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Luz Ding / Bloomberg : At a major Hong Kong electronics exhibition, some Chinese companies say they are exploring ways to lower or skirt tariffs while others plan to wait them out   —  Tech Across the Globe … Tan is cutting jobs, reducing management layers and trying to energize the once-mighty company's culture.

In a dramatic move to protect America’s cattle industry, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has warned Mexico that the U.S. will halt imports of live animals — including cattle and bison — if Mexico doesn’t step up efforts to combat a dangerous pest creeping northward. In a letter sent Saturday and obtained by Fox News, Secretary Rollins put the Mexican government on notice to act immediately to fight the spread of the New World screwworm or face serious economic consequences on the border.  The USDA has set a firm deadline of April 30 for Mexico to address the growing crisis, or U.S. ports of entry will slam the door on key animal commodities. FEDERAL DIETARY GUIDELINES WILL SOON CHANGE FOR AMERICANS, HHS AND USDA ANNOUNCE "I must inform you that if these issues are not resolved by Wednesday, April 30, USDA will restrict the importation of animal commodities, which consist of live cattle, bison, and equine originating from or transporting to Mexico to protect the inte...

Francisco Rodrigues / CoinDesk : Stripe plans to test a stablecoin payments product aimed at companies outside the US, the UK, and the EU, using tech from Bridge, which Stripe acquired recently   —  Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said a stablecoin tool for companies outside US, UK and EU is ready for testing.  —  What to know:

Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog : Watching OpenAI's o3 guess a photo's location feels surreal, dystopian, and entertaining, including running Python code to examine details like license plates   —  Watching OpenAI's new o3 model guess where a photo was taken is one of those moments where decades of science fiction suddenly come to life.

Lydia Beyoud / Bloomberg : The US SEC Chairman says the agency has ample authority to oversee digital assets as Congress debates if SEC or the CFTC should be the primary crypto regulator   —  The US Securities and Exchange Commission has “ample room to maneuver” in regulating digital assets even without congressional action, Chairman Paul Atkins said Friday.

Washington Post : Sources: China has quietly exempted from tariffs at least eight classifications of US-made microchips, as it seeks to exempt “irreplaceable” goods   —  Levies on certain U.S.-made microchips have been dropped, importers say.  Meanwhile, China denied President Trump's claims that talks to reduce tariffs are happening.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., held a press conference alongside a business owner and supporter of President Donald Trump, who is speaking out against the president's tariff agenda. On Long Island on Thursday, Schumer stood with Tandy Jeckel, the owner of TandyWear, a women’s clothing shop in Suffolk County. "No matter what your vantage, if you're a business, if you are a consumer, if you are in the industry, the tariffs are one giant mess," Schumer said. Jeckel told Fox News Digital that she is the exemplar of a split-ticket voter – consistently supporting Trump, while also praising Schumer’s years of work on behalf of Long Islanders, including after Superstorm Sandy. BIDEN EFFECT HITS THE SENATE: WAVE OF RETIREMENTS CLEARS PATH FOR YOUNGER DEMS When asked how she would grade Trump, she told Fox News Digital, "I would give him an 8 – it's absolutely not a fail." "I would say an A," she added, when asked for a letter grad...

Alex Heath / The Verge : Meta lays off an unspecified number of employees in Reality Labs, affecting Oculus Studios teams and, sources say, staff involved in Meta's hardware efforts   —  The cuts targeted teams working on Supernatural and other Quest apps. … Meta has laid off an unspecified number …

Phoebe Liu / Forbes : Infinite Reality, a metaverse startup that claims it is valued at $15.5B, faces questions about the legitimacy of its funding, investor identities, and more   —  Florida-based Infinite Reality claims it raised more than $3 billion from a sole unnamed investor.

EXCLUSIVE: The FBI assesses that some Venezuelan government officials "likely facilitate" the migration of members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua from Venezuela to the United States to advance the Maduro regime’s objective of undermining public safety in the U.S., Fox News Digital has learned.  A senior administration official exclusively shared with Fox News Digital Wednesday unclassified portions of the FBI’s classified intelligence assessment of the Venezuelan government’s relationship with Tren de Aragua . TRUMP ISSUES WARNING TO MADURO AS VENEZUELAN LEADER ENTERS THIRD TERM, US EXPANDS SANCTIONS President Donald Trump , upon taking office, designated Tren de Aragua, as well as several other migrant gangs present throughout the U.S., as a foreign terrorist organization.  Fox News Digital has learned that the FBI assesses that some Venezuelan government officials are likely using Tren de Aragua members as proxies for the Maduro regime in an effort to destabilize ...

Bloomberg : Source: Neuralink has begun preliminary discussions to raise about $500M at an $8.5B pre-money valuation; PitchBook: it was valued at $3.5B as of November 2023   —  Elon Musk's Neuralink is planning to raise about $500 million at a pre-money valuation of $8.5 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin visited San Diego Tuesday to address the Mexican sewage flowing into U.S. waters from Tijuana that has contaminated the California coast, including where Navy SEALs train.  "The Americans on our side of the border who have been dealing with this … for decades, are out of patience," Zeldin said at a Tuesday press conference in San Diego. "There's no way that we are going to stand before the people of California and ask them to have more patience and just bear with all of us as we go through the next 10 or 20 or 30 years of being stuck in 12 feet of raw sewage and not getting anywhere." "So we are all out of patience," he continued. "There's a very limited opportunity. We're in good faith, both on the American side and also on the Mexican side, what's being communicated by the new Mexican president is an intense desire to fully resolve this situation."  Zeldin said t...

Counsel representing a coalition of parents fighting for the choice to opt their children out of LGBTQ-related curriculum says the case is about letting parents "be the parents." "We're just saying if the school board is going to make that decision, let us have the chance to leave the classroom," Colten Stanberry, counsel at Becket and attorney for the parents bringing the suit, told Fox News Digital. "And so I think for my parent clients, they're saying let us be the parents. Keep us involved in the school decision-making process. Don't try to cut us out." The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in parents' fight to opt their children out of LGBTQ-related curriculum.  The issue at hand in the case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, is whether parents have a right to be informed about and to then opt their children out of reading books in elementary schools that conflict with their faith . MARYLAND MOM TAKING FIGHT TO OPT CHILD OUT OF LGBTQ ST...

Bloomberg : DOJ v. Google: an OpenAI exec says Google declined to let OpenAI access its search index; a DOJ remedy proposal would make Google share its index with rivals   —  OpenAI's Nick Turley said the company never intended to simply create a chatbot like its popular ChatGPT, and instead wanted to deliver a …

The commander of Fort McCoy was relieved of duty after the U.S. Army base failed to install photos of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on a wall displaying their chain of command.  Col.  Sheyla Baez Ramirez was suspended as garrison commander of Ft. McCoy in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. "This suspension is not related to any misconduct," the U.S. Army Reserve Command said in a statement, "We have no further details to provide at this time while this matter is under review." Hegseth on Sunday reposted an X post claiming: "Commander of Fort McCoy, whose base chain-of-command board was missing photos of Trump, Vance and Hegseth, has been SUSPENDED." It came after the Defense Department (DOD) announced a probe into why a wall displaying the chain of command had empty frames on the wall where Trump , Vance and Hegseth’s images would typically be displayed.  AXED PENTAGON AIDES CLAIM THEIR CHARACTER WAS '...

Natalie Lung / Bloomberg : Airbnb now shows the full cost of a stay, excluding taxes, in search results by default; a Biden-era FTC rule on “junk fees” is set to go into effect on May 12   —  Customers in the US and 200-plus other markets that didn't previously have price-display regulations will now see the total cost …

U.S. presidents mourned the death of Pope Francis, who served as the leader of the Catholic Church for 12 years, on Monday following the Vatican’s announcement of the pope’s passing.  "Rest in Peace Pope Francis!" President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Monday. "May God Bless him and all who loved him!" The College of Cardinals elected Pope Francis, 88, to serve as the pope following Pope Benedict XVI in March 2013. His election marked the first time a non-European served as pope in more than 1,000 years. Pope Francis, born with the name Jorge Mario Bergoglio, originally hailed from Argentina.  Pope Francis, who was hospitalized in February due to complications stemming from bronchitis and pneumonia, died Monday at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta.  Vice President JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, met with Pope Francis on Sunday in one of the reception rooms of the Vatican hotel just hours before the pope’s death. Vance acknowledged...

New York Times : After Meta blocked news on its platforms in Canada, misleading content from right-wing Facebook pages like Canada Proud has surged ahead of the federal election   —  After Meta blocked news from its platforms in Canada, hyperpartisan and misleading content from popular right-wing Facebook pages such as Canada Proud has filled the gap.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a fiery dissent against a recent Supreme Court move to halt President Donald Trump's deportations of Venezuelan criminals under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The decision, which was issued early Saturday morning, effectively blocks the deportations of Venezuelan migrants under the 18th century law. In a decision that was also signed off on by conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, the court advised the White House not to remove Venezuelans held in Texas' Bluebonnet Detention Center "until further order of this court." Alito disapproved of the timing of the decision, which he described as being "literally in the middle of the night." "[T]he Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing ...

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a fiery dissent against a recent Supreme Court move to halt President Donald Trump's deportations of Venezuelan criminals under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The decision, which was issued early Saturday morning, effectively blocks the deportations of Venezuelan migrants under the 18th century law. In a decision that was also signed off on by conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, the court advised the White House not to remove Venezuelans held in Texas' Bluebonnet Detention Center "until further order of this court." Alito disapproved of the timing of the decision, which he described as being "literally in the middle of the night." "[T]he Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing ...

Three Department of Defense aides who were dumped from the Pentagon this week amid concerns about unauthorized leaks have raised questions about their abrupt, public departures. In a joint statement from senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll posted to X , the military veterans questioned the action against them, noting they were given few details about the investigation. After being placed on leave and escorted from the building this week, the employees said they were "incredibly disappointed" by the manner in which their service at the Defense Department ended.  "Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door," the aides wrote. "All three of us served our country honorably in uniform - for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan . And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and ...