Wednesday 04.09.25

When Mother Nature strikes, weather warnings advise people to take action. They're only useful, though, if you can read them. Now that a contract between the National Weather Service and a translation company has lapsed,  extreme weather alerts will no longer be offered in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Samoan — a situation that experts say could become a matter of life or death. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and on With Your Day.
 

By Jade Walker

Shipping containers at a port in eastern China's Shandong province. (AFP/Getty Images)

Tariffs

While you were sleeping, President Donald Trump escalated his trade war with the world. The midnight hour brought even more tariffs for countries on the administration's list of "worst offenders.” China was hit particularly hard by the “reciprocal” tariffs for not backing down on its promise to impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on US goods. Exports from China will now be subject to at least a 104% tariff. Beijing has already vowed to respond with “resolute and effective measures.” These new tariffs come one week after Trump’s “Liberation Day,” when he imposed a 10% tariff on all countries’ imports, with the exception of Mexico and Canada. Those tariffs angered longtime allies and trade partners, rattled global financial markets and prompted mass layoffs. Even some of the president’s biggest supporters have encouraged him to back off his signature economic policy. 

Virginia shooting

A mass shooting in northeastern Virginia on Tuesday left at least three people dead and three others wounded, authorities said. The incident occurred around 5:30 p.m. at a townhouse complex in Spotsylvania County. The three injured victims were taken to local hospitals with gunshot wounds. At this time, their conditions have not been released. A manhunt is currently underway for one or more gunmen who are still on the loose and officials are urging the public to remain indoors. Authorities also asked that witnesses to the shooting send in any video that could help with the investigation. 

IRS resignations

Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause informed her staff on Tuesday that she is planning to leave the agency. Krause’s decision comes on the heels of a finalized agreement for the IRS to hand over sensitive taxpayer information to the Department of Homeland Security to help the Trump administration find and deport undocumented immigrants. Krause is the third IRS chief to leave the agency since Trump came back in office. IRS commissioner Danny Werfel resigned on Inauguration Day. Doug O’Donnell, the acting commissioner who succeeded Werfel, refused to sign the data-sharing agreement with DHS in February and retired a short time later. Krause then took over in an acting capacity. To push through the controversial deal, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ultimately signed the “memorandum of understanding” with the DHS.

AP ruling

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the White House’s decision to punish The Associated Press and limit its reporters’ access to President Trump’s events, the Oval Office and Air Force One was unconstitutional. Trump curtailed the AP’s ability to cover the White House because the wire service continued to use the phrase “Gulf of Mexico” after he renamed the body of water the “Gulf of America.” The judge also noted that while the AP wasn’t entitled to the “first in line every time” permanent press pool access it previously had, it cannot be treated worse than its peer wire services. “The Court merely declares that the AP’s exclusion has been contrary to the First Amendment, and it enjoins the Government from continuing down that unlawful path,” the judge ruled. The White House has one week to appeal the decision.

College funding

The Trump administration is targeting two more elite schools in connection with what it calls “ongoing, credible and concerning Title VI investigations.” The federal statute prohibits discrimination in programs and activities that receive federal funding. A White House official said the administration plans to freeze $790 million in funding for Northwestern University and more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell University, though neither school had been notified yet. The administration took similar actions against Brown, Columbia, Harvard and Princeton as punishment for how the institutions handled last year’s student demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza and in protest of the schools' diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Cornell said it also received more than 75 stop-work orders from the Department of Defense related to research projects. 

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There’s no sad funk songs. Funk’s primary purpose is to get people moving, dancing and shaking their behinds.

— Grammy-winning funk bassist Marcus Miller, who has created some of funk music’s most infectious grooves.

That was a close one!
A woman in Pennsylvania was sitting in her car when a large tree fell across the road and totaled it.