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The Latest: El Salvador’s president says he won’t release Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the US

President Donald Trump ‘s top advisers and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that they had no basis for the small Central American nation to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there last month.

Trump administration officials emphasized Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said he does not “have the power to return him to the United States.”

The Supreme Court has called for the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.

Here’s the latest:

Justice Department charges man with arson at New Mexico Tesla dealership and GOP headquarters

That’s according to court records unsealed Monday.

A criminal complaint charges Jamison R. Wagner, 40, with federal arson charges in connection with the vandalism in February at a Tesla showroom in Bernalillo, New Mexico, where authorities found two Tesla Model Y vehicles ablaze as well as spray-painted graffiti messages including “Die Elon” and “Die Tesla Nazi.”

Elon Musk is the billionaire CEO of Tesla and close ally of President Trump who’s helped engineer a massive downsizing of the federal government and purge of employees.

The arrest is part of a federal crackdown on what Attorney General Pam Bondi has described as a wave of domestic terrorism against property carrying the logo of Musk’s electric-car company.

DC mayor says budgets cuts would be needed without action by Congress

The mayor of the nation’s capital says the city is raising its stalled budget as much as possible under authority granted by federal law, but it would still need to cut more than $410 million this fiscal year without action from Congress.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday that she’d sent a letter to the House and Senate appropriations committee to notify them.

The move comes days after the House adjourned for a two-week recess without acting on a $1.1 billion hole in the city’s budget, despite directives from President Trump to address the issue.

“We believed that the fix would happen, and we wouldn’t be running around planning for cuts,” Bowser said Monday at a conference.

She said the city is raising the budget 6%, as much as possible under federal statute, but the situation remains frustrating, with no options “off the table.”

Senior officials with Bowser’s office said the law changing the budget requires council approval, but not congressional. They added that the remaining cuts would likely affect all city services, including public safety.

Meta faces historic antitrust trial that could force it to break off Instagram and WhatsApp

A historic antitrust trial is underway Monday for Meta Platforms Inc. in a case that could force the tech giant to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, startups it bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social powerhouses.

In opening statements, Federal Trade Commission attorney Daniel Matheson said Meta has used a monopoly to generate enormous profits as consumer satisfaction has dropped. He said Meta was “erecting a moat” to protect its interests by buying the two startups because the company feared they were a threat to Meta’s dominance. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta witnesses will testify during the trial.

The trial will be the first big test of President Trump’s Federal Trade Commission’s ability to challenge Big Tech. The lawsuit was filed against Meta — then called Facebook — in 2020, during Trump’s first term. It claims the company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to squash competition and establish an illegal monopoly in the social media market.

Despite a court order, the White House bars the AP from Oval Office event

Despite a court order, a reporter and photographer from The Associated Press were barred from an Oval Office news conference on Monday with Trump and his counterpart from El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.

Last week’s federal court decision forbidding the Trump administration from punishing the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico was to take effect Monday. The administration is appealing the decision and arguing with the news outlet over whether it needs to change anything until those appeals are exhausted.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit set a Thursday hearing on Trump’s request that any changes be delayed while case is reviewed. The AP is fighting for more access as soon as possible.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen says he’ll travel to El Salvador if Abrego Garcia isn’t released by midweek

The Democratic senator from Maryland wrote to El Salvadoran diplomats to “urgently request” meeting with the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, to discuss the potential return of a former Maryland resident, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to the Central American nation by the Trump administration.

A federal judge ruled Garcia should be returned to the U.S., a decision that was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court last week.

“If Kilmar is not home by midweek — I plan to travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release,” Van Hollen wrote in a letter address to El Salvador’s ambassador to Washington.

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said during a Monday Oval Office meeting that he did not intend to return Kilmar to the U.S.

Trump wants Congress to end daylight saving time

President Trump on Friday urged Congress to “push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day” in his latest dig at the semiannual changing of clocks.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social media network, said it would be “Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”

The Republican president’s position calling for more daylight would push the schedule forward, keeping the country on daylight saving time. His post came a day after a Senate panel heard testimony examining whether to set one time all year instead of shifting.

There’s been growing interest in states to standardize daylight saving time in recent years.

Emboldened anti-abortion faction wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges

Advocates involved in the abortion debate are warning about the widening influence of a movement that seeks to outlaw all abortions and enforce the ban with criminal prosecution of any women who have abortions.

Mainstream anti-abortion groups have largely shied away from legislation that would punish women for having abortions, but abortion abolitionists believe abortion should be considered homicide and punished with the full force of the law.

So far this year, bills introduced in at least 12 states — Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas — would allow prosecutors to charge those who have abortions with homicide. In some of those states, women could be subject to the death penalty if the bills were to become law.

“With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, now states can pass the most severe abortion bans, which has galvanized the anti-abortion movement as a whole, including this part of it,” said Rachel Rebouche, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. “Certainly the fall of Roe has brought abortion abolitionists one step closer to what they want — banning abortion nationwide.”

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine has been sworn in as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

That’s nearly two months after President Trump fired his predecessor.

A formal White House ceremony is expected this week.

Caine, a decorated F-16 fighter pilot and well-respected officer, took over the role Saturday and was at the Pentagon over the weekend after Trump signed the necessary documents to allow him to fill the job.

He’ll serve the remainder of the four-year term of Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who was fired by Trump as part of a broader purge of military officers believed to endorse diversity and equity programs.

El Salvador’s leader shares an inside look at meeting with Trump

Before the press entered the Oval Office, Trump and Bukele chatted in a video posted on social media by the leader of El Salvador.

The U.S. president said he wanted to send “homegrowns” to be incarcerated in El Salvador, and he suggested “you’ve got to build five more places,” suggesting Bukele doesn’t have enough prison capacity for all of the U.S. citizens Trump would like to send there.

Trump also praised Bukele for his team’s slickly produced video of migrants arriving in El Salvador after being deported by the U.S.

“That’s what people want to see. Respect. They want to see respect,” Trump said.

He added, “you’ve got a good team. Can I use them?”

Bukele said “it’s like a movie, but it’s real.”

Former President Biden to make first public speech since leaving White House on Tuesday in Chicago

Biden will address the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled.

The former president has kept a very low profile since leaving office Jan. 20 — despite Trump scoffing repeatedly at his predecessor’s mental competency.

Organizers of the conference say participants are “committed to safeguarding and strengthening Social Security for the generations to come.”

Trump has pledged to shield Social Security from possible cuts, even as Democrats say it, and other federal entitlements like Medicare, could face funding trims to help offset tax reductions the administration supports.

Trump says he plans to provide temporary exemptions to automakers on his

And the president said he’s talked with Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose company could be hurt if the tariffs become permanent.

“They need a little bit of time,” Trump said of the automakers that would have to upend their supply chains to reduce their exposure to Trump’s import taxes.

Trump also said he had talked to Cook and “helped” him by exempting electronics from some of his China tariffs.

“I don’t want to hurt anybody but the end result is we’re going to get to the position of greatness for our country,” said Trump.

The U.S. president also theorized that China and Vietnam were meeting “to figure out: how do we screw the United States of America?”

Seizing on the March consumer price index, Trump says he’s fixed inflation

“We already solved inflation,” Trump told reporters gathered Monday in the Oval Office.

The U.S. president was touting the 2.4% annual inflation rate seen in the monthly consumer price report released last Thursday. Many economists are hesitant to claim a single report makes up a broader trend. Many economists and consumers worry Trump’s tariffs will cause prices to go up in ways that hurt the economy.

___

An earlier version of this item incorrectly said the report came out Monday instead of last Thursday.

Trump suggests Iran is ‘tapping us along’

The president expressed some impatience at the pace of nuclear negotiations with Iran.

“I think they’re tapping us along,” he said.

The next meeting is scheduled for this coming weekend.

“These are radicalized people. And they cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.

Trump is again praising his own health after undergoing an annual physical

He says the results indict “you’ve got me for a little longer.”

The president spent hours Friday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He said after it that testing went well.

A medical report on the physical was released Sunday. But Trump brought up the test again a day later, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that he did well on a cognitive exam performed as part of it.

“I like taking them because they’re not too tough for me to take,” Trump said of cognitive tests. He said his health was good enough that he should be around for years or at the very least “a little longer.”

Bondi: US would provide plane if El Salvador returns Abrego Garcia, which Bukele called ‘preposterous’

Trump referred questions about Abrego Garcia to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said he was illegally in the U.S. and that courts have ruled that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang.

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” Bondi said.

She called the issue “international matters” and “foreign affairs” and said the U.S. would facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return of El Salvador wanted to send him back by providing an airplane.

Bukele was asked if he plans to return Abrego Garcia and he asked how he could return him and said it was “preposterous.” He called Abrego Garcia “a terrorist” and that he had no power to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.

In a complaint, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have disputed the government’s claims that he was in a gang.

Trump: Man accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania governor’s mansion is ‘probably just a whack job’

The president was asked about Cody Balmer, who police say broke into the mansion, set a fire that caused significant damage and forced Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building during the Jewish holiday of Passover. He said, “The attacker was not a fan of Trump.”

Trump’s comments came in the Oval Office as he met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.

Trump added, “The attacker basically wasn’t a fan of anybody” and also noted, “A thing like that cannot be allowed to happen.”

Trump declines to criticize Russia for the recent strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy

Trump criticized former President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but not Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“If Biden were competent and if Zelenskyy were competent . . . that war should’ve never been allowed to happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

Referring to Putin, Trump said “I’m not saying anybody’s an angel.”

Trump has previously described the strike on Sumy as a “mistake.” On Monday, he said the mistake was allowing the war to start in the first place.

“Biden could’ve stopped it and Zelenskyy could’ve stopped it and Putin should’ve never started it,” he said. “Everybody’s to blame.”

Trump and Bukele discuss transgender athletes, which Bukele calls ‘violence’

Trump and Bukele quickly got into a discussion about transgender athletes in the White House, with the U.S. president asking his counterpart from El Salvador, “Do you allow men to play in women’s sports?”

“That’s violence,” Bukele responded.

Trump said there are people in the U.S. who “fight to the death” to allow transgender athletes to play and Bukele said, “We’re big on protecting women.”

Though Trump frequently speaks about transgender athletes, he said, “I don’t like talking about it because I want to save it for just before the next election.”

Trump meets with Salvadoran president in the Oval Office

Trump is meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, telling the visiting head of state “you are helping us out” by holding migrants deported from the United States in a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Trump said his administration’s hardline policies have restored order along the U.S.-Mexico border. He said of the changes, “We’re proud of them. Now we just need to get the criminals and murders and rapists”out of “our country.”

Bukele arrives at the White House

Trump greeted Bukele at the White House on Monday and ignored shouted questions from reporters about Abrego Garcia.

The president shook Bukele’s hand and directed the leader of El Salvador towards waiting reporters to pose for pictures and Trump pumped his fist.

They then went inside together.

Trump’s schedule for Monday

This morning, the president is meeting with the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. After the meeting, they will have lunch together. This afternoon, at 3 p.m., Trump will meet with The Ohio State University football team, the 2025 College National Football champions.

Some top tech leaders have embraced Trump. That’s created a political divide in Silicon Valley

Like many in the tech industry, Jeremy Lyons used to think of himself as a relatively apolitical guy.

The only time he had participated in a demonstration before now was in the opening days of Trump’s first presidential term, when he joined fellow Google workers walking out of the company’s Silicon Valley campus to protest immigration restrictions. Google’s co-founder and its chief executive officer joined them.

Last weekend was Lyons’ second, also against Trump, but it had a different feel.

The man directing thousands of marchers with a bullhorn in downtown San Jose on April 5 was another tech worker who wouldn’t give his full name for fear of being identified by Trump backers. Marchers were urged not to harass drivers of Tesla vehicles, which have gone from a symbol of Silicon Valley’s environmental futurism to a pro-Trump icon. And no tech executives were anywhere to be seen, only months after several joined Trump at his inauguration.

To Lyons, the change says as much about what’s happened to Silicon Valley over the past quarter-century as it does about the atmosphere of fear surrounding many Trump critics nowadays.

“One of the things I’ve seen over that time is a shift from a nerdy utopia to a money first, move fast and break things,” Lyons said.

US funding cuts have halted or threatened aid programs in Syria

That includes health and nutrition services for displaced people and child protection for children in notorious camps housing the families of alleged Islamic State members.

While funding cut from the World Food Program in Syria was restored, other cuts remain, including nearly $12 million from Save the Children and nearly $2 million from World Vision.

World Vision Syria Response Director Emmanuel Isch said the organization has largely halted a health and nutrition program serving 30,000 to 40,000 internally displaced people, many of whom “have limited access to basic services.”

Save the Children Country Director Bujar Hoxha said it has reprogrammed funding to continue case management for unaccompanied minors in the al-Hol and al-Roj camps and programs for malnourished children in different parts of Syria.

“But that is for very limited timeline,” he said, noting that within a few weeks “we have to either find a way to continue funding, or we have to close it down.”

Trump says ‘I just got here’ despite pledge to end Ukraine war before taking office

President Trump issued a statement on social media over the ongoing war in Ukraine, saying he had “NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS WAR.”

Despite his repeated promise as a candidate that he’d have the Russia-Ukraine war settled within 24 hours — even before taking office — he said Monday: “I just got here.”

“The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening,” Trump said.

Trump last month said he’d been “a little bit sarcastic” when he had past pledged he’d resolve the war.

Top White House aide says Abrego Garcia’s fate is up to El Salvador

Ahead of Trump’s meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, a top White House aide signaled the U.S. president wouldn’t be asking his counterpart to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.

“It’s up to El Salvador and to the government and the people of El Salvador what the fate of their own citizens is,” Stephen Miller, a deputy chief of staff, told reporters at the White House on Monday morning. “We can’t extradite citizens of foreign countries to our country over the objection of those countries.”

Senator seeks meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele over Abrego Garcia’s return

Sen. Chris Van Hollen says he plans to travel to El Salvador this week if Abrego Garcia, a constituent, isn’t returned by that time.

“Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia never should have been abducted and illegally deported, and the courts have made clear: the Administration must bring him home, now,” the Maryland Democrat said in a statement.

He said that since the Trump administration “appears to be ignoring these court mandates,” more action is needed.

Wall Street joins a global rally after Trump exempts some electronics from tariffs

Stocks are rallying worldwide after President Trump relaxed some of his tariffs, for now at least.

The S&P 500 was 1.7% higher in early trading Monday. It’s coming off a chaotic week where it careened through historic swings as markets struggled to catch up with Trump’s moves on tariffs.

The Dow Jones Average was up 434 points, or 1.1%, and the Nasdaq composite was up 2.5%. Apple, Nvidia and other big technology companies led the way on Wall Street after Trump said he was exempting smartphones, computers and some other electronics from some of his stiff tariffs.

A key ally in Trump’s migrant crackdown is coming for a visit

President Trump is hosting Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, at the White House on Monday as the small Central American nation becomes a critical lynchpin of the U.S. administration’s mass deportation operation.

Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country’s notorious maximum-security gang prison just outside of the capital, San Salvador. It’s also holding a Maryland man who the administration admits was wrongly deported but has not been returned to the U.S., despite court orders to do so.

That has made Bukele, who remains extremely popular in El Salvador due in part to the crackdown on the country’s powerful street gangs, a vital ally for the Trump administration, which has offered little evidence for its claims that the Venezuelan immigrants were in fact gang members, nor has it released names of those deported.

White House responds to China on rare earths

Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to President Trump, said China’s decision to stop exports of some rare earth minerals was “concerning.”

Rare earths are critical ingredients for technology and electronic manufacturing.

“The rare earth limits are being studied very carefully, and they’re concerning, and we’re thinking about all the options right now,” Hassett told reporters outside the White House.

He spoke to Fox Business earlier in the morning, where he said the administration was “100% not” expecting a recession as Trump disrupts global trade with his tariff plans.

Trump says CBS and ’60 Minutes’ should ‘pay a big price’ for going after him

Trump bitterly attacked “60 Minutes” shortly after the CBS news magazine broadcast stories on Ukraine and Greenland on Sunday, saying the network was out of control and should “pay a big price” for going after him.

“Almost every week, 60 Minutes … mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s ‘BROADCAST’ tops them all,” the president said on his Truth Social platform. He called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to impose maximum fines and punishment “for their unlawful and illegal behavior.”

The network had no immediate comment.

Trump has an ongoing $20 billion lawsuit against “60 Minutes” for how it edited an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris last fall. The president claims it was edited in a way to make Harris look good, something the newscast denies. But there are ongoing reports that Trump’s lawyers and CBS’ parent company are involved in settlement talks.

Trump is ‘fully fit’ to serve as commander in chief, his doctor says after recent physical

Trump’s doctor says the oldest man elected president is “fully fit” to serve as commander in chief as the White House released results Sunday of Trump’s recent physical exam. The 78-year-old Trump is 20 pounds lighter since his checkup as president in 2020 showed him bordering on obesity.

His physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, cited an “active lifestyle” that ”continues to contribute significantly” to the Republican president’s well-being. Trump turns 79 on June 14.

In a three-page summary of the comprehensive exam from Friday, the doctor said Trump is “fully fit to execute the duties of Commander-in-Chief and Head of State.”

Asked about the exam on Sunday and how he stays healthy, Trump said, “Because I enjoy what I’m doing and I like the results.

“I think we’re making America great again and it makes me feel good. It probably keeps me happy,” he told reporters accompanying him on a flight back to Washington from Florida.

Trump’s commerce secretary says new electronics tariff exemptions are temporary, chip tariffs coming

Tariff exemptions announced Friday on electronics like smartphones and laptops are only a temporary reprieve until the Trump administration develops a new tariff approach specific to the semiconductor industry, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday.

White House officials, including Trump himself, spent Sunday downplaying the significance of exemptions that lessen but won’t eliminate the effect of U.S. tariffs on imports of popular consumer devices and their key components.

Trump added to the confusion hours later, declaring on social media that there was no “exception” at all because the goods are “just moving to a different” bucket and will still face a 20% tariff as part of his administration’s move to punish China for its role in fentanyl trafficking.

China’s commerce ministry in a Sunday statement welcomed the change as a small step even as it called for the U.S. to completely cancel the rest of its tariffs.

 

Notes: Eds: CORRECTS: Corrects an item on inflation to show the report came out last Thursday instead of Monday. UPDATES: Updates Media.

 

Chesterfield’s Atlantic Constructors Inc. acquired by Texas co.

One of the U.S.’s largest providers of , Texas-based TriplePoint MEP, has acquired -based (ACI), according to a Monday announcement.

ACI, which provides mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection products and services, also has locations in , , Sterling, and Wilmington, North Carolina.

A request for comment from TriplePoint seeking financial details of the deal was not immediately returned Monday.

In February, ACI announced the opening of a second 170,000-square-foot building on 18 acres beside its existing building in Chesterfield, which sits on 25 acres. The new facility was designed to add capacity for modular construction components.

With more than 1,200 employees, ACI works on large commercial buildings for industries such as health care, advanced manufacturing, data centers, higher education, and chemicals manufacturing.

ACI founder Art Hungerford launched predecessor entities to ACI in the 1980s and transitioned to the role of chair in 2020, with Evan Shriver succeeding him as the company’s CEO.

With the addition of ACI, TriplePoint expects to come in at over $1 billion in pro forma revenue for 2025, according to a release. Its principal locations include Texas, Ohio and Kansas, and it operates under brands like Polk Mechanical, TP Mechanical and Temp-Con.

China’s Xi says there are no winners in a tariff war as he visits Southeast Asia

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — ‘s leader Xi Jinping said no one wins in a trade war as he kicked off a diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia on Monday, presenting China as a force for stability in contrast with U.S. ‘s latest moves on ,

Although Trump has paused some tariffs, he has kept in place 145% duties on China, the world’s second-largest economy.

“There are no winners in a trade war, or a tariff war,” Xi wrote in an editorial jointly published in Vietnamese and Chinese official . “Our two countries should resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”

Xi’s visit lets China show Southeast Asia it is a “responsible superpower in the way that contrasts with the way the U.S. under President Donald Trump presents to the whole world,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.

While Trump has said he respects Xi, he interpreted the meeting between the two Asian leaders as a sign they were attempting to put the U.S. at a disadvantage on trade.

Talking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said China and Vietnam were trying “to figure out how do we screw the United States of America.”

Xi was greeted on the tarmac by Vietnam’s President Luong Cuong at the start of his two-day visit, a mark of honor not often given to visitors, said Nguyen Thanh Trung, a professor of Vietnamese studies at Fulbright University Vietnam. Students of a drum art group performed as women waved the red and yellow Chinese and Communist Party flags.

While Xi’s trip likely was planned earlier, it has become significant because of the tariff fight between China and the U.S. The visit offers a path for Beijing to shore up its alliances and find solutions for the high trade barrier that the U.S. has imposed on Chinese exports.

In Hanoi, Xi met with Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, his counterpart. “In the face of turmoil and disruption in the current global context, China and Vietnam’s commitment to peaceful , and deepening of friendship and cooperation and has brought the world valuable stability and certainty,” he said.

He also met with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. The two sides signed a series of memorandums in areas including strengthening cooperation in supply chains, railroad development and environmental protection, according to Associated Press footage of the signed documents.

Nhan Dan, the official mouthpiece of Vietnam’s Communist Party, said that China and Vietnam will speed up a $8 billion railway project connecting the two countries in a deal that was approved in February.

Xi’s visit sends a message to the region

The timing of the visit sends a “strong political message that Southeast Asia is important to China,” said Huong Le-Thu of the International Crisis Group think tank. She said that given the severity of Trump’s tariffs and despite the 90-day pause, Southeast Asian nations were anxious that the tariffs, if implemented, could complicate their development.

Vietnam is experienced at balancing its relations with the U.S and China. It is run under a communist, one-party system like China but has had a strong relationship with the U.S.

In 2023, it was the only country that received both U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping. That year it also upgraded the U.S. to its highest diplomatic level, the same as China and Russia.

Vietnam was one of the biggest beneficiaries of countries trying to decouple their supply chains from China, as businesses moved here. China is its biggest trading partner, and China-Vietnam trade surged 14.6% year-on-year in 2024, according to Chinese state media.

That trade relationship goes both ways.

“The trip to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia is all about how China can really insulate itself,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, pointing out that since Xi became the president in 2013, he has only visited Vietnam twice.

But the intensification of the trade war has put Vietnam in a “very precarious situation” given the impression in the U.S. that Vietnam is serving as a backdoor for Chinese goods, said Giang. Vietnam had been hit with 46% tariffs under Trump’s order before the 90-day pause.

China and Vietnam have real long-term differences, including territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where Vietnam has faced off with China’s coast guard but does not often publicize the confrontations.

After Vietnam, Xi is expected to go to Malaysia next and then Cambodia.

—-

Wu reported from Bangkok. Associated Press journalists Hau Dinh and Josh Boak contributed to this report.

Notes: Eds: UPDATES: Adds Trump remarks.

Stocks rally worldwide after Trump eases some of his tariffs on electronics, for now

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rising worldwide Monday after  relaxed some of his , for now at least, and as stress from within the U.S. bond market seems to be easing.

The S&P 500 was 0.5% higher in midday trading, though trading is still shaky, and it gave back most of its bigger, early gain of 1.8%. The Dow Jones Average was up 154 points, or 0.4%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.

Apple and other technology companies helped lift Wall Street after Trump said he was exempting smartphones, computers and some other electronics from some of his stiff tariffs, which could ultimately more than double prices for U.S. customers of many goods coming from . Such an exemption should help U.S. importers, which would not have to choose between passing on the higher costs to their customers or taking a hit to their own profits.

Apple climbed 2.1%, and Dell Technologies rose 3.4%.

markets in other countries likewise bounced following the cooldown in Trump’s trade war with China, the world’s second-largest economy. Indexes climbed 2.3% in France, 2.6% in Germany, 1.2% in Japan and 1% in South Korea.

But the relief may prove fleeting, helping to lead to Monday morning’s swings. Trump’s tariff rollout broadly has been full of fits and starts, and officials in his administration said this most recent exemption on electronics is only temporary.

That could keep uncertainty high for companies, which are trying to make long-term plans when conditions seem to change by the day. Such uncertainty sent the U.S. last week to chaotic and historic swings, as investors struggled to catch up with Trump’s moves on tariffs, which could ultimately lead to a recession if not reduced.

China’s commerce ministry nevertheless welcomed the change in a Sunday statement as a small step even as it called for the U.S. to completely cancel the rest of its tariffs. China’s leader Xi Jinping on Monday said no one wins in a trade war as he kicked off a diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia, hoping to present China as a force for stability in contrast with Trump’s frenetic moves on tariffs.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs rose 0.9% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. It joined other big banks in doing so, such as JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

Perhaps more encouragingly for Wall Street, the bond market was also showing some signs of increasing calm. Treasury yields eased following their sudden and scary rise last week, which seemed to rattle not only investors but also Trump.

Treasury yields usually drop when fear is high in the market because U.S. government bonds have historically been seen as some of the world’s safest investments, if not the safest. But last week, yields rose sharply for Treasury bonds in an usual move. The value of the U.S. dollar also fell against other currencies in another move suggesting investors may no longer see the United States as the best place to keep their cash during moments of stress.

Trump noted the moves in the bond market, which suggested investors “were getting a little queasy,” when he announced a 90-day pause on many of his tariffs last week.

That Trump acted only after the bond market made its scary move, but not after U.S. stock market began trembling, “reveals this administration’s Achilles’ heel,” according to Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased back to 4.40%. It had jumped to 4.48% on Friday from 4.01% the week before. It got an encouraging update in the morning on expectations for inflation among U.S. consumers.

While U.S. households raised their expectations for inflation in the year ahead, their expectations for inflation three and five years in the future were either unchanged or lower, according to a survey by the Bank of New York.

That’s potentially good for the Federal Reserve, which hates to see fast-rising expectations for longer-term inflation. Such expectations could kick off a feedback loop that drives behavior among consumers that only worsens inflation.

The value of the U.S. dollar, though, remained under pressure. It slipped against the euro and Japanese yen, while rising a bit against the Canadian dollar.

In China, stock indexes rose 2.4% in Hong Kong and 0.8% in Shanghai after the government reported that China‘s exports surged 12.4% in March from a year earlier in a last-minute flurry of activity as companies rushed to beat increases in U.S. tariffs imposed by Trump.

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AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.

Notes: Eds: UPDATES: trading.

$30M Chesapeake Square Mall redevelopment underway

Demolition began last week on sections of Square as part of a $30 million project of the 36-year-old indoor mall off Interstate 664 in Chesapeake.

Stores are still open at the mall while Virginia Beach-based real estate firm is demolishing the former Burlington Coat Factory Space and several former anchor stores on the west end of the property — including Sears, Macy’s and JCPenney — to make room for replacement space, including a grocery store and a sporting goods store, as well as new outparcels.

Flyer for Chesapeake Square Mall shows plans for grocery store and sporting goods store. Image Courtesy Kotarides Cos.
Flyer for shows plans for grocery store and sporting goods store. Image courtesy Kotarides.

Chris Good, director of commercial properties for Kotarides, says demolition work at the mall should wrap up in the middle of May. Afterward, site prep work will begin for the redevelopment project’s construction phase, likely to begin in October. Good said he couldn’t name the grocery or sporting goods tenants, citing client confidentiality.

Kotarides purchased the mall, which was built in 1989, for $12.9 million in 2018, seeking to revive it as a destination regional mall. Currently home to around 30 retails and restaurants, the mall property is about 1 million square feet, including roughly 700,000 square feet of leasable space.

The remainder of the mall — including the 12-screen Cinemark XD-12 movie theater and a Target store  — will remain open during the demolition and construction work.

The redevelopment project should be complete sometime between summer and fall 2026, Good anticipates.

Trump’s commerce secretary says new electronics tariff exemptions are temporary, chip tariffs coming

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tariff exemptions announced Friday on electronics like smartphones and laptops are only a temporary reprieve until the Trump administration develops a new tariff approach specific to the semiconductor industry, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday.

“They’re exempt from the reciprocal but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

The Trump administration late Friday said it would exclude electronics from reciprocal tariffs, a move that could help keep the prices down for popular consumer devices that aren’t usually made in the U.S.

The move was expected to benefit big tech companies like Apple and Samsung and chip makers like Nvidia, though the uncertainty of future tariffs may rein in an expected tech rally on Monday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said items like smartphones, laptops, hard drives, flat-panel monitors and some chips would qualify for the exemption. Machines used to make semiconductors are excluded too. That means they won’t be subject to the current 145% tariffs levied on  or the 10% baseline tariffs elsewhere.

It’s the latest tariff change by the Trump administration, which has made several U-turns in its massive plan to put tariffs in place on goods from most countries. Lutnick’s comments Sunday made clear that more changes were on the way, including a policy specific to the computer chip industry.

On Air Force One Saturday night, told reporters he would get into more specifics on exemptions on Monday. “We’ve been making a lot of money,” he said. “It’s been the other way around. Other countries, in particular China was making a lot of money.”

The exemption filed Friday night seemed to reflect the president’s realization that his China tariffs are unlikely to shift more manufacturing of smartphones, computers and other gadgets to the U.S. any time soon, if ever, despite the administration’s predictions that the trade war prod Apple to make iPhones in the U.S. for the first time.

But that was an unlikely scenario after Apple spent decades building up a finely calibrated supply chain in China. What’s more, it would take several years and cost billions of dollars to build new plants in the U.S., and then confront Apple with economic forces that could triple the price of an iPhone, threatening to torpedo of its marquee product.

Trump’s decision to exempt the iPhone and other popular electronics made in China mirrors the similar relief that he gave those products during the trade war of his first term in the White House. But Trump began his second term seemingly determined to impose the tariffs more broadly.

The turmoil battered the stocks of tech’s “Magnificent Seven” — Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.

At one point, the Magnificent Seven’s combined market value had plunged by $2.1 trillion, or 14%, from April 2 when Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs on a wide range of countries. When Trump paused the tariffs outside of China on Wednesday, the lost value in those companies was pared to $644 billion, or a 4% decline.

The electronics exemption is the kind of friendly treatment that industry was envisioning when Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos assembled behind the president during his Jan. 20 inauguration.

That united display of fealty reflected Big Tech’s hopes that Trump would be more accommodating than President Joe Biden’s administration.

Apple won praise from Trump in late February when the Cupertino, California, company committed to invest $500 billion and add 20,000 jobs in the U.S. during the next four years. The pledge was an echo of a $350 billion investment commitment in the U.S. that Apple made during Trump’s first term when the iPhone was exempted from China tariffs.

The move removes “a huge black cloud overhang for now over the tech sector and the pressure facing U.S. Big Tech,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a research note. Ives amended that note after Lutnick’s comments Sunday, saying the confusing out of the White House “is dizzying for the industry and investors and creating massive uncertainty and chaos for companies trying to plan their supply chain, inventory, and demand.”

In a statement issued Saturday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt did not address the exemptions specifically but indicated the administration still plans to push for tech companies to move manufacturing to the U.S.

She said the administration has secured U.S. investments from tech companies — including Apple, TSMC and Nvidia — who are “hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”

Neither Apple nor Samsung responded to a request for comment over the weekend. Nvidia declined to comment.

Virginia Business sales manager named sales professional of year

Virginia Business won 12 in the ‘s 2024 & Contest, and  Manager Toni McCracken was named Outstanding Sales Professional of the Year, the state organization announced during an awards banquet held Saturday at the Omni Richmond Hotel.

“Toni’s career in Virginia sales is remarkable. She is a mentor, a leader, and a driving force in our organization, and her dedication to her clients and the broader community is evident in the trust and relationships she has built,” said Virginia Business Associate Publisher and Editor Richard Foster. “Toni exemplifies excellence, integrity, dedication and success in her field.”

“It was quite an honor to be recognized alongside the tremendous editorial and design talent at Virginia Business,” said McCracken, who tied for 2024 Outstanding Sales Professional of the Year with Sherry Quinley, sponsorship sales manager for Cardinal News.

The state press association’s annual contest recognizes excellence in design, writing, , illustrations and advertising among participating publications across Virginia for the previous calendar year. This year’s contest was judged by members of the Oregon Press Association. As a monthly business magazine, Virginia Business competes in the ‘s specialty publications category, which includes publications published less frequently than weekly as well as targeted and niche publications.

Virginia Business also received a first place award for in-depth or investigative reporting award for freelance writer Courteney Stuart’s feature story about a federal False Claims Act investigation into Sentara Health’s 2018 and 2019 insurance rates for Charlottesville-area residents on the Affordable Care Act health marketplace. Director of reporting for the Indianapolis-based Audiochuck podcast network, Stuart is a former news anchor and reporter for CBS19 News in Charlottesville and was editor in chief for C-ville Weekly.

“This is dense, sophisticated reporting, both explanatory and investigative. It’s tough to deliver an actuarial narrative, but this story does so deftly, and packs a big outrage factor,” the contest judges wrote in choosing Stuart’s story. “It’s nicely structured and paced. It provides the historical sweep and context on the ACA that’s necessary to understand the more detailed reporting on area rate factors, morbidity, certification language and risk adjustment payments that comes later. Very impressive.”

Additionally, Foster received a first-place award for commentary and column writing, and Deputy Editor Kate Andrews took first place for headline writing.

On May 1, 2024, a group of U.Va. students gathered around Muslim students who prayed during a May Day protest on the university Lawn. Photo by Jay Paul

A photo of University of Virginia student protesters by freelance photographer Jay Paul won first place for general news photo, and a dynamic picture of student welders training at Tidewater Community College won pictorial photo first place for freelancer Mark Rhodes.

Virginia Business Art Director Joel Smith received first place awards in the Lifestyles and Professional Services advertising design categories.

Smith, Andrews, and photographers James Lee and Ashley Cowan also received a joint second place award for the magazine’s cover art, which included the magazine’s July 2024 Women in Leadership Awards cover. Smith also took third place for the magazine’s overall design and presentation.

“I know one thing, I want to read every issue of Virginia Business, but especially to explore the wonderful photography that demands attention from the covers presented!” the judges wrote.

“I’ve always thought it would be fun to flip the traditional cover from a vertical view to the horizontal landscape and Leading Ladies gets five gold stars! A great deal of planning goes into such a fabulous cover, beginning with the conversation stage of the subjects so they know what the overall finished concept would look like. Such a sharp cover! Silver Tsunami – wow! The shipbuilder gets his moment and this probably generated some buzz. Excellent photography. As for the Milestones edition – that is the way to recognize a historical family-owned business. Congratulations on 2nd place!”

Other VPA awards Virginia Business received this year included:

  • Second place for business or financial writing, freelance writer Rich Griset
  • Second place for sports feature photo, freelancer Shannon Ayres
  • Third place for special sections/special editions for the 2024 StartVirginia annual issue, Virginia Business staff, including former Associate Editor Robyn Sidersky

 

 

Average US rate on a 30-year mortgage falls to 6.62%, easing for the third week in a row

The average rate on a 30-year in the U.S. declined for the third week in a row, another positive move for prospective homebuyers during what’s traditionally the housing market’s busy season.

The rate fell to 6.62% from 6.64% last week, mortgage buyer said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.88%.

The average rate has mostly trended lower since reaching just over 7% in mid-January. When mortgage rates decline, they boost homebuyers’ purchasing power.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, were unchanged from last week. The average rate remained at 5.82%, but is down 6.16% a year ago, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including global demand for U.S. Treasurys, the ‘s interest rate policy decisions and bond market investors’ expectations for future inflation.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage loosely follows moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The yield, which has mostly fallen this year after climbing to around 4.8% in mid-January, has been volatile of late as bond investors reacted to the Trump administration’s decision to escalate U.S. on goods imported from nations around the world.

After sliding to just 4.01% at the end of last week, the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to nearly 4.5% Wednesday morning. It was at 4.36% in afternoon trading Thursday following the White House’s decision to temporarily pause the new tariffs on most nations, even while increasing import taxes on .

The latest drop in mortgage rates partially reflects the bond market’s uncertainty over the Trump administration’s on-again, off-again tariff policy, which is likely to keep mortgage rates volatile, said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS.

“All of the uncertainty in the economy and in the mortgage market is making it difficult for prospective homebuyers to know what to do,” she said. “Should they buy now or wait until later this year and hope that rates will come down further?”

Recent forecasts by housing economists generally called for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain around 6.5% this year.

The U.S. housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

Easing mortgage rates and more homes on the market nationally helped drive sales higher in February from the previous month helped drive sales higher in February from the previous month though they were down year-over-year.

Still, home shoppers who can afford to buy at current mortgage rates may benefit from more buyer-friendly trends this spring homebuying season, including a sharp increase in home listings and lower asking prices in some metro areas.

U.S. Cellular to lay off 95 Va. employees due to T-Mobile merger

U.S. Cellular will lay off 95 workers in Virginia in June, according to a post on the Virginia Department of Workforce ‘s website Friday.

The Chicago-based ‘s wireless operations will be sold to for $4.4 billion, the companies announced in May 2024, and U.S. Cellular plans to lay off 4,100 employees nationally, according to a letter from an HR director at the company.

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel for those workers, however. In the March 26-dated letter, Izik Youker writes that U.S. Cellular “has made arrangements with T-Mobile to offer employment to a majority of these employees at a salary or wage rate with benefits that when taken as a whole are no less favorable.”

The employees will be let go on June 2 or within the two following weeks, the letter specifies.

Employees at stores in , Farmville, Galax, Lynchburg, , , Rocky Mount, Salem and will be impacted along with some remote employees, according to the letter.

The will allow T-Mobile to expand services to underserved rural areas, the company said last year.

Arlington entrepreneur prepares for Blue Origin space flight

Arlington entrepreneur and former NASA engineer will be a member of the first all-woman crew set to fly to the edge of space next week as passengers on a commercial rocket.

Along with singer Katy Perry and CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King, Bowe is scheduled to take an 11-minute flight April 14 on the self-flying New Shepard rocket from Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos’ company. The rest of the group includes Lauren Sánchez, an Emmy-winning journalist, helicopter pilot and Bezos’ fiancée; documentary producer Kerianne Flynn; and Amanda Nguyễn, a bioastronautics research scientist and advocate for sexual violence survivors.

Bowe is CEO of STEMBoard, which she founded in 2013 in and offers advisory services to federal agencies. The company landed on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing privately owned U.S. companies in 2020, and in 2022, Bowe launched Lingo, a self-paced coding kit that includes tutorials and online resources and is used by children around the world to learn how to code. Lingo recently secured $2.3 million in venture capital.

In February, Bowe was announced as one of the crew members on Blue Origin’s 11th human space flight and New Shepard’s 31st overall mission. She’ll be the first Bahamian American to fly into space, and only five Black women have ever gone to space as NASA astronauts.

Speaking to Elle magazine, which featured the six women on its cover in April, Bowe said: “I read a stat that there’s a huge majority of middle school girls who decide not to pursue STEM fields, although they otherwise would have been interested, because they see them as male-dominated fields. So this representation really matters. It’s people seeing themselves and being able to show up authentically in their careers in the future.”

Bowe, a University of Michigan graduate who was an aerospace engineer at NASA before starting , told Elle that she “wanted to go to space, but I didn’t think it was possible. I was afraid to even dream about it.”

The flight has gotten some criticism along with accolades, as The New York Times columnist Jessica Grose pointed out an “embarrassing exchange” between Sánchez and Perry in the Elle story about getting “glam” for the flight and not drawing attention to serious issues, such as the fact that the Trump administration has laid off 23 people from NASA, including its chief scientist, Katherine Calvin.

On Friday, The Washington Post reported that an early White House budget plan calls for “massive” cuts to NASA’s science budget. Blue Origin secured a $2.38 billion U.S. Space Force contract in April for seven missions, Reuters reported last week.

Meanwhile, Bowe has completed training for the flight, and in an interview with King earlier this week on CBS, she said, “I’ve been preparing for this moment all my life.”

New Shepard, named for late NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, is scheduled to lift off Monday, April 14, at 9:30 a.m. from Blue Origin’s facility in West Texas. It will fly to the edge of space and back, and the flight will be livestreamed on Space.com and Blue Origin’s website. Weather or equipment delays could push liftoff up to an hour later, according to Space.com.