less than three weeks for stocks to rise 20% from their low in March 2020.
— The S&P 500, Wall Street's main barometer of health, closed 0.2% lower Monday after having been down by as much as 4.7%. It's now 17.6% below the all-time high it set on Feb. 19.
— On average, bear markets have taken 13 months to go from peak to trough and 27 months to get back to breakeven since World War II. The S&P 500 index has fallen an average of 33% during bear markets in that time. The biggest decline since 1945 occurred in the 2007-2009 bear market, when the S&P 500 fell 57%.
— History shows that the faster an index enters into a bear market, the shallower they tend to be. Historically, stocks have taken 251 days (8.3 months) to fall into a bear market. When the S&P 500 has fallen 20% at a faster clip, the index has averaged a loss of 28%.
— At least 137 people have been deported by the Trump administration under the Alien Enemies Act, a move widely condemned by rights groups. The act, last used in World War Two, grants the US president sweeping powers to order the detention and deportation of natives or citizens of an "enemy" nation without following the usual processes. sIt was passed as part of a series of laws in 1798 when the US believed it would enter a war with France.
— CBS News: "The SSI issue could be the result of changes happening at the Social Security Administration under Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Altman said. Musk has claimed that the system is rife with fraud, and alleged the program is 'the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time'. In recent weeks, the Social Security website has suffered from a number of outages that lasted as long as a day, according to an April 7 Washington Post report. The Social Security Administration told CBS MoneyWatch that the 'brief disruptions' lasted about 20 minutes each, on average. 'Before Trump, Musk and DOGE took over, there were no major crashes or glitches on SSA's website to speak of,' noted Maria Freese, senior Social Security expert at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, an advocacy group focused on retirement issues. 'Certainly there were no messages going out telling people erroneously that their benefits were discontinued.'"
— On April 1, the New York Times reported that representatives of the U.S. DOGE Service, or the Department of Government Efficiency, told NEH managers it was looking to cut as much as 70 to 80 percent of the agency's roughly 180-person staff. The next day, humanities councils in all 50 states received notice that their grants were being terminated.