Plus, women’s rugby gets a boost. On Today’s Episode: Beijing Retaliates After Trump Sets Steep Tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, by Keith Bradsher and Ana SwansonTrump Suspends Military Aid to Ukraine After Oval Office Blowup, by Erica L. Green, Eric Schmitt, David E. Sanger and Julian E. BarnesIn Speech to Congress, Trump Is Expected to Boast About DOGE Cuts and Ukraine, by Luke Broadwater and Michael D. ShearHow a Plan for Reparations Became a Debt Trap for Marijuana Retailers, by Ashley SouthallU.S. Superstar Ilona Maher and Her Impact in England, by Caoimhe O’NeillxTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [email protected].
Chapter 1: What are the new tariffs imposed by Trump?
From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracey Mumford. Today's Tuesday, March 4th. Here's what we're covering. Just after midnight, the sweeping new tariffs that President Trump has been threatening against America's largest trading partners kicked in. There's now a new 25% surcharge on products from Canada and Mexico and an extra 10% on goods from China on top of existing tariffs.
President Trump had been framing the tariffs as a national security issue, claiming that Canada and Mexico in particular weren't doing enough to stop migrants and fentanyl from coming into the U.S. Those countries have spent weeks scrambling to show Trump that they were stepping up enforcement. But yesterday, hours before the tariffs started, Trump seemed to move the goalposts.
So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs.
He suggested that the only way out of the surcharges would be for auto companies and other manufacturers to relocate to the U.S.
I would just say this to people in Canada or Mexico, if they're going to build car plants, the people that are doing them are much better off building here because we have the market, we're the market where they sell the most.
The tariffs are already sending shockwaves through the economy. The stock market had its biggest drop-off of the year when it became clear they were about to take effect. And economists say Americans will probably see higher prices on a wide range of products. The first place they're going to feel it is the grocery store.
Much of the fresh produce in the U.S., everything from tomatoes to avocados, is imported from Mexico. Prices could start to climb in the next few weeks. Beef, grain, and maple syrup from Canada will also likely get more expensive. And over time, prices could also go up on cars, toys, smartphones, and a whole range of consumer goods.
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Chapter 2: How have Canada and China responded to US tariffs?
In response to Trump's tariffs, Canada immediately slapped its own surcharges on American imports. And China also moved quickly to retaliate, putting tariffs on American food and agricultural products and blocking a number of American companies from doing business in China. In another major move from the Trump administration, the president temporarily suspended all U.S.
Chapter 3: Why did Trump suspend military aid to Ukraine?
military aid to Ukraine, three days after he berated Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Officials say the suspension will be in place until Trump determines that Ukraine has made a good-faith commitment to peace negotiations with Russia. The order affects more than a billion dollars in arms and ammunition that were on order or even already en route.
Analysts say Ukraine can keep its war effort going for weeks, even a few months, without U.S. support. It did that last year, when Republicans in Congress temporarily blocked assistance. But the cracks did start to show. Without well-stocked air defense systems, more Russian missiles got through, hitting cities and power plants.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of Trump's aid freeze for Ukraine?
And without enough supplies on the front lines, Ukrainian commanders told The Times they had to ration ammunition. Effectively, Trump's new pause is an ultimatum for Zelensky. Either get on board with ceasefire terms that Trump dictates, or prepare to face larger battlefield losses without U.S. support.
In the meantime, analysts say the pause will help Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose troops could make gains against a weakened Ukraine. On the heels of his aid freeze and the new tariffs, President Trump will give his first big address to a joint session of Congress tonight. It's at 9 p.m. Eastern, and it'll be his largest televised event since he returned to office.
Chapter 5: What will Trump address in his upcoming Congress speech?
Presidents usually use this moment to lay out their plans for their time in the White House. Trump's expected to tick through his work on immigration, spending cuts, and a host of executive orders. Many Democratic lawmakers say they plan to protest Trump's actions so far by inviting fired federal workers as their guests to the speech.
The Times will have live coverage of Trump's comments at nytimes.com.
What New York set out to create was a program that could be a national model to bring in people that they once targeted for selling marijuana or growing it and help them to become successful business owners in this newly legal industry. But it failed pretty spectacularly.
Chapter 6: What challenges has New York faced in cannabis legalization?
Ashley Southall covers cannabis legalization for The Times. She's been reporting on the rise and fall of an ambitious program in New York state that the governor once said would, quote, write historical wrongs. After recreational cannabis was legalized there in 2021, the state backed a $200 million fund to give people who'd been prosecuted for drug offenses a leg up in the new market.
It was supposed to launch 150 small cannabis shops, providing property and loans. Only 22 have gone up, and Ashley says many of the participants in the program told her they feel they've been caught in a debt trap.
One of the people I talked to was Roland Conner, who was the first person to open a dispensary under this program. And what he described was a program that was one in which he had very little control.
Connor and others told Ashley that the loans they got from the fund were so tightly restricted, they had almost no say in how their stores were designed and built, and no oversight of construction costs. That effectively handcuffed them as they were trying to compete with a flood of new illicit cannabis shops that started popping up across the state.
For his part, Conner ended up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
So you have a guy like Conner who has every reason to be skeptical of the government because he has been prosecuted for selling marijuana. But he casts that aside and decides to take the government up on its promise of first dibs on a windfall from legalization. And he ends up facing financial ruin.
It got so bad for him that at one point he was starting to wonder if this whole program was smoke and mirrors.
In response to questions from the Times, a publicist for the fund said criticism of the program was, quote, absurd, claiming it had given opportunities to people other lenders wouldn't have taken a chance on. Recently, Conner and other participants in the program asked the governor to shut the program down altogether and refinance their debt.
And finally, who's the sweatiest person on the rugby team?
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