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Episode Date: April 4, 2025

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This message comes from Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right. They offer premium wireless plans for less and all plans include high-speed data, unlimited talk and text, and nationwide coverage. See for yourself at mintmobile.com slash switch. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. Financial markets are trying to digest President Trump's tariffs, which started 10% on imported goods and for many nations and trading blocks go much higher. Stocks on Wall Street slumped Thursday with the Dow losing 1,679 points for a nearly 4% decline. The S&P and the NASDAQ also fell significantly. But President Trump is defending the tariffs insisting to

reporters they'll work in the long term. With TikTok as an example, we have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, will approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs? The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. We always have. I've used them very well. Some economists fear the tariffs could push the U.S. economy into a recession. The Chinese government has slashed out at the Trump administration for imposing those steep tariffs on Chinese exports. But as NPR's John Rutledge tells us, China did not immediately retaliate.

As part of Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariffs, Chinese products coming into the U.S. were hit with an additional 34 percent levy. That's on top of 20 percent tariffs that the administration already put on Chinese goods earlier this year. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiaokun said the unilateral U.S. tariffs violate world trade organization rules. Here he is speaking through an interpreter. We firmly oppose this and will take firm measures to safeguard our legitimate rights

and interests. The Ministry of Commerce called for the tariffs to be immediately canceled and said China will take resolute countermeasures, though it did not give details. In reaction to U.S. tariffs, earlier this year China imposed counter tariffs, blacklisted U.S. companies, and restricted the sale of some key commodities to the U.S. John Rewich, NPR News, Beijing. A federal judge said Thursday the Trump administration may have acted in bad faith when it took Venezuelan migrants out of the U.S. before a judge could block their deportation to El Salvador.

NPR's Joe Rose has more on Thursday's court hearing in Washington, D.C. before U.S. District Judge James Boesberg. He asked the Justice Department a series of questions about the timeline. He asked who in the government knew about his order to turn the planes back and who made the decision to let them continue. The Department of Justice lawyer said he did not know the answer to that question and many others. Judge Boesberg is a former prosecutor, and he seemed like one at times on the bench today as he tried to get answers from basically a reluctant witness. The judge said he'll issue a ruling next week on whether there are grounds to pursue a contemptive court citation.

World oil prices fell Thursday after eight key OPEC plus producers agreed to raise their combined crude oil output by more than 400,000 barrels per day. Analysts have been expecting a much smaller increase in the production increase of 140,000 barrels per day. From Washington, you're listening to NPR News. The Trump administration is looking at a federal land program to construct more data centers amid a boom in artificial intelligence. Rachel Cohen from Mountain West News Bureau has more. The Department of Energy identified 16 properties where it says it can help companies build data centers fast.

Many are national laboratory campuses including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado where Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited Thursday. It's a commercial arrangement using our land to get some value out of it that both helps the lab and helps the country by getting more data centers built. The department is seeking information from developers that want to build at these federal sites and hopes data centers will come online by the end of 2027. For NPR News, I'm Rachel Cohen in Golden, Colorado. At least seven people are reported dead in Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana. After violent weather roared through the southeast and parts of the

Midwest, dozens of tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued Wednesday and Thursday from Texas to West Virginia and several states in between. Forecasters with the National Weather Service say it's the opening salvo of spring that could bring life-threatening flash floods across the south, midwest and east coast. Former Congresswoman Abigail Spamburger is the choice of Virginia Democrats to be the party's candidate for governor in November. Her nomination was announced Thursday after no other candidates filed to run. It is likely she will face Virginia's lieutenant governor, Winsome Earl Sears, in the general

election. Virginia law allows the governor to serveome Earl Sears in the general election. Virginia law allows the governor to serve one term, a four-year term. The current governor is not eligible to seek a second term. From Washington, this is NPR News. Support for NPR. You have your job, but you also have a life. And you're not just one thing. Neither is the Here and Now Anytime podcast.

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