ACTUAL NEWS: Friday, April 4th 2025 Recap
- Olga Nesterova
- 4 minutes ago
- 10 min read
QUICK HITS
China announced on Friday that it would impose additional tariffs of 34% on U.S. goods, escalating the global trade war in response to President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs earlier this week. The move, along with growing fears of a recession, sent global stocks into a second day of turmoil. Banking stocks took a significant hit as investors expressed concerns over economic growth, adjusting their expectations for further rate cuts by central banks. Meanwhile, U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury yields slid below 4%.
President Trump, addressing investors on Friday, reassured them that his policies would remain unchanged, despite the market turbulence caused by his tariff plan and China's retaliatory measures.
Global markets have been pulled into a downward spiral, with the S&P 500 shedding $5 trillion in market value over two days, marking the largest two-day loss for the index. This drop surpassed the $3.3 trillion loss experienced in March 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
In response to the turmoil, Trump urged Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates, calling it the "perfect time" to do so. On Truth Social, Trump stated, "CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!" Meanwhile, Powell acknowledged the challenging decisions ahead for the central bank as it navigates the uncertain economic landscape.
President Trump spent his Friday in Mar-a-Lago
Oil prices are experiencing a sharp decline, with Brent crude falling below $67 per barrel, and Russian crude trading between $55 and $57, according to exchange data. This marks the lowest price levels since December 2021.
The drop in prices can be attributed to several factors, including the imposition of tariffs by President Trump and an oversupply in the global oil market. These combined pressures have led to reduced demand for oil, further driving prices down.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund (RDIF), told the press after meeting in DC:
— US companies are ready to enter the Russian market after EU firms left
— Moscow and Washington are discussing restoring direct flights
— There’s been “real progress” in ceasefire talks on Ukraine (BS!)
Multiple Ukrainians legally in the United States under a humanitarian program received an email this week telling them their status had been revoked and they had seven days to leave the country or the "federal government will find you."
Meanwhile, Germany is now financing Ukraine's use of a Starlink alternative Eutelstat.
TODAY IN HISTORY
1841: After serving for only one month, William Henry Harrison became the first U.S. president to die in office; he was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler.
1850: With a population totaling about 1,600, Los Angeles was incorporated as an American city.
1862: In the American Civil War, Union forces under General George B. McClellan began the unsuccessful Peninsular Campaign to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
1949: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed, with founding member nations including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
1958: The peace symbol, designed by Gerald Holtom, made its first public appearance, displayed on signage during a protest staged by the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
1959: In West Africa, the Mali Federation, a short-lived union between the autonomous territories of the Sudanese Republic and Senegal, led by Léopold Senghor, came into being.
1968: Martin Luther King, Jr., a leader of the American civil rights movement who was in Memphis, Tennessee, to support a strike by the city's sanitation workers, was assassinated by James Earl Ray.
1975: Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, which became the world's largest personal-computer software company.
2000: The government of South Korea ordered some 85 percent of the country's livestock markets closed in an attempt to end an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that had struck Asian livestock.
2002: After 27 years of fighting, the Angolan government and UNITA signed a cease-fire agreement that ended the country's civil war.
2023: In a Manhattan court, former U.S. President Donald Trump was arraigned on 34 felony charges relating to an alleged hush-money scheme to avoid a sex scandal during the 2016 presidential campaign; he became the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.
QUICK ACTUAL NEWS
NATIONAL
Two individuals working with billionaire Elon Musk on a plan to significantly reduce the size of the U.S. government have begun their roles at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing antitrust laws and combating consumer fraud.
On Friday, Elon Musk's SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin secured U.S. Space Force rocket launch contracts worth a total of $13.5 billion through 2029. These contracts will be used to send some of the Pentagon's most sensitive and complex satellites into space.
Members of Musk’s cost-cutting team have arrived at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, signaling that the agency may be the next government unit to face job cuts. “Staff from the Department of Government Efficiency are currently working at Peace Corps headquarters, and the agency is supporting their requests,” the agency said in a statement on Friday. The Peace Corps, which sends volunteers worldwide to assist with education, health, and economic development, had remained under the radar in Musk's ongoing cost-cutting drive.
A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration had violated a court order by halting the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disbursement of millions in grant funding to states.
Over 500 law firms have signed a court brief condemning President Donald Trump’s attacks on Perkins Coie and other law firms, expressing concern over his growing crackdown on the legal profession.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled on Friday in favor of a Republican candidate for a seat on the state's highest court. The court found that thousands of ballots should not be counted unless voters can quickly fix registration issues.
Bayer announced on Friday that it is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to sharply limit legal claims that its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, seeking to avoid potentially billions of dollars in damages.
The U.S. Department of Energy has identified thousands of staff members it considers non-essential, including those managing the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal. These employees would not be protected in a second round of cuts, according to an Associated Press report.
While National Security Agency (NSA) chief General Timothy Haugh was reportedly not informed about the reasons behind his sudden firing this week, a far-right activist who urged President Trump to dismiss him suggested one possible reason: his alleged ties to retired Army General and Trump critic Mark Milley.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to cut nearly 25% of its workforce, affecting approximately 20,000 jobs, according to The Washington Post. The cuts began on Friday, with the IRS announcing it would eliminate its Office of Civil Rights and Compliance.
Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine official ousted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said the U.S. Health Secretary's team sought nonexistent data to justify anti-vaccine narratives, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Association of Public Health Laboratories sent a letter on Friday to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, urging the restoration of two national laboratories responsible for testing rare forms of hepatitis and drug-resistant sexually transmitted diseases.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced on Friday that it would not move forward with a proposal from the Biden administration to provide Medicare coverage for weight-loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.
The U.S. is requesting defense contractors for information about space-based interceptors to counter incoming missile threats as the Pentagon explores President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense shield. While the idea of using rockets or lasers to destroy enemy missiles from space was part of President Ronald Reagan's Star Wars initiative, it represents a significant and costly technological leap.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit against pharmacy benefit managers over insulin pricing practices is expected to resume after being paused due to President Trump’s firing of the agency’s two Democratic commissioners.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn recommended on Friday that former U.S. Representative George Santos, who was expelled from Congress after a brief and scandal-plagued tenure, be sentenced to more than seven years in prison for fraud and identity theft.
The U.S. Department of Energy is considering cuts to billions of dollars in funding for projects focused on emerging energy storage and carbon capture technologies, according to a list seen by Reuters.
Wall Street’s top “fear gauge” spiked to an eight-month high on Friday as U.S. stocks opened sharply lower after China imposed new tariffs on all U.S. goods in retaliation for Trump’s sweeping trade levies.
The Nasdaq appeared poised to enter a bear market on Friday, down more than 20% from its record high, as a trade war between China and the U.S. sparked fears of a global recession and clouded the outlook for tech companies driving the AI revolution.
Credit ratings giant S&P Global announced it is reviewing all of its macroeconomic forecasts following President Trump’s imposition of sweeping global trade tariffs, a move likely to raise concerns about a new wave of credit score downgrades.
The U.S. Senate began a marathon session on Friday, with plans to pass sweeping legislation proposed by President Trump to extend tax cuts and achieve budget reductions despite strong Democratic opposition.
U.S. job growth is expected to have slowed in March as public sector layoffs to reduce federal government spending and reluctance from businesses to increase hiring due to import tariffs dampened the economy.
The U.S. Justice Department will allow actor Mel Gibson to own guns again, despite his 2011 conviction for domestic violence, according to The New York Times. Gibson, a staunch Trump supporter, was among nine people whose gun ownership rights will be restored, and their names will soon be published in the Federal Register.
Kirkland & Ellis, the largest U.S. law firm by revenue, is in talks with the White House to avoid facing an executive order similar to those imposed on some of its competitors, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A judge ordered on Friday that the Trump administration must return a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador after the Justice Department admitted to making an “administrative error.” However, the department stated that there was "little it could do to retrieve him".
The Trump administration lost its bid on Friday to dismiss or move to Louisiana a Tufts University student’s lawsuit challenging her immigration arrest, which ignited protests against efforts to deport pro-Palestinian activists on U.S. campuses.
President Trump extended the deadline for the sale of ByteDance's U.S. assets, including its popular short video app TikTok, by 75 days, stating that "tremendous progress" had been made but that more work was needed to secure necessary approvals.
The U.S. Department of Energy is considering cuts to billions of dollars in funding for projects aimed at demonstrating emerging energy storage and carbon capture technologies, according to a list seen by Reuters.
GLOBAL
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the United States will no longer shoulder the majority of global humanitarian aid, urging other wealthy nations to step up in response to the recent earthquake that devastated parts of Myanmar.
In a separate case, a Venezuelan man was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention after a month so that he could reunite with his ailing brother, who urgently needs a kidney donation to survive.
Panama's government announced on Friday that it is seeking an exemption from the tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week. "The scope of this decision and possible mitigation measures are under review, including efforts to exclude Panama from its application," the government said in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also discussed tariffs with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, following the announcement of sweeping new tariff policies by the U.S. government.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to visit Panama early next week to attend the annual Central American security conference, the Pentagon reported on Friday. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell noted that Hegseth would hold bilateral meetings aimed at strengthening partnerships with Panama and other Central American nations for a peaceful and secure Western Hemisphere.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, meanwhile, discussed with Panama’s Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha the ongoing audit of Hutchison’s management of two key ports at either end of the Panama Canal, according to a State Department readout of their conversation.
U.S. tech giants, banks, and oil companies saw sharp declines on Friday after China imposed steep new tariffs in response to the U.S. measures, further escalating concerns about a global economic downturn.
China announced additional duties of 34% on U.S. goods, set to take effect on April 10, along with export restrictions on rare earth elements and the addition of several U.S. firms to its "unreliable entities" list, which enables Beijing to take punitive actions.
The Trump administration proceeded with the sale of over 20,000 U.S.-made assault rifles to Israel last month, according to a document obtained by Reuters. This move advances a deal previously delayed by the Biden administration due to concerns that the weapons could be used by extremist Israeli settlers.
U.S. President Donald Trump expressed anticipation for a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia, according to Eric Jacobs, a senior adviser at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, speaking on Friday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Friday that the U.S. will soon know "if Russia is genuinely committed to peace with Ukraine", after European allies accused Moscow of stalling on the Trump administration’s call for a ceasefire.
Trump’s inner circle has advised against a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin until Russia agrees to a full ceasefire with Ukraine, NBC News reported on Thursday, citing administration officials.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and billionaire backer Elon Musk have expressed support for French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who was recently found guilty of embezzlement and barred from running in the 2027 French presidential election.
Lastly, emerging economies around the world are bracing for a decline in currency values and potential downgrades to their sovereign credit as President Trump’s tariffs have brought levies on U.S. imports to their highest levels in a century.
MEME OF THE DAY
The Charging Bull on Wall St.. 🫠 (it is, thankfully, just a meme)
POSTS OF THE DAY
VIDEO QUICK NEWS
European Central Bank chief Lagarde calls for an alternative to American Visa and Mastercard
Putin’s envoy in DC: Russia has been misunderstood
Today Russia bombed a playground in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. Over 50 people got injured, 14 killed, including 6 children.
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TODAY'S IN PHOTO
Mandalay, Myanmar
People sleep under mosquito nets on the street in Mandalay following last week’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake
Photograph: Sai Aung Main/AFP/Getty Images
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