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And the vibes ahead of today’s jobs reportView the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. CEO is making two finalist candidates have dinner with him at the same time Wondering if you can tell me if this situation is as crazy as I think it is. My company is hiring for an executive level role for an office we are standing up in a new state. This role will report to our CEO and it’s important we get the right person in place. We’ve narrowed it down to two final candidates, they have interviewed with other C-suite employees, and the feedback is similar on both candidates (both would likely be great in the role). Our CEO wants to take them both to dinner … at same time, together. After I pushed back on this idea, the CEO brought it up in a larger team meeting, and every person agreed this wasn’t a good idea. But our CEO is convinced this is the way to go. His reasoning is a little competition would be good for them and help him make the final decision. Beyond being unprofessional, I think this would make the candidates question our culture and if they even want the role. I feel like this is a disaster in the making. Is there a scenario when taking two candidates to the same business dinner would be a good idea? No, this is a terrible idea! Any decent candidate is going to wonder if your management culture pits people against each other in dysfunctional ways, and it’s going to be an awkward position for both of them.. Hiring isn’t about candidates going head to head with each other at the same dinner table; it’s about the employer assessing candidates against their own set of metrics and deciding who’s the strongest match. A lot of excellent candidates would be turned off by this and decline. That said, if they’d be taking a job with a CEO who thinks “a little competition is good for them,” it’s probably better that they find that out now. 2. My manager eavesdrops on conversations My manager has a habit of eavesdropping: she will lurk around a corner listening to a conversation for a couple of minutes then appear, having taken a side. I find this really creepy. Recently she took it to a whole new level. A supervisor and I were having a somewhat heated discussion about something in a room where it’s quite hard to eavesdrop (thick doors). My manager came into the room and walked over to a computer and started using it. Our discussion paused and I said something like, “Uh, do you want to be involved in this conversation, Mary-Jane?” and she said no, she was just there because someone had left a computer logged in, which is a security issue. We stood there awkwardly as she fiddled with the computer (logging out takes two seconds), just the three of us in the room. Eventually the conversation continued and she continued to pretend she wasn’t listening. Later on I got written up for being disrespectful to the supervisor in that conversation. There isn’t really a question here, but, your thoughts? Well, your manager is an eavesdropper. I don’t know that it’s creepy, per se, but it’s weird — she’s your boss so she has the authority to just involve herself if she wants to, rather than pretending that she’s not listening until she’s suddenly responding. There might be some circumstances where you can sort of call it out, by saying, “Mary-Jane, you look like you’re paying attention — do you want to give input?” In some situations, if you have a ton of capital (and I mean a really significant amount) and want to use some of it, then after she’s popped up having clearly been lurking around the corner, you could say, “It always throws me off to realize someone has been listening where we can’t see them! I would rather you just join us straight away in the future.” (But you need to be deeply valued and your job rock solid, for that to even approach being a good idea, and even then it’s probably not worth it unless you’re about to lose your mind over this.) Beyond that, all you can really do is be aware that she does this, so if you ever don’t want her to pop up in a conversation or opine on it later, pick your locations carefully. But I’m curious what else she’s like as a manager, because my guess is that this isn’t the only way she’s weird about how she exercises authority. To be clear, there are times as a manager where it’s useful and legitimate to listen into conversations that you’re not an active part of — like paying attention to how an employee talks to coworkers or explains a project on a client call. But it shouldn’t be a covert thing, where people assume they have privacy and really don’t, or where it makes people feel scrutinized or micromanaged or like they don’t have any autonomy. More here: I can hear everything my staff says — should I pretend I don’t? 3. I’m panicking in my new job I’m a marketer with 13+ years experience in my field. Throughout my career, I’ve established a reputation for having a strong work ethic, being an expert in my role, and being a smart, dependable teammate. I was at my most recent role for four years, and in the beginning it was great. I even received a departmental award for my work. About midway through my tenure there, I got a new boss who, after a few months, made my working environment really toxic. (She constantly switched up expectations and goals, had me constantly reexplain very basic parts of the job more than a year in, and would accuse me of doing things I never did.) Fast forward to just before Christmas this past year, I got fired for a situation that was largely out of my control. I threw myself into the job search and was lucky enough to start a new role after two months of unemployment. It’s a fully remote job in the same field (marketing) but in a wildly different industry. It’s been 2.5 weeks and I feel completely overwhelmed. Everyone has been nice and said it’ll take a while to catch up and to reach out with any questions but I can’t get a read on my boss. She’s clearly very good at her job, but is also very busy, so there hasn’t been a ton of onboarding. I’m terrified of not meeting expectations or catching up quickly enough and being fired again. Is this a normal feeling for any new job, or is this a reflection of my fit with this company? Also, is it bad if, at the six-month mark, I start job searching again if I still feel the same way I do today? It’s a very normal feeling. If you’re still feeling this way in six months — or better yet, eight — then sure, start looking around, but two and a half weeks is nothing and it’s really common to be feeling this way, even for a job you will master in time. It might help to think about specifically what’s making you feel unmoored. Can you make a list of questions that you’d feel more settled/secure if you knew the answers to? Are there people with similar roles who you can ask to coffee, say you’re feeling overwhelmed, and ask for help setting in? Also, if she hasn’t already covered this, try asking your boss what she’d like to see you accomplish in one month, three months, and six months, since knowing that might help you get your bearings. Last, is there one project you can pick to dive into, asking questions of colleagues as you go? Picking just one project when you’re overwhelmed in a new position can sometimes be a good way into the job and to learn as you go. 4. Questions to ask when interviewing for my own job I have been doing my role on a temporary basis for 2.5 years. Soon I have to interview for it on a permanent basis. What kind of question can I ask which won’t sound like I don’t understand the role or the organization? You can ask about what goals they have for the role over the next year (or next few years) and if there’s anything they want to see the person in the job approach differently than has been historically done. If there are known challenges or changes on the horizon (or ongoing), you can ask about how those will affect the job. Plus, think about anything else that might be on your mind — are there things you wish you knew about their vision for the role/strategy/etc.? If so, think about whether you can shape those into useful questions. Related: how to prepare for an internal interview View the full article

President’s erratic policymaking has caused ‘a lot of uncertainty’ across corporate AmericaView the full article

FT analysis shows potential windfall for US president in three weeks following launch in JanuaryView the full article

Is Ahmed al-Sharaa a conquering hero with intentions of moderating or a brutal strongman with a flair for PR? View the full article

Trump’s team consider financial policy interventions to be crucial in a grand reordering of global finance and tradeView the full article

US decisions can no longer be analysed using values shared across the democratic westView the full article

High street bank plans to have nearly half of its IT engineers based outside its home market by 2026View the full article

State-owned company was set up with mission to invest in renewables and decarbonisation of the gridView the full article

Xero has announced the rollout of its new reconcile period feature, designed to enhance bank reconciliation by allowing users to verify the accuracy of financial data more efficiently. The feature is currently being introduced to customers in the United States and Canada. Reconcile period enables users to compare their bank statements with Xero accounting transactions more effectively. The feature allows users to: Define a period with a date range and balance to compare against statement lines. Quickly identify missing, duplicate, or incorrect transactions. Confirm accuracy by saving a period when it balances. Protect reconciled transactions from being altered. Generate a reconciliation report as a lasting record. According to Xero, this feature is an optional enhancement that does not change the existing real-time bank reconciliation workflow but offers an additional verification step for users who require it. Xero developed the reconcile period feature in response to user feedback emphasizing the importance of accurate financial verification, particularly for internal month-end close processes. Xero tested the reconcile period feature with accounting and bookkeeping professionals before launch, saying it received positive feedback from beta testers. Xero plans to expand the feature further by allowing users to attach PDF bank statements to their reconciliations. The reconcile period feature is rolling out gradually and will be accessible under a new tab on the main reconciliation account page once available. Image: Xero This article, "Xero Introduces Reconcile Period Feature for US and Canadian Customers" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Xero has announced the rollout of its new reconcile period feature, designed to enhance bank reconciliation by allowing users to verify the accuracy of financial data more efficiently. The feature is currently being introduced to customers in the United States and Canada. Reconcile period enables users to compare their bank statements with Xero accounting transactions more effectively. The feature allows users to: Define a period with a date range and balance to compare against statement lines. Quickly identify missing, duplicate, or incorrect transactions. Confirm accuracy by saving a period when it balances. Protect reconciled transactions from being altered. Generate a reconciliation report as a lasting record. According to Xero, this feature is an optional enhancement that does not change the existing real-time bank reconciliation workflow but offers an additional verification step for users who require it. Xero developed the reconcile period feature in response to user feedback emphasizing the importance of accurate financial verification, particularly for internal month-end close processes. Xero tested the reconcile period feature with accounting and bookkeeping professionals before launch, saying it received positive feedback from beta testers. Xero plans to expand the feature further by allowing users to attach PDF bank statements to their reconciliations. The reconcile period feature is rolling out gradually and will be accessible under a new tab on the main reconciliation account page once available. Image: Xero This article, "Xero Introduces Reconcile Period Feature for US and Canadian Customers" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Origination volume at the San Diego-based company rose 57% to $24 billion in 2024. View the full article

Mexican and Canadian officials are increasingly frustrated by tariff negotiations with the Trump administration, with a lack of clarity over exactly what the U.S. wants making any resolution seem impossible, sources from both countries told Reuters. After implementing across-the-board 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico earlier this week, President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a one-month reprieve for Mexico with an exemption for the North American auto sector also in the works. On Thursday, just after midday Eastern Time, tariffs remained in place for Canada. The on-again, off-again tariffs and the high-level discussions surrounding them have exasperated negotiating teams, according to three Mexican officials and two Canadian sources familiar with negotiations. It’s like “dealing with an angry partner and you don’t know what they’re mad about,” one Mexican official. “It’s not clear what they want.” The press person for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to a request for comment by directing Reuters to Sheinbaum’s public comment on Thursday. In a post on X, Sheinbaum said: “We had an excellent and respectful call,” that respected the “sovereignties” of both countries. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office and the White House both did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump based the legal justification for the tariffs on combating fentanyl and illegal immigration, but he and others in his administration often expand the justification to include trade deficits and protecting U.S. industries like autos and lumber. Despite the shared frustration of Mexico and Canada, the two countries have taken distinct tones in public. Sheinbaum has stressed her respect for Trump and the close cooperation with the U.S. Canada has bluntly criticized the chaos. Trudeau on Thursday said Canada will be in a trade war with the United States for “the foreseeable future.” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called Trudeau “a numbskull.” Trudeau’s foreign minister has been even franker. “We won’t get through this, another psychodrama every 30 days,” Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told business leaders in Toronto earlier this week. “The problem we’ve had is it’s not clear what the American president wants,” she added. “I’ve had conversations with colleagues in Washington saying, ‘Okay, but at the end of the day, what do you guys want?’ And I got the answer, ‘We’re about to know.’ There’s one decision maker in the system. He’s the only one to know.” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick dismissed the idea that he didn’t know what Trump wants as “fake news” and “so silly” in an interview on Thursday with CNBC. Trump “calls everybody all the time,” Lutnick said. “I speak to him all the time. You’ve got to be kidding me. The president knows exactly what he wants. We know exactly what he wants.” But Canadian and Mexican officials said the lack of clarity over demands as well as uncertainty over whether Trump administration officials in bilateral meetings were actually able to deliver on what they said was making discussions incredibly challenging. The scope of negotiations is not clear, they said, with talks sometimes seeming to be focused on fentanyl and at other times on migration, while on some occasions the focus seemed to be trade deficits. “The U.S. reasons for the tariffs constantly shift,” said another Mexican official. “If we can’t identify the problem, we can’t identify the solution.” —Emily Green, Jarrett Renshaw, David Ljunggren; writing by Stephen Eisenhammer, Reuters View the full article

Hsieh stepped down from a day-to-day operational role following a contentious proxy battle for board leadership in 2023 but remained a director. View the full article

In a public appearance Thursday, Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said the Founding Fathers supported independent money management and undoing it now would be a mistake. View the full article

Officials in the Western U.S. who warn the public about avalanches are sounding a different type of alarm. They say they’re worried that the Trump administration firing hundreds of meteorologists and other environmental scientists could hinder life-saving forecasts that skiers and mountain drivers rely on. The forecasting work is crucial for skiers and climbers who flirt with danger when they travel through mountain gullies that are prone to slide. Recovery efforts for three victims of a large avalanche near Anchorage, Alaska, were ongoing Thursday, two days after the accident in mountains where forecasters had warned it would be “easy” to trigger a slide that day because of a weak layer in the deep snow. The forecasts also are used to protect the general public. Transportation officials use them to gauge the risk on well-traveled roads like one in Colorado where a vehicle got pushed off the highway by a slide earlier this month. “We save lives and there are people alive today because of the work we do,” said Doug Chabot, who directed the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in Montana for almost 24 years. “To take funding and to just randomly cut programs, it will affect our ability to save lives.” ‘There’s a lot of pieces that will fall apart’ Avalanches kill about two dozen people annually in the U.S. Predicting their likelihood, potential severity and location depends heavily on information provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The information comes in two forms: data-driven models and conversations between avalanche forecasters and National Weather Service meteorologists who can help assess the data. “We have our own numerical model, but we can’t run that without the work that NOAA is doing,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which publishes avalanche forecasts. “Without that work, there’s a lot of pieces that will fall apart.” So far this winter 18 people had been killed by avalanches, most of them in remote areas in Western states. Weather models from NOAA are used by 14 avalanche centers run by the U.S. Forest Service. The Colorado center is largely state funded. Chabot said employees at the federal avalanche centers have so far been exempt from cuts, but officials worry that could change. Shrinking the federal workforce The Trump administration has not disclosed what positions are being lost at NOAA. Former leaders of the agency have said the firings will have wide-ranging negative impacts on flight safety, shipping safety and warning networks for tornados and hurricanes. NOAA has about 13,000 employees. The firings come as billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency shrink a federal workforce that President Donald Trump has called bloated and sloppy. A NOAA spokesperson declined to answer questions from The Associated Press about the potential for the cuts to degrade avalanche forecasting quality. “We are not discussing internal personnel and management matters,” spokesperson Susan Buchanan wrote in an email. “We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission.” Greene and Chabot said they don’t anticipate immediate effects. But if NOAA’s data is weaker, Greene said his center’s forecasts will be more uncertain. “We will probably look at the same things that we’re looking at and see that they’re not working as well as they were,” he said. Dangerous layers of snow On a mountainside near Leadville, Colorado, this week, Greene dug a pit into the snow and scooped out snow crystals that he scattered across a plastic blue card. “It’s so beautiful,” he said, referring to a layer of snow turned to ice crystals, which under certain conditions can create weak layers prone to avalanche. Such surveys are an essential part of forecasting and so is data on weather, which impacts snow and helps drive avalanche risk. In nearby Frisco, Colorado, light snow fell in the parking lot at the Mayflower Gulch trailhead, where college students Joseph Burgoyne and his friend Michael Otenbaker from Michigan donned snow shoes and strapped skis to a backpack before heading up a mountain trail. Burgoyne said it’s scary to see headlines on social media sites about skiers who were “carried and buried” by avalanches “It’s serious terrain, and those reports, they can save lives,” Burgyone said of the avalanche forecasts. “Everybody just wants to have a good time. Going fast is fun. Finding deep snow is fun, but there’s serious dangers behind that.” —Brittany Peterson and Matthew Brown, Associated Press View the full article

Tie-up will bring to an end the drugstore chain’s century-long run as a public companyView the full article

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump acted illegally when he fired a member of an independent labor agency, and the judge ordered that she be allowed to remain on the job. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., found Trump did not have the authority to remove Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board. “An American president is not a king—not even an ‘elected’ one—and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute,” Howell wrote. She acknowledged the administration’s argument that the Supreme Court may be inclined to overturn a 90-year-old decision restricting the president’s power to remove members of independent agencies. But the judge said that until and unless the high court acts, current law clearly supports keeping Wilcox in her role. Wilcox sued Trump after he fired her and the agency’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, on Jan. 27. Wilcox’s attorneys said no president previously had tried to remove an NLRB member. They argued that board members can only be fired “for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office” and only after giving notice and holding a hearing. Trump’s “only path to victory” in Wilcox’s case would be to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to ”adopt a new, more aggressive vision of presidential power that would effectively abolish independent agencies” in the U.S., her lawyers wrote. During a hearing Wednesday, Howell jokingly referred to herself as a “speed bump” for the case on its way to the Supreme Court. Government attorneys argued that NLRB members should be “removable at will to ensure democratic accountability.” Reinstating Wilcox to the board would be “an extraordinary intrusion on the executive branch,” they added. “The President cannot be compelled to retain the services of a principal officer whom the President no longer believes should be entrusted with the exercise of executive power,” Justice Department lawyers wrote. Wilcox was the first Black woman to serve on the five-member board in its 90-year history. The Senate confirmed Wilcox for a second five-year term in September 2023. Congress created the board in 1935. Its primary purpose is to resolve disputes over unfair labor practices. It adjudicated hundreds of cases in the last fiscal year. — Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story. View the full article

Explore proven strategies for creating high-performing landing pages that guide users towards action and conversion goals. The post 10 Top Converting Landing Pages That Boost Your ROI [With Examples] appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Much like all the upheaval shaking the world, the huge swings rocking Wall Street may feel far from normal. But, for investing at least, all this is typical. Sharp moves for the U.S. stock market, like its recent 6% drop in just a couple of weeks, happen regularly. Stomaching them is the price investors have to pay for the bigger returns that stocks can offer over other investments in the long term. This time doesn’t look much different, experts say. Here’s a glimpse at what’s behind the market’s wild moves and what experts are advising investors young and old to consider: The market is bad, right? It has certainly struggled. The stock market’s main benchmark, the S&P 500, has been dropping since setting an all-time high last month, largely because of worries about President Donald Trump‘s tariffs and signals that the U.S. economy is running less powerfully than economists expected. Any kind of uncertainty around the economy will give Wall Street pause. These tariffs have had a particularly jostling effect because no one knows how long Trump will go through with them. When worries are high, stocks sink sharply. When Wall Street goes back to thinking Trump is using tariffs as just a negotiating tactic, stocks have bounced back, such as on Wednesday. Stocks do this often? Yes. The S&P 500 has regularly seen declines bigger than this recent one, of 10% or more, every year or so. Often, experts view them as a culling of optimism that can otherwise run overboard, driving stock prices too high. Before this recent stumble, many critics were already saying the U.S. stock market was too expensive after prices rose faster than corporate profits. They also pointed to how only a handful of companies was driving so much of the market’s returns. A group of just seven Big Tech companies accounted for more than half of the S&P 500’s total return last year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Should I sell and get out? Anytime an investor sees they’re losing money, it feels bad. This recent run feels particularly unnerving because of how incredibly calm the market had previously been. The S&P 500 is coming off a second straight year where it shot up by more than 20%, the first time that’s happened since baggy pants were last in style before the millennium. Selling may offer some feeling of relief. But it also locks in losses and prevents the chance of making the money back over time. Historically, the S&P 500 has come back from every one of its downturns to eventually make investors whole again. That includes after the Great Depression, the dot-com bust and the 2020 COVID crash. Some recoveries take longer than others, but experts often recommend not putting money into stocks that you can’t afford to lose for several years, up to 10. “Data has shown, historically, that no one can time the market,” said Odysseas Papadimitriou, CEO of WalletHub. “No one can consistently figure out the best time to buy and sell.” Put another way: “Keep on keeping on,” suggests Chris Fasciano, vice president, investment management and research, and chief market strategist at Commonwealth Financial Network. Should I change anything with my investments? Even as the overall U.S. stock market has dropped, some corners outside the Magnificent Seven have done much better, Fasciano said. So have stocks outside the United States. It could all be a reminder that investors often do best when they have a mixed set of investments rather than going all-in on just a few. And investors may no longer be as diversified as they thought after years of sheer dominance by the Magnificent Seven over the U.S. stock market and by Wall Street over global markets. “Now’s the time to revisit some of the old tried-and-true of portfolio construction, like diversification,” Fasciano said. I just started investing in stocks. What should I do? The proliferation of online trading platforms and the ease of smartphones has helped create a new generation of investors who may not be used to such volatility. But the good news is younger investors often have the gift of time. With decades to go until retirement, they can afford to ride the waves and let their stock portfolios hopefully recover before compounding and eventually growing even bigger. “We would advise younger investors to not worry about this at all,” said Phil Battin, CEO of Ambassador Wealth Management. “It’s just background noise. If you have 30 to 50 years until you need the money, the economy has survived world wars, oil embargoes, presidential assassinations, Y2K, and a global pandemic. It will survive the Trump tariffs as well.” What about crypto? This is a little trickier. “In theory, part of the appeal of crypto is that it’s supposed to be a hedge investment that isn’t correlated with the stock market or the fiat-currency economy,” said Sam Taube, lead investing writer for NerdWallet. But in reality, at least recently, crypto has often gone down in price when stocks have gone down, instead of offering that hoped-for protection during Wall Street’s sell-offs. “So, young investors may need to rethink the idea that crypto’s value is completely independent of the stock market and broader economy,” Taube said. What if I’m near retirement? Older investors have less time than younger ones to allow their investments to bounce back. But even in retirement, some people will need their investments to last 30 years or more, said Niladri “Neel” Mukherjee, chief investment officer of TIAA Wealth Management. People who have already retired may want to cut back on spending and withdrawals after sharp market downturns, because bigger withdrawals will remove more potential compounding ability in the future. But even retirees, at least in the early part of retirement, should still be invested in stocks to prepare for the possibility of decades of spending ahead. “You may want to slow that down and pick that back up once the market recovers,” Mukherjee said, “but it all comes down to having that conversation with your adviser and your portfolio manager.” How long will this last? No one knows, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. —Stan Choe and Cora Lewis, AP business writers View the full article

Google's first Pixel Drop of 2025 happened this week with a long list of upgrades for the company's flagship phones, tablets, and watches. Google followed the update closely with the March 2025 Android Security Bulletin, with fixes for 43 malicious bugs—including two zero-day vulnerabilities that may actively be under "limited, targeted exploitation" on devices running Android OS. The patches cover concerns ranging from flaws that allow attackers to gain remote code execution on vulnerable devices to issues with Qualcomm and MediaTek components. The two zero-day (highest severity) exploits are labeled CVE-2024-43093 and CVE-2024-50302, both of which are "privilege escalation" flaws. According to Bleeping Computer, the former lets attackers access sensitive data by bypassing a file path filter without any additional input from the user. The latter is an issue in the Linux kernel that allows the unlocking of confiscated devices (and has reportedly been used by Serbian law enforcement to target activists). Zero-days are security vulnerabilities that are publicly disclosed before the developer has an opportunity to issue a patch. Even if the current exploitation is limited to these Serbian authorities, it's important to protect your devices before additional bad actors take advantage of these flaws as well. How to ensure your Android device is updatedIn most cases, all you need to do to fix security flaws on Android is update your device when you receive a notification to do so. Google issues patches for its own Pixel phones and the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code, and also alerts other manufacturers—like Samsung, Motorola, and OnePlus—when updates are on their way. Devices running Android 10 and later may get both security updates and Google Play system updates. The current batch of patches applies to AOSP versions 12, 12L, 13, 14, and 15, and the most recent is dated 2025-03-05. If you're not sure whether your Android device has been updated or believe you may have missed the notification, head to your device settings to locate your Android version (About phone or About tablet > Android version) and check your update status (System > Software update or System update). Follow the on-screen prompts to download and install available patches. View the full article

President Donald Trump on Thursday postponed 25% tariffs on many imports from Mexico and some imports from Canada for a month amid widespread fears of the economic fallout from a broader trade war. The White House insists its tariffs are about stopping the smuggling of fentanyl, but the taxes proposed by Trump have caused a gaping wound in the decades-old North American trade partnership, and Canada has felt compelled to quickly take aggressive countermeasures. Trump’s tariff plans have also caused the stock market to sink and alarmed U.S. consumers. In addition to his claims about fentanyl, Trump has insisted that the tariffs could be resolved by fixing the trade deficit and he emphasized while speaking in the Oval Office that he still plans to impose “reciprocal” tariffs starting on April 2. “Most of the tariffs go on April the second,” Trump said before signing the orders. “And then we have some temporary ones and small ones, relatively small, although it’s a lot of money having to do with Mexico and Canada.” Trump said he was not looking to extend the exemption on the 25% tariff for autos for another month. Imports from Mexico that comply with the 2020 USMCA trade pact would be excluded from the 25% tariffs for a month, according to the orders signed by Trump. Imports from Canada that comply with the trade deal would also avoid the 25% tariffs for a month, while the potash that U.S. farmers import from Canada would be tariffed at 10%, the same rate at which Trump wants to tariff Canadian energy products. Roughly 62% of imports from Canada would likely still face the new tariffs because they’re not USMCA compliant, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to preview the orders on a call with reporters. Half of imports from Mexico that are not USCMA compliant would also be taxed under the orders being signed by Trump, the official said. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has planned to announce any retaliatory measures on Sunday, but Trump credited her with making progress on illegal immigration and drug smuggling as a reason for again pausing tariffs that were initially supposed to go into full effect in February. “I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border.” Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs threats have roiled financial markets, lowered consumer confidence, and enveloped many businesses in an uncertain atmosphere that could delay hiring and investment. Major U.S. stock markets briefly bounced off lows after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick previewed the month-long pauses on CNBC on Thursday. Significant declines already seen this week resumed within an hour. The S&P 500 stock index has fallen below where it was before Trump was elected. Sheinbaum said she and Trump “had an excellent and respectful call in which we agreed that our work and collaboration have yielded unprecedented results,” on a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Mexico has cracked down on cartels, sent troops to the U.S. border and delivered 29 top cartel bosses long chased by American authorities to the Trump administration in a span of weeks. At a press conference, Sheinbaum elaborated on her call with Trump Thursday, saying that she told the president that Mexico was making great strides in fulfilling his security demands. “I told him we’re getting results,” Sheinbaum said. But the U.S. imposed the tariffs, so she asked Trump “how are we going to continue cooperating, collaborating with something that hurts the people of Mexico?” She added that “practically all of the trade” between the U.S. and Mexico will be exempt from tariffs until April 2. She said the two countries will continue to work together on migration and security, and to cut back on fentanyl trafficking to the U.S. From January to February, the amount of fentanyl seized at the border dropped more than 41%, according to Sheinbaum, citing data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. She cited the dip as meeting a commitment made to Trump. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the leader of Canada’s most populous province, said that starting Monday the province will charge 25% more for electricity shipped to 1.5 million Americans in response to Trump’s tariff plan. Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan. “This whole thing with President Trump is a mess,” Ford said Thursday. “This reprieve, we’ve went down this road before. He still threatens the tariffs on April 2.” Ford’s office said that the tariff would remain in place even if there’s a one month reprieve from the Americans. Ford has said that so long as the threat of tariffs continue, Ontario’s position will not change. Lutnick said that he will be watching fentanyl overdose deaths in the U.S. as a key “metric” he will focus on when evaluating Canada and Mexico’s efforts to combat the synthetic opioid. In his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, Trump portrayed tariffs — which he has also levied on China at 20% due to their role in fentanyl production — as a source of increasing wealth and power for the United States. Yet most economists expect the import duties to send prices higher, slow the economy, and potentially cost jobs. The Yale University Budget Lab has estimated that the tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico would increase inflation by a full percentage point, cut growth by half a percentage point and cost the average household about $1,600 in disposable income. Trump appeared to acknowledge Tuesday night that there could be some pain: “There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re okay with that. It won’t be much.” —Christopher Rugaber and Josh Boak Associated Press writers Rob Gillies, and Megan Janetsky contributed to this report. View the full article

US cabinet told to ‘keep all the people you want’ in first sign of pushback against Elon Musk’s cost-cutting projectView the full article

Efforts to hollow out the federal workforce by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have resulted in a dramatic rise in layoff announcements. The latest monthly data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that employers in the United States announced more than 172,000 layoffs during February, which was an increase of 245% from January and the highest monthly total since mid-2020, during the pandemic. Further, it was the highest number of layoffs for the month of February since 2009, in the middle of the financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession, when more than 186,000 layoffs were announced. So far, through the first two months of the year, employers have cut a total of 222,000 jobs, an increase of 33% over last year. Which industries have been hardest hit? DOGE’s slashing of the federal government’s headcount meant a huge increase in government layoffs. In fact, through February, the report notes that 62,530 government jobs have been eliminated, which was an increase of 41,311% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the retail and technology sectors continue to see significant cuts. Further, almost 39,000 jobs were lost in the retail sector, 14,554 in technology, and 13,804 in the services and consumer products sector during February. “Private companies announced plans to shed thousands of jobs last month, particularly in Retail and Technology," said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and workplace expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, in a statement included with the report. "With the impact of the Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] actions, as well as canceled Government contracts, fear of trade wars, and bankruptcies, job cuts soared in February." Interestingly, the report also notes that hiring plans are on an uptick for many employers, too. “So far this year, companies plan to hire 40,669 workers, an increase of 159% from the 15,693 hiring plans announced during the same period last year,” the report reads. “This is the highest number for February since 2022, when companies announced 215,127 new hires.” View the full article

The company first entered the Canadian market in 2020 through an investment in an Ontario-based brokerage, which later rebranded to Rocket Mortgage Canada. View the full article