📌 End Of Tit-For-Tat? Houthis Bombed

President Donald Trump has signaled a potential end to the tit-for-tat tariff hikes between the US and China.

"I don't want them to go higher, because at a certain point you make it where people don't buy," Trump said. His comments pointed to a diminished appetite for sharply higher across-the-board tariffs on dozens of countries after markets reacted violently to their introduction on April 2.

The Republican president slapped 10% tariffs on most goods entering the country but delayed the implementation of higher levies, pending negotiations. Still, he hiked rates on Chinese imports, now totaling 145%, after Beijing retaliated with its counter-measures.

Trump said China had been in touch since the imposition of tariffs and expressed optimism that they could reach a deal. Trump repeatedly declined to specify the nature of talks between the countries or whether they directly included Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump has repeatedly extended a legal deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of the short video app used by 170 million Americans. On Thursday, he said a spin-off deal would likely wait until the trade issue is settled.

US airstrikes targeting the Ras Isa oil port held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed 20 people and wounded 50 others, the group said.

The Iranian-backed Houthis later launched a missile toward Israel that was intercepted, the Israeli military said, causing sirens to sound in Tel Aviv and other areas. The US strikes were deemed the most successful since the bombing campaign began on March 15.

The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel aired graphic footage of the aftermath of the attack on Ras Isa port, showing corpses strewn across the site. It said paramedic and civilian workers at the port had been killed in the attack, which sparked a massive explosion and fires.

The war in Yemen further internationalized as the US alleged a Chinese satellite company was “directly supporting” Houthi attacks, something Beijing did not immediately acknowledge.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen met in El Salvador with Kilmar Ábrego García, the man wrongfully deported.

Van Hollen posted a photo of the meeting on X, saying he also called Ábrego García’s wife “to pass along his message of love.” The senator did not provide an update on the status of Ábrego García, whose attorneys are fighting to force the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the US.

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, posted images of the meeting minutes before Van Hollen shared his post, saying, “Kilmar Ábrego García, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ and ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!”

President Trump and Bukele said this week that they have no basis to send Ábrego García back, even as the Trump administration has called his deportation a mistake and the Supreme Court has called on the administration to facilitate his return.

Trump officials said Ábrego García, a Salvadorian citizen who was living in Maryland, has ties to the MS-13 gang. His attorneys say the government has provided no evidence. Ábrego García has never been charged with a related crime, his attorneys said.

Van Hollen’s visit to El Salvador has become a partisan flashpoint. Democrats say Ábrego García’s deportation is a cruel consequence of Trump’s disregard for the courts. Republicans criticize Democrats for defending him and argue his deportation is part of a larger effort to reduce crime.

Eli Lilly and Co., maker of Zepbound and Mounjaro, said its phase 3 diabetic and weight-loss pill clinical trial was successful.

The once-daily GLP-1 pill — an oral form of the medication for type 2 diabetes and weight loss — is an alternative to injections. The company said it is the first small-molecule oral GLP-1 to succeed in a phase 3 trial.

The most commonly reported adverse effects were mild to moderate gastrointestinal issues, including diarrhea, nausea, indigestion, constipation and vomiting.

Dr. Louis Aronne, who has been treating obesity for 35 years and is a consultant for Eli Lilly, calls the drug "transformational." “Just think about the idea of having a pill that can be distributed anywhere in the world, that doesn't need to be refrigerated,” Aronne said. “It's as effective as one of the injectable drugs we have now: Semaglutide. That is a big deal.”

Eli Lilly says it plans to submit Orforglipron to the Food and Drug Administration for approval as a type 2 diabetes treatment in 2026. For weight management, it plans to submit the drug to global regulatory agencies by the end of this year.

Google illegally dominates two markets for online advertising technology, a judge ruled on Thursday.

The judgment dealt another blow to the tech giant and paved the way for US antitrust prosecutors to seek a breakup of its ad products.

District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Va, found Google liable for "willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power" in markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges that sit between buyers and sellers.

Publisher ad servers are platforms used by websites to store and manage their digital ad inventory. Along with ad exchanges, the technology lets news publishers and other online content providers make money by selling ads. Those funds are the "lifeblood" of the internet, Brinkema wrote.

The decision clears the way for another hearing to determine what Google must do to restore competition in those markets, such as sell off parts of its business. It is the second court ruling saying Google holds an illegal monopoly, after a judgment in a case over online search.

Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital, called the ruling a "major inflection point" for Google and the tech sector, underscoring US courts' willingness to entertain "aggressive structural remedies" in antitrust cases.

An American YouTuber arrested after visiting an off-limits island in the Indian Ocean will appear in a local court on April 29.

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, from Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested two days after he set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel Island in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands to meet members of the reclusive Sentinelese tribe. A sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine can be imposed.

Visitors are banned from traveling within 3 miles of North Sentinel Island, whose population has been isolated for thousands of years. The inhabitants use spears and bows and arrows to hunt the animals that roam the small, heavily forested island. They are known to attack outsiders.

In 2018, John Allen Chau, an American missionary, landed illegally on the beach and was killed by the Islanders with arrows and buried on the beach. In 2006, the Sentinelese killed two fishermen who had accidentally landed on the shore.

Polyakov attempted to visit the island twice before, leaving a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as an offering. The charity Survival International called his actions "deeply disturbing.”

Charity Director Carolina Pearce commented: ”This person's actions not only endangered his own life, they put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk. … uncontacted peoples have no immunity to common outside diseases like flu or measles, which could completely wipe them out."

A human chain helped a Michigan bookstore pass its entire inventory from its old location to its new one.

The story began with a challenge. Serendipity Books and its owner, Michelle Tuplin, had to move 9,100 books 350 feet to her new premises without closing down for several days — tough on a bookstore’s tight margins.

Taking to social media and asking for volunteers among her many followers and customers, Tuplin had an overwhelming response, as 300 people showed up to lend a hand. That’s when Tuplin came up with a novel idea: a human chain.

The new space was just 350 feet from the old one, and in just 2 hours, the entire collection had been moved and stocked — in alphabetical order, no less.

“It was just a joyful experience,” Donna Zak, one of the volunteers, said. “We were passing the books and commenting to each other, ‘Oh, have you read this one? I really enjoyed this one!’”