📌 Tariff Response, Le Pen, More

Global markets and businesses were reeling on Thursday as US President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs.

Trump’s new policies set a baseline tariff of 10% on all goods coming into the US. It marks the biggest upheaval of global trade norms since World War II. Trump said that the levies were aimed at targeting decades of unfair trade practices that had disadvantaged the US.

The 10% universal tariff will go into effect on April 5 while the “reciprocal tariffs” on specific countries will begin on April 9. Trump has imposed a 20% tariff on goods from the European Union. Mexico and Canada were not subjected to the tariffs but will still be subject to the 25% tariffs imposed earlier this year.

China has been hit hard by the new tariffs, which take the total levy on Chinese imports to 54%. China’s commerce ministry called for Washington to “immediately cancel” the tariffs, warning they “endanger global economic development” and would hurt US interests and international supply chains.

Trump also closed the “de minimus” loophole, which allowed goods worth under $800 to be imported to the US duty-free. Over 90% of all packages coming to the US enter via the de minimus regime, with about 60% of them coming from China.

Other countries taxed high include Vietnam, 46%, Thailand, 36%, Taiwan, 32%, India, 26%, South Korea, 25% and Japan, 24%. South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, has vowed an “all-out” response. Others were more conciliatory and said they would try to negotiate a lower rate.

The judge who barred Marine Le Pen from running in France's 2027 presidential election is under police protection.

The address of Benedicte de Perthuis — the head of a three-judge panel that found far-right opposition leader Le Pen guilty of embezzling EU funds and banned her for five years from seeking public office — was shared online after she delivered her ruling, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

De Perthuis also received threats on social media, with her photo plastered all over X and far-right sites.

In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron delivered his first comments since Le Pen's conviction, telling ministers that France's justice system is independent and its decisions must be respected as a pillar of democracy, said government spokeswoman Sophie Primas.

Nearly 90% of Le Pen's National Rally supporters believe the court treated her more harshly than other politicians, while over half of French people believe she got a fair trial, said an Odoxa poll published on Monday.

Le Pen has denied stoking a backlash against the judiciary and has condemned the threats against de Perthuis. She has pledged to use legal means to overturn her sentence on appeal.

The judge overseeing the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams has dismissed the charges.

Judge Dale Ho said his hands were essentially tied. Even though he has concerns about the Justice Department’s reasons to dismiss the case, he could not force the DOJ to prosecute a defendant. However, he ruled the charges cannot be brought again.

The DOJ’s effort to drop the case and retain the ability to restore charges resulted in the mass resignation of several Justice Department officials, including the acting US attorney in the Southern District of New York and the top career prosecutors overseeing public corruption cases.

In a strongly-worded opinion, Ho rejected the Justice Department’s core argument — that New York prosecutors were politically motivated in bringing the case and that the charges were impacting the mayor’s ability to carry out Trump’s immigration agenda.

“Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” Ho wrote in a 78-page opinion.

He said the DOJ’s position is “disturbing” because it implies public officials may receive special treatment if they go along with political priorities. “That suggestion is fundamentally incompatible with the basic promise of equal justice under the law.”

Thousands of AI-generated images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) were made accessible to anyone on the internet.

An open database belonging to an AI image-generation firm contained over 95,000 records, including some prompt data and images of celebrities such as Ariana Grande, the Kardashians, and Beyoncé de-aged to look like children.

Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered an open cache of files on the website — the database was not password-protected or encrypted. He contacted the website to say it contained AI CSAM.

The database was quickly closed off, Fowler said. The company did not respond or contact him about the findings and when the technology publication Wired requested a comment, the site “appeared to shut down.”

Derek Ray-Hill of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK-based nonprofit that tackles online CSAM, commented: “Webpages containing AI-generated CSAM have more than quadrupled since 2023, and the photorealism of this horrific content has also leaped in sophistication.”

The IWF has documented how criminals are increasingly creating AI-generated CSAM and developing the methods they use to create it. “It’s currently just too easy for criminals to use AI to generate and distribute sexually explicit content of children at scale and speed,” Ray-Hill said.

Researchers tracking dementia have uncovered the strongest evidence yet that the shingles vaccination reduces the risk.

Health records of more than 280,000 older adults revealed that those who received a largely discontinued shingles vaccine called Zostavax were 20% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over the next seven years than those who went without.

Pascal Geldsetzer, at Stanford University, said: “For the first time we are able to say much more confidently that the shingles vaccine causes a reduction in dementia risk. If this truly is a causal effect, we have a finding that’s of tremendous importance.”

The researchers took advantage of a vaccination rollout that took place in Wales more than a decade ago. Public health policy dictated that from Sept. 1, 2013, people born on or after Sept. 2, 1933, became eligible for the Zostavax shot, while those who were older missed out.

The policy created a natural experiment where the older population was sharply divided into two groups depending on their access to the vaccine. This allowed the researchers to compare dementia rates in older people born weeks apart but on either side of the vaccine eligibility divide.

It is unclear how shingles vaccines might protect against dementia, but one theory is that they reduce inflammation in the nervous system by preventing the reactivation of the virus. Another theory is the vaccines induce broader changes in the immune system that are protective.

Haitians protested in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday to express their anger against gangs that control nearly all of the capital.

Violent armed groups have united behind a coalition known as Viv Ansanm and forced over 1 million people from their homes, contributing to a freezing of the economy and fueling mass hunger. They are also accused of extortion, mass rapes and killings.

The transitional government, a rotating body of presidential council members appointed nearly a year ago, alongside a long undermanned and underfunded UN-backed security mission, have done little to hold off the gangs' advances.

Critics alleged the government's poor performance against the gangs' advances is tied to state corruption and even collusion with the armed men and their financial backers. The government rejects the accusations, but Haitian authorities have a history of ingrained corruption, and its judicial system has been paralyzed.

The protest comes days after a mass jailbreak in the central town of Mirebalais.

A Paralympic gold medalist became the first blind woman to swim across the English Channel — and faster than expected.

Melanie Barratt, 49, said being blind has left her feeling “isolated,” but thanks to swimming, she has a “newfound confidence” and hopes her feat “inspires others.”

Barratt took on the challenge after falling in love with open-water swimming. She swam the Channel last August from Shakespeare Beach in Dover to Cap Gris Nez Beach in France, in 12 hours and 20 minutes, beating the expected 14 hours. She won a Guinness World Record Barratt for her effort.

Barratt, a special needs assistant after winning two gold medals, two silvers, and a bronze at the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Paralympics, said she “never thought it would be possible to achieve something like this.”

Melanie was born with scarred eyes after her mom contracted congenital toxoplasmosis during pregnancy. She grew up virtually blind and was only able to make out bright colors and shapes. She first began swimming with the British Blind Sport charity.

“I loved the water. The charity helped me by teaching me to swim straight and how not to bump my head into the pool ends. I struggled to fit in at school because of my blindness, so I often turned to the pool as an escape.”