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Take a look inside George Mason’s high-tech science and engineering labs

In a third-floor lab at University’s new, $107 million and Building in , students will dissect and study the effects of decomposition on human remains. A few floors away, their peers may dangle from harnesses while wearing sensors to gaits while others test fly an autonomous blimp in a two-story aviary.

Open to students since January, George Mason’s 132,000-square-foot state-of-the-art interdisciplinary lab and research space was unveiled to the public Thursday. Part of the university’s Science and Technology Campus, it brings together students from George Mason’s colleges of science, education and human development, engineering and computing, as well as visual and performing arts and offers classrooms, collaboration space and 30 labs for a range of hands-on training in the sciences and technology, including athletics and kinesiology, chemistry, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and forensic sciences.

Those labs and hands-on opportunities include a first-floor wind tunnel, additive spaces and even morgue storage, where forensic sciences students may stash their research subjects — including those plucked from George Mason’s nearby five-acre “body farm,” where people donate their bodies for decomposition studies in the name of science.

Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former FBI profiler who directs George Mason’s forensics science program, said the new space is a vast improvement over what the program had at the university’s main Fairfax headquarters, where it shared an old, cramped chemistry lab. Now the program has access to five shared labs where forensic research can be performed, including cadaver space, along with 3D imaging cameras that can help map out crime scenes in minute details.

“Forensics in 20 years is not going to be what forensics is today,” O’Toole said. “It’s going to be different. We’d like to think we’re preparing our students for that.”

George Mason Life Sciences and Engineering Building on the university's Science and Technology Campus in Manassas Photo by Evan Cantwell/George Mason University Office of University Branding
George Mason Life Sciences and Engineering Building on the university’s Science and Technology Campus in Manassas Photo by Evan Cantwell/George Mason University Office of University Branding

George Mason’s newest space aims to push forward scientific research, and it also serves as an anchor for Prince William County’s sprawling Innovation Park, which focuses on life sciences and technology and includes a growing town center, offering housing, retail and an entertainment district. In 2022, the county opened its Northern Virginia Bioscience Center in the park, offering space for expanding businesses and startups as Prince William focuses efforts on becoming a stronghold for the life sciences.

It also comes as state universities expand their presence in Northern Virginia, tapping into the region’s growth in tech.

In December, George Mason opened its $250 million, 345,000-square-foot Fuse tech hub at its Mason Square campus in County, which will focus on undergraduate and graduate education in technology and offer commercial space to industry partners. In February, Virginia Tech’s $302 million Innovation Campus opened in Alexandria’s growing National Landing neighborhood, offering graduate student programming in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and more.

About 4,500 students study at the Manassas campus, with some living there, said George Mason President Gregory Washington, though more student housing is needed, he added. Washington compares the Innovation Park development to nearby and Tysons in , both of which have quickly urbanized into dense, mixed-use communities. He also notes George Mason’s growing status, including being named as a top 50 public university by U.S. News and World Report in recent years. With more than 40,000 students, George Mason is Virginia’s largest public university and is known for its diverse student body and accessibility to first-generation students.

“We needed more labs on campus so that students can do more experimental learning, more hands-on,” Washington said. “This has been a godsend to be able to put all these labs here.”

Christina Winn, executive director of Prince William’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism, told Virginia Business in a statement that ‘s expansion, as well as the developing Innovation Park, “boosts our region’s edge. With top faculty and state-of-the-art labs, GMU is growing the talent pipeline and strengthening our position as a hub for innovation, entrepreneurship, and opportunity in Northern Virginia.”

General Dynamics subsidiary wins $1B Navy contract

A Connecticut-based subsidiary of -headquartered Fortune 500 contractor was recently awarded a $1 billion contract modification from the U.S. to purchase long lead time materials for Virginia-class Block VI .

The subsidiary, General Dynamics Electric Boat, announced the award on Tuesday. The company designs, builds, repairs and modernizes nuclear submarines for the Navy.

“This contract modification drives continuation of the crucial demand signal that the submarine industrial base needs to invest in the capacity and materials required to increase production volume,” Mark Rayha, president of General Dynamics Electric Boat, said in a statement. “Consistent funding for the supply base is essential to achieve the high-rate production the Navy requires of the entire submarine enterprise.”

Electric Boat is the prime contractor and lead design yard for the Virginia class and constructs them in a teaming arrangement with HII’s Shipbuilding in Virginia. The company says Virginia-class submarines are designed from the keel up to meet the full range of 21st-century mission requirements, including anti-submarine and surface ship warfare and special operations support.

According to the award announcement, work will be performed at various locations across the country, including California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Connecticut, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and New York.

The project is expected to be completed by September 2035. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

General Dynamics Electric Boat employs more than 24,000 people. General Dynamics employs more than 110,000 people worldwide and generated $47.7 billion in 2024 revenue.

Hooker exits Georgia warehouse as part of consolidation effort

Martinsville-based announced this week that it will end operations at its Savannah, Georgia, warehouse as part of a consolidation effort.

“Our decision to exit our Savannah distribution facility was not taken lightly,” Hooker Furnishings CEO Jeremy Hoff said in a statement. “We deeply appreciate the hospitality and support received from the state of Georgia, the Georgia Ports Authority and from the Liberty County Development Authority, in particular.”

Hooker began its Savannah operations in October 2021 for its Accentrics Home brand, which is positioned in the company’s Home Meridian (HMI) segment. Soon after operations began, Accentrics’ competitive position was “severely eroded by a sharp rise in post-COVID container freight rates from Asia, which jumped from approximately $4,000 to more than $25,000 per container in some cases at the time,” according to a news release.

“The sharp rise in container freight rates made ACH’s once-thriving line of high-volume, lower-priced, low-margin accent items unsustainable,” Hoff said. “Despite the temporary elevation in freight rates, it became obvious ACH’s business model would continue to be high-risk and low reward.”

In 2024, the company decided to close Accentrics and liquidate its inventory, part of a larger move to exit unprofitable businesses at HMI. Shortly after, Hoff said the company began reducing its Savannah footprint through a series of sub-leases and lease amendments with its landlord.

Hoff said the company is working with Liberty County, its Savannah warehouse employees, the landlord and new tenants to ensure a smooth transition.

“One of the most difficult aspects of this decision is the impact on our dedicated employees in Liberty County,” he said. “We take immense pride in the team we’ve built, and our priority is to support them during this transition. We are collaborating with the incoming tenant and other potential employers to help our employees secure positions, ideally within the same facility. Additionally, we have provided exit benefits to affected employees, with the goal of easing their transition, regardless of the path they choose.”

Hooker says it will provide more detail on the financial impact of the exit in its next earnings report on April 17. Right now, it expects charges of between $1.6 million and $2 million in fiscal 2025 and between $3 million to $4 million in fiscal 2026 related to the exit. It expects preliminary savings of between $750,000 to $1 million in net operating expenses in fiscal 2026, and annualized savings between $4 million to $4.5 million beginning in fiscal 2027. It stressed that these estimates are preliminary and could change.

Major law firm reaches deal with Trump to avoid White House order even as two other firms sue

WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent international firm reached a deal with President Donald Trump on Friday to dedicate at least $100 million in free services and to review its hiring practices, averting a punishing executive order like the ones directed at nearly a half-dozen other major legal institutions in recent weeks.

The deal with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom was announced just hours after two other sued in federal court over executive orders that threatened the suspension of their attorneys’ security clearances and their access to federal buildings.

The contrasting approaches reflect divisions within the legal community on whether to fight or negotiate as Trump seeks to extract major concessions from some of the world’s most significant law firms and in some cases punish them over their association with prosecutors who previously investigated him. Besides Skadden Arps, another firm, Paul Weiss, has reached an agreement with the White House, a deal that prompted major backlash last week from lawyers who thought the capitulation set a bad precedent.

In a message to his firm, Skadden Arps managing partner Jeremy London said the firm had learned in recent days that the Trump administration intended to issue an executive order targeting it over its pro bono legal work and its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“When faced with this information, we carefully considered what the right path would be for us, and the answer was not obvious. We were thoughtful and deliberate in determining the steps we might take, knowing that the decisions we were grappling with would have fundamental consequences for our firm,” London wrote in the message, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

He added that the firm opted to enter negotiations with the administration in hopes of warding off the issuance of an executive order.

“We entered into the agreement the President announced today because, when faced with the alternatives, it became clear that it was the best path to protect our clients, our people, and our Firm,” he wrote.

The two firms who sued on Friday, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale, say in their complaints that the orders amount to an unprecedented assault on the legal system and represent an unconstitutional form of presidential retaliation. Court hearings were set for later Friday afternoon on the firms’ requests that judges block enforcement of the order.

“Our Constitution, top to bottom, forbids attempts by the government to punish citizens and lawyers based on the clients they represent, the positions they advocate, the opinions they voice, and the people with whom they associate,” said the complaint from Jenner & Block, filed in federal court in Washington.

The firms say the executive orders, issued earlier in the week, have already affected their business, with Jenner & Block saying that one client has been notified by the Justice Department that the firm cannot attend a meeting at the building next week.

“That client therefore will either need to attend the meeting without outside counsel or would need to retain new outside counsel before April 3,” the says.

The WilmerHale complaint raises similar concerns, calling it a flagrant violation of the firm’s rights.

“It imposes severe consequences without notice or any opportunity to be heard; it uses vague, expansive language that does not adequately inform WilmerHale (or its clients) of what conduct triggered these extraordinary sanctions; and it unfairly singles out WilmerHale based on its perceived connections to disfavored individuals and causes,” the lawsuit says.

Targeted law firms have taken different approaches to executive orders that threaten to upend their business model and chill their legal practice.

Earlier this month, the law firm of Perkins Coie also challenged the Trump order in court and succeeded in getting a judge to temporarily block enforcement. The Paul Weiss firm, by contrast, cut a deal with the White House days after being targeted, with its chairman saying that the order presented an “existential crisis” for the firm and that he wasn’t sure it could have survived a protracted fight with the Trump administration.

The executive order against Jenner & Block this week stemmed from the fact that the firm once employed Andrew Weissmann, a lawyer who served on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that investigated Trump during his first term in office over potential connections between his 2016 campaign and Russia. Weissmann, a frequent public target of Trump’s ire, left the firm four years ago.

Mueller has retired from WilmerHale, but the White House executive order from Thursday mentions him as well as another retired partner and a current partner who all served on Mueller’s team.

“While most litigation requires discovery to unearth retaliatory motive, the Order makes no secret of its intent to punish WilmerHale for its past and current representations of clients before the Nation’s and for its perceived connection to the views that Mr. Mueller expressed as Special Counsel,” the WilmerHale lawsuit says.

The first executive order targeted Covington & Burling, a firm that has provided legal representation to special counsel Jack Smith, who investigated Trump during the Biden administration and filed two separate criminal cases that were abandoned after Trump’s election win last November.

Health and Human Services will lay off 10,000 workers and close agencies in a major restructuring

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major overhaul, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will lay off 10,000 workers and shut down entire agencies, including ones that oversee billions of dollars in funds for addiction services and community centers across the country.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy” in a video announcing the restructuring Thursday. He faulted the department’s 82,000 workers for a decline in Americans’ health.

“I want to promise you now that we’re going to do more with less,” Kennedy said in the video, posted to social media.

The restructuring plan caps weeks of tumult at the nation’s top health department, which has been embroiled in rumors of mass firings, the revocation of $11 billion in public health funding for cities and counties, a tepid response to a measles outbreak, and controversial remarks about vaccines from its new leader.

Still, Kennedy said a “painful period” lies ahead for , which is responsible for monitoring infectious diseases, inspecting foods and hospitals, and overseeing health insurance programs for nearly half the country.

Overall, the department will downsize to 62,000 positions, losing nearly a quarter of its staff — 10,000 jobs through and another 10,000 workers who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers encouraged by ‘s administration.

The staffing cuts were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

experts, doctors, current and former HHS workers and congressional Democrats quickly panned Kennedy’s plans, warning they could have untold consequences for millions of people.

“These staff cuts endanger public health and food safety,” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, in a statement. “They raise serious concerns that the administration’s pledge to make Americans healthy again could become nothing more than an empty promise.”

But Kennedy, in announcing the restructuring, blasted HHS for failing to improve Americans’ lifespans and not doing enough to drive down chronic disease and cancer rates.

“All of that money,” Kennedy said of the department’s $1.7 trillion yearly budget, “has failed to improve the health of Americans.”

Cancer death rates have dropped 34% over the past two decades, translating to 4.5 million deaths avoided, according to the American Cancer Society. That’s largely due to smoking cessation, the development of better treatments — many funded by the National Institutes of Health, including groundbreaking immunotherapy — and earlier detection.

The reorganization plan also underscores Kennedy’s push to take more control of the public health agencies — the NIH, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which have traditionally operated with a level of autonomy from the health secretary. Under the plan, external communications, procurement, information technology and human resources will be centralized under HHS.

FDA and CDC face the deepest cuts

Federal health workers — stationed across the country at agencies including at the NIH and FDA, both in Maryland — described shock, fear and anxiety rippling through their offices Thursday. Workers were not given advance notice of the cuts, several told The Associated Press, and many remained uncertain about whether their jobs were on the chopping block.

“It’s incredibly difficult and frustrating and upsetting to not really know where we stand while we’re trying to keep doing the work,” said an FDA staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. “We’re being villainized and handicapped and have this guillotine just hanging over our necks.”

HHS on Thursday provided a breakdown of some of the cuts.

__ 3,500 jobs at the FDA, which inspects and sets safety standards for medications, medical devices and foods.

__ 2,400 jobs at the CDC, which monitors for infectious disease outbreaks and works with public health agencies nationwide.

__ 1,200 jobs at the NIH, the world’s leading public health arm.

__ 300 jobs at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Medicare and Medicaid.

HHS said it anticipates the changes will save $1.8 billion per year but didn’t give a breakdown or other details.

The cuts and consolidation go far deeper than anyone expected, an NIH employee said.

“We’re all pretty devastated,” said the staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “We don’t know what this means for public health.”

Union leaders for CDC workers in Atlanta said they received notice from HHS on Thursday morning that reductions will focus on administrative positions including human resources, finance, procurement and information technology.

At CMS, where cuts focus on workers who troubleshoot problems that arise for Medicare beneficiaries and Affordable Care Act enrollees, the result will be the “lowest customer service standards” for thousands of cases, said Jeffrey Grant, a former deputy director at the agency who resigned last month.

Kennedy plans to shutter some agencies, even those created by Congress

Beyond losing workers, Kennedy said he will shut down entire agencies, some of which were established by Congress decades ago. Several will be folded into a new Administration for a Healthy America, he said.

Those include the Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees and provides funding for hundreds of community health centers around the country, as well as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which funds clinics and oversees the national 988 hotline. Both agencies pump billions of dollars into on-the-ground work in local communities.

SAMHSA was created by Congress in 1992, so closing it is illegal and raises questions about Kennedy’s commitment to treating addiction and mental health, said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University addiction researcher.

“Burying the agency in an administrative blob with no clear purpose is not the way to highlight the problem or coordinate a response,” Humphreys said.

The Administration for Healthy America will focus on maternal and child health, environmental health and HIV/AIDS work, HHS said.

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, created by a signed by then-Republican President George W. Bush and responsible for maintaining the national stockpile that was quickly drained during the COVID-19 pandemic, will also be eliminated and moved into the CDC.

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said the ramifications of Kennedy’s plans for HHS are unclear.

“We’ll just wait and see what it is, and then we’ll go back and try to fix if there is something broken,” Rounds said. “That’s the approach we’ve taken so far.”

But Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington warned that the fallout is clear.

“It does not take a genius to understand that pushing out 20,000 workers at our preeminent health agencies won’t make Americans healthier,” Murray said in a statement. “It’ll just mean fewer health services for our communities, more opportunities for disease to spread, and longer waits for lifesaving treatments and cures.”

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone, Lauran Neergaard and Kevin Freking in Washington; JoNel Aleccia in Temecula, Calif.; Carla K. Johnson in Seattle; and Mike Stobbe in New York contributed.

Former exec of Mars candy subsidiary charged with stealing $28M from company

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Before his arrest Wednesday, Paul Steed was a respected sugar market expert for a subsidiary of famed candymaker Inc. He served on a U.S. trade advisory committee for sweeteners as well as on industry group boards, while giving presentations at conferences.

Now Steed, of Stamford, Connecticut, is accused in a federal indictment of stealing more than $28 million from -based Mars since about 2013 through various schemes, including diverting funds to companies he set up. He is charged with seven counts of wire fraud and two counts of tax evasion.

Steed, 58, a dual U.S. and Argentine citizen, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Bridgeport on Wednesday and was ordered detained pending trial. A U.S. magistrate judge said Steed was a flight risk and noted that while the government has seized $18 million of the allegedly pilfered funds, several million dollars remain unaccounted for and Steed has strong connections to family in Argentina.

Steed’s lawyer, federal public defender Phoebe Bodurtha, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.

His wife, Martina Steed, told The Associated Press in a brief phone call that she did not know all the facts of the case and declined further comment.

Mars Inc. said in a statement that the case involves “the action of a single individual who sought to exploit the organization for personal gain.”

“We fully cooperated with enforcement to see this matter quickly brought to justice and always remain committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards and integrity in all our operations,” it added.

Steed worked remotely from his Stamford home as global price risk manager for Mars Wrigley, according to federal prosecutors. The company is a subsidiary of McLean, Virginia-based Mars Inc., the maker of M&M’s, Snickers, Skittles, Altoids mints and Doublemint gum, as well as other food products and pet food.

Steed and his wife appeared to be living beyond their means, according to the judge’s order authorizing his pretrial detention.

Steed’s annual salary was about $200,000 while his wife was making $40,000 to $50,000 a year as a hair stylist, Magistrate Judge S. Dave Vatti said in the order. Yet they paid $2.5 million in cash in 2023 for a property in wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut, and own a mortgage-free home in Stamford worth $1 million, he wrote.

Steed also sent $2 million over the past several years to relatives, other people and entities in Argentina, where he apparently owns a cattle and tea ranch, according to the order.

In July 2012 he set up a company, Ibera LLC, and a year later he began submitting false invoices from it to Mars, according to the federal indictment. The scheme allegedly went on until December 2020, with Steed stealing nearly $580,000 with the bogus invoices.

A bigger scheme beginning in 2016 would result in the diversion of millions of dollars from Mars through another Steed-created company, MCNA LLC, the indictment said. Prosecutors say Steed told certain sugar refineries who were buying “re-export credits” from Mars to send the money to MCNA instead.

Steed also used MCNA in other scams including one involving the theft of more than $11 million from the sale of Mars’s shares in a financial services company, according to the indictment.

Steed was appointed in early 2021 by then-U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to serve on an agricultural trade advisory committee for sweeteners and sweetener products.

In a LinkedIn posting previewing a commodities conference in New York City last year, Steed was listed as serving in several sugar industry groups, including being a former president of the New York Sugar Club. He also was a member of the Intercontinental Exchange’s Sugar Contract Committee and a board member of the U.S. Sugar Users Association.

Barkin: Trump policies are creating feelings of instability

Changes in policy have created a sense of instability, Bank of Richmond President and CEO said Thursday when discussing the year’s economic outlook.

During a lecture at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, he said that at the end of 2024, businesses were “overwhelmingly optimistic” and conditions looked “rosy.” He noted that the nation’s had grown a healthy 2.5% in 2024, unemployment was at 4.1%, and the 12-month Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, which captures , had come down considerably to 2.6% from its peak of 7.2% in June 2022. Furthermore, small business optimism had surged, with an expectation of business-friendly policies under , Barkin said.

However, that brief burst of optimism has dissipated now that Trump has returned to office and issued a flurry of tariff increases and cutbacks on federal spending and the federal workforce. That has placed federal government policy at center stage, and not in a positive way, according to Fed stats.

In the near term the fast pace of change “seems to have created a sense of instability,” and “the feeling of uncertainty is undeniable,” Barkin said. “Business optimism has dropped. Consumer sentiment has fallen. The March edition of the Fed’s Beige Book, which summarizes each reserve bank’s outreach on economic conditions, literally broke the record for mentions of ‘uncertainty.'”

But there is “some certainty” that the country is likely headed toward more , lower net migration, an extension of the 2017 tax cuts, as well as deregulation, lower growth in government spending and more efforts to promote traditional energy sources — i.e. fossil fuels.

Barkin said it remains to be seen how far these efforts will go, how they will net out and when they will land with enough clarity for participants in the to act. So far, some of Trump’s tariffs have been postponed at the last minute, such as a 25% tariff on goods coming into the United States from Mexico and , which was supposed to go into effect March 4 and then was paused until April 2. However, a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports took effect March 12, and a 10% increase of tariffs on Chinese goods are in effect. This week, the president said he plans to enact a 25% tariff on all foreign-made auto parts and imported vehicles beginning April 3.

“This time around, if we assume an eventual 20% tariff on China and a 25% tariff on Mexico, Canada and aluminum and steel products, the average tariff rate rises almost four times more than in 2018,” Barkin said. “In the context of recent high inflation, one could imagine more of an impact on prices, but no one knows where the tariff rates will finally settle or how affected countries, businesses and consumers will respond.”

Regarding , he said forecasters expect lower net migration to lead to slower workforce growth in the coming years — roughly about half the growth seen during the 2010s and a third of what was seen at the nation’s peak during the Biden administration. He said slower workforce growth could put downward pressure on economic growth and upward pressure on wages.

“But these stats are based on assumptions; no one knows what immigration will be in fact,” he said.

According to Barkin, deregulatory efforts could boost productivity, enable growth and lower inflation. However, he said the impact of government spending and workforce cuts would be outsized in his district, which covers South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia and Maryland,  as federal employment represents only 2% of the national workforce but a fourth of D.C.’s.

While Barkin said there is a lot “we know” in the minds of consumers and businesses, “that knowledge is being swamped by what they don’t know and by uncertainty around when they’ll finally have more certainty on the path forward.”

He said the sentiment of uncertainty is exacerbated by people consuming media all the time, never missing headlines.

“With all this change, a dense fog has fallen,” Barkin said. “It’s not an everyday ‘forecasting is hard’ type of fog. It’s a ‘zero visibility, pull over and turn on your hazards’ type of fog.”

As a result, he said businesses aren’t willing to take many risks today, neither pulling back nor pushing forward. He said nonprofits, hospitals and universities are feeling trepidation over federal spending changes as well, and manufacturers with supply chains in tariffed countries are expressing the most uncertainty.

“Sentiment matters,” Barkin said. “For consumers and businesses to spend and invest, they need to have a certain level of confidence. For credit and equity markets to finance those investments, they need stability. And, for now, an uncertainty-driven drop in sentiment looks like it could quiet demand. The outlook once the fog lifts will in part depend on how long it lasts.”

Global automakers say Trump’s tariffs will be painful for them and US consumers

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Whatever domestic economic gain comes from U.S. President Donald Trump’s new 25% tax on imported cars – and experts are skeptical – automakers around the world are bracing for a lot of pain.

In Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and across Europe, the world’s largest automakers employ millions of people whose livelihoods depend on U.S. car buyers, who currently spend more than $240 billion annually on imported cars and light trucks.

The Trump tariffs — aimed at boosting U.S. jobs and tax revenues — will also affect imported auto parts, which were valued at $197 billion last year.

“The impact will be really huge and very disruptive,” said Sigrid de Vries, director general of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Vries and others critics say American car shoppers will also be worse off, as push prices higher.

Policymakers around the world said Thursday they were weighing their next moves — namely, whether to retaliate or not, and if so, how. But they also expressed hope that negotiations with Washington could avert an escalating trade war, and the economic damage and global supply chain disruptions that would come with it.

Trump said the tariffs on autos would start being collected on April 3. The impending hit comes on top of other U.S. tariffs planned globally on steel and aluminum, and at a time when competition from China, and the transition to electric vehicles, is already pressuring automakers.

The anticipated blow knocked down the stock prices of many major automakers on Thursday, including Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Kia and BMW.

U.S. carmakers are less exposed to possible retaliation because they export only 2% of their production to the EU. Still, shares of Ford and General Motors fell because the U.S. industry relies heavily on cross-border trade in auto parts — although Tesla is an exception and its stock price rose on Thursday.

Most foreign carmakers have plants in the US — Japanese carmakers have two dozen, for example — but that would not shield them if they use imported parts, unless those parts are exempted under a free-trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.

The auto tariffs will be felt sharply in Europe, for whom the U.S. is the biggest export market for an industry that supports nearly 14 million jobs.

The EU’s top trade official, Maros Sefcovic, has travelled to Washington at least twice since Trump was reelected to try to engage the administration. But Trump says the tariffs, which his administration estimates would raise $100 billion in revenue annually, are “permanent.” The White House has claimed they will foster domestic manufacturing.

“This will continue to spur growth,” Trump told reporters Wednesday upon announcing the tariffs.

The head of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain, thanked the White House “for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades.”

The U.S. president on Monday cited plans by South Korean automaker Hyundai to build a $5.8 billion steel plant in Louisiana as evidence that tariffs would bring back jobs.

Economists say the tariffs will only raise costs that will be passed on to consumers and lead to a cycle of retaliation that will reduce trade between countries.

“There’s a risk of retaliatory tariffs and then a tit-for-tat, and then we end up with significant barriers to trade and we all lose out,” said David Bailey, professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham. “That’s the fundamental problem here essentially that governments will start to retaliate against each other.”

Trump has already placed a 20% tax on all imports from China for its role in the production of fentanyl. He similarly placed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, in part to pressure them to help reduce illegal to the U.S. And he has imposed 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports — and said he plans tariffs on computer chips, pharmaceutical drugs, lumber and copper.

Before the new auto tariffs were announced, the EU had been planning to re-impose suspended tariffs in mid-April on a range of U.S. goods, including jeans, bourbon and motorcycles, as part of a previous dispute over trade in steel and aluminum.

“We have our plans ready,” said EU foreign affairs representative Kaja Kallas. But she said there is still uncertainty about which tariffs Trump will follow through on, and which can be resolved through negotiations.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Thursday reiterated a request that his country’s automakers be exempted from Trump’s tariffs. When asked about possible responses, he said “all options” are on the table, without giving specifics.

The union that represents auto workers in Canada lashed out at Trump’s decision, and called on their prime minister, Mark Carney, to retaliate if necessary.

“We have never seen an attack like this but we are ready,” said Lana Payne, the National President of Unifor. She said Carney should tell Trump that if U.S. automakers are going to sell cars and trucks in Canada they are going to have to build in Canada.

Autos are Canada’s second largest export, and on Wednesday — before Trump made his announcement — Carney unveiled a $2 billion Canadian ($1.4 billion) “strategic response fund” that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by the tariffs.

For now, international auto companies are reluctant to make expensive operational changes, such as adjusting supply chains or relocating more production to the U.S., since it is still possible the tariffs will be withdrawn by Trump if they cause too much economic pain for Americans, according to analysts at the Sanford C. Bernstein firm.

“Despite claims that the tariffs would last for Trump’s full term, we think it is unlikely that the new tariff regime will last, given the wide-spread damage they will do across industries and the inflationary impact on the US ,” they wrote. They pointed out that the last tariff escalation between the US and China impacting autos only lasted from July to December 2018 during Trump’s first term in office.

The 25% tariffs — if kept in place over the long-term — could add as much as $12,000 per imported vehicle purchased in the U.S., Bernstein analysts estimate. Of course, carmakers will ultimately determine how much of the Trump tariffs to pass along to consumers, as opposed to taking the hit in their profit margins.

The blow will not fall evenly. The most exposed among European automakers are German and Italian carmakers Japan and South Korea are also major exporters, while Canada and Mexico are deeply integrated into U.S. carmakers’ supply chains.

Europe’s carmakers already face a shrunken domestic market and new competition from cheaper Chinese electric vehicles. Any trouble in the auto industry would weigh on Europe’s economy, which did not grow at all in the last quarter of 2024.

“This would deliver a substantial blow to a sector that not only sustains millions of jobs but also contributes to a large proportion of the bloc’s ,” wrote analyst Clarissa Hahn at Oxford Economics.

Energy Department extends contract for operator of Jefferson Lab

The announced Thursday that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has approved a 12-month extension of the contract for Jefferson Science Associates to continue managing and operating the in .

Jefferson Science Associates is a limited liability company created by the Southeastern Universities Association. Its contract was initially set to expire May 31.

In February 2024, under President Joe Biden, the DOE initiated a competition for the selection of a management and operating contractor for the , commonly known as Jefferson Lab, and issued requests for proposals in July 2024. According to an informational meeting presentation in March 2024, the Energy Department had hoped to award the contract earlier this month.

However, in February the DOE canceled its search for a new operator and manager of the facility, leading to questions about the federally funded lab’s future.

“The cancellation is necessary because key elements of the solicitation’s statement of work and evaluation criteria do not adequately reflect or align with the priorities of the current administration, as outlined in several executive orders issued by President Trump,” the notice read, without specifying which orders. Since taking office Jan. 20, the president has issued hundreds of executive orders, many of which roll back Biden’s priorities, including DEI and renewable energy initiatives.

The DOE previously indicated it hoped to rebid the contract, but provided few details as to when that might happen and if it would extend Jefferson Science Associates’ contract in the meantime.

On Thursday, an Energy Department spokesperson revealed that Jefferson Science Associates’ contract will be extended through May 31, 2026. A notice of intent was also published that same day.

“Jefferson Lab is a critical part of the DOE’s National Laboratory complex, contributing to scientific breakthroughs that strengthen our nation’s global competitiveness and is a critical part of the Department’s commitment to restoring America’s leadership in technology, energy, and innovation,” the spokesperson said. “This one-year extension of the current contract will ensure the seamless continuation of operations while the Department issues a new competitive solicitation to ensure long-term leadership of Jefferson Lab that aligns with our mission of maintaining America’s technological and scientific edge.”

The spokesperson said the new competition will ensure that Jefferson Lab “remains a pillar of innovation and economic growth for Newport News and the nation.”

The Energy Department said in its March 27 notice that it anticipates the contract competition will commence during the third quarter of FY 2025. The department says the pre-solicitation notice will be issued subsequent to the competition kickoff, and at that time interested sources can submit expressions of interest.

The DOE did not immediately respond to questions about what changes will be made in the new proposal.

Under the Biden administration, Jefferson Lab was awarded several significant projects. In 2023, the Energy Department announced it would lead a $300 million to $500 million data science computing hub, the High Performance Data Facility hub, that will make scientific data more accessible nationwide. The project was set to include the building of a data center that is expected to be operational by fiscal 2028. Also, researchers at the lab are working on a project to eliminate harmful chemicals — known as “forever chemicals” — in drinking water through 2026.

U.S. economy grew 2.4% in the 4th quarter after upgrade in final growth estimate

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. expanded at a healthy annual 2.4% pace the final three months of 2024, supported by a year-end surge in , the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade of its previous estimate of fourth-quarter growth.

But it’s unclear whether the United States can sustain that growth as President Donald Trump wages trade wars, purges the federal workforce and promises mass deportations of immigrants working in the country illegally.

Growth in gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — decelerated from a 3.1% pace in July-September 2024, the Commerce Department said.

For all of 2024, the economy — the world’s biggest — grew 2.8%, down a tick from 2.9% in 2023.

Consumer spending rose at a 4% pace, up from 3.7% in third-quarter 2023. But business investment fell, led by an 8.7% drop in investment in equipment.

A drop in business inventories shaved 0.84 percentage points off fourth-quarter growth.

A category within the GDP data that measures the economy’s underlying strength rose at a healthy 2.9% annual rate in the fourth quarter, slipping from the government’s previous estimate of 3.2% and from 3.4% in the third quarter. This category includes consumer spending and private investment but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.

Wednesday’s report showed continued inflationary pressure at the end of 2024. The ‘s favored gauge – the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index – rose at an annual rate of 2.4%, up from 1.5% in the third quarter and above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PC inflation registered 2.6%, compared to 2.2% in the third quarter.

Thursday’s report was the government’s third and final look at fourth-quarter GDP.

The outlook is cloudier. Trump’s decision to slap taxes on a range of imports — including a 25% tax on foreign autos announced Wednesday — could push up inflation and disrupt investment, hurting growth.

The fourth-quarter showed the U.S. economy “before the enormous surge in policy uncertainty, particularly trade, took hold and the Trump administration imposed additional ,” wrote Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “The combination of policy uncertainty, tariffs, and tightening financial market conditions are weighing on growth early this year.”

U.S. consumer confidence is sliding sharpy over anxiety about both tariffs and inflation, and major retailers are lowering their expectations for the year, saying that customers are already pulling back on spending.