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      Trump Administration Looks to Take Steps to Ease Pain From Car Tariffs

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      The planned concessions to give automakers more time to relocate production to the United States would still leave substantial tariffs on imported cars and car parts.The Trump administration said it plans to announce measures as early as Tuesday to ease the impact of tariffs on imported cars and car parts to give automakers more time to relocate production to the United States.Tariffs of 25 percent on imported vehicles and on auto parts will remain in place. But the tariffs will be modified so that they are not “stacked” with other tariffs, for example on steel and aluminum, a White House spokesman said. Automakers will not have to pay tariffs on those metals, widely used in automobiles, on top of the tariffs on cars and parts.In addition, automakers will be reimbursed for some of the cost of tariffs on imported components. The reimbursement will amount to up to 3.75 percent of the value of a new car in the first year, but will be phased out over two years, the spokesman confirmed.A 25 percent tariff on imported cars took effect April 3. On Saturday, the tariffs are set to be extended to include imported parts.“President Trump is building an important partnership with both the domestic automakers and our great American workers,” Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said in a statement. “This deal is a major victory for the president’s trade policy by rewarding companies who manufacture domestically, while providing runway to manufacturers who have expressed their commitment to invest in America and expand their domestic manufacturing.”But even with these changes, there will still be substantial tariffs on imported cars and auto parts, which will raise prices for new and used cars by thousands of dollars and increase the cost of repairs and insurance premiums.The modification to the tariffs was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Lutnick helped automakers secure a major exemption from tariffs in March and has taken on a role advocating relief for some industries hit by the levies.Automakers welcomed the change. “We believe the president’s leadership is helping level the playing field for companies like G.M. and allowing us to invest even more in the U.S. economy,” Mary T. Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, said in a statement on Monday. “We appreciate the productive conversations with the president and his administration and look forward to continuing to work together.” More

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      What Do You Want to Know About Student Loans?

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      Send us your questions about student loans. We’ll answer some in an upcoming newsletter.Next week, the federal government will resume collecting payments from the millions of Americans who have defaulted on their student loan debts. (The Biden administration had paused enforcement in 2020, during the pandemic.)For a future edition of The Morning newsletter, we want to know: What questions do you have about student loans?We won’t publish any part of your response without following up with you first. And we won’t use your contact information for any reason other than to get in touch with you. More

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      How California Sanctuary Policies Are Faring Under Pressure From Trump

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      State and city officials in California are vowing to uphold protections for immigrants, even as President Trump threatens more action against their jurisdictions.In 1971, Berkeley, Calif., became the first place in the nation to deem itself a sanctuary city, at the time to provide refuge for sailors who protested the Vietnam War.Today, at least 25 cities and counties in California have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants by passing laws that limit how much they will cooperate with federal efforts to deport people.Those policies could soon make California a greater target for the Trump administration as federal officials try to punish governments with sanctuary policies.President Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Monday night directing federal officials to publish a list of all jurisdictions that have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants in the United States. It is unclear how Mr. Trump intends to use the list, but it is possible that he may try to cut funding or take legal action against the governments that are identified.California has long been home to more undocumented immigrants than any other state and currently has about 1.8 million undocumented residents, according to the Pew Research Center. Amid threats of mass deportations during Mr. Trump’s first term, California declared itself a sanctuary state in 2017.Here is how local policies in California are playing out during the second Trump administration:What does it mean to be a sanctuary?Oakland, Sacramento and San Diego are among the California cities that have declared themselves “sanctuaries” for undocumented immigrants.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      NYT Crossword Answers for April 29, 2025

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      Gene Louise de Vera makes his New York Times Crossword debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — The first play on words I ever made (as far as I can remember, anyway) was at the dinner table, at the age of 5 or so. We were having grilled salmon, and I had noticed a piece of fish on my plate that seemed to be shaped like a cigar. I picked it up and pretended to puff on it. “Look!” I shouted. “Smoked salmon!”Notwithstanding the disturbing notion of a kindergartner aspiring to a cigar habit, I’d say this was pretty clever. I couldn’t have known at the time that my sense of humor would lead to a career in crosswords, but an entry in today’s puzzle, constructed by Gene Louise de Vera, felt all too cosmic: At 5A, indeed, to be [Like cigar and salmon] is to be SMOKED. Just as the prophecy foretold.Today’s Theme[Early struggles for a new enterprise] are known as GROWING PAINS, and in this puzzle the phrase also serves as [a hint to the shaded squares] of entries at 28D, 29D, 32D and 34D. Here are those squares, in bold below:At 28D, the phrase [“You had your chance”] means that it’s TOO LATE NOW. At 29D, if you [Go berserk], you HIT THE ROOF. Starting to see a pattern? We’ve got “ow” and “oof,” both of which are expressions of pain. And we can confirm the hunch with the remaining entries — an [Instruction to improve posture] is DON’T SLOUCH at 32D, and at 34D, a typical [Cameraperson’s session] is a PHOTO SHOOT. Note that each shaded word “grows” by one letter as we move from left to right.My exclamations of pain also include “Oy!” and “Ack!” along with a number of grawlix-worthy terms I won’t share in this column. If you have any (clean) expressions of your own to add to our GROWING PAINS lexicon, feel free to do so in the comments. Also, at 34D: Is the growing pain “SHOOT” because it’s what one exclaims, or because it’s shooting pain? I welcome your opinions on this, too.Tricky Clues25A. This [Blues group, for short?] is political, rather than musical, and “blues” describes a color, not a type of music, associated with the group itself. The answer is DNC, short for Democratic National Committee.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Despair Blankets Scene of Car-Ramming Attack at Festival

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      Filipinos in Vancouver returned to a neighborhood to mourn the 11 people killed in a weekend attack.On any ordinary day, the South Vancouver neighborhood bustles with the sounds of life, but Saturday was no ordinary day. It was a celebration of Filipino culture, and music from a live concert echoed through the streets as families lined up at food trucks and children played.On Sunday it was strangely silent.“It gives me chills,” said Franchesca Gabo, taking it all in.Ms. Gabo, 20, left the festival shortly before a driver rammed his SUV into the mass of people, killing 11 and injuring more than 30.Now, she had come back, joining an impromptu vigil of people peering over police tape and trying in vain to absorb the enormity of what had happened.“It was a happy day yesterday,” Ms. Gabo said. “Everyone was celebrating.”The authorities say the motive for the attack did not appear to be terrorism. But beyond that little had emerged about the suspect in custody other than that he is a 30-year-old man with a history of mental illness. Now, he is charged with murder.More was becoming known about the victims at the festival celebrating Lapu Lapu Day.The youngest was Katie Le, a 5-year-old girl who was killed along with her parents, Richard Le, 47, and Linh Hoang, 30, according to local news reports. Mr. Le’s 16-year-old son, Andy, survived because of a last-minute decision to skip the festival in favor of homework, relatives said.A school board in a nearby suburb said that a guidance counselor named Kira Salim was also among the dead. “The loss of our friend and colleague has left us all shocked and heartbroken,” it said in a statement.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Harvard, Under Pressure, Revamps D.E.I. Office

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      The move comes as President Trump has tried to abolish D.E.I. programs at universities.Harvard is revamping its diversity, equity and inclusion office in a move that seemed to accede to the Trump administration, even as the university has sued the administration and accused it of unlawfully interfering in the university’s affairs.An email to the Harvard community on Monday announced that the office had been renamed the Office of Community and Campus Life.The decision follows similar reorganizations across the country by universities, which appeared to be aimed at placating conservative critics who have attacked diversity offices as left-wing indoctrination factories.Harvard’s announcement stood out, though, because it came just hours after lawyers for the university and the Trump administration held their first conference in a lawsuit in which Harvard accuses the administration of invading freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court.The Trump administration also opened another front in its fight with the university on Monday, accusing the Harvard Law Review, an independent student-run journal, of racial discrimination in journal membership and article selection. In a news release announcing that the law review was under investigation, Craig Trainor, the Department of Education’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said the journal “appears to pick winners and losers on the basis of race, employing a spoils system in which the race of the legal scholar is as, if not more, important than the merit of the submission.” Responding to the announcement, Harvard Law School emphasized its commitment to ensuring that programs it oversees comply with the law, but pointed out that the journal is legally independent. A similar claim against the Harvard Law Review was dismissed in federal court in 2019. In announcing that Harvard’s diversity office was being revamped, Sherri Ann Charleston, formerly the chief diversity officer, said the university should bring people together based on their backgrounds and perspectives and “not the broad demographic groups to which they belong.”Dr. Charleston’s title has been changed to chief community and campus life officer.The Trump administration included abolishing D.E.I. efforts in a long list of demands it sent to Harvard two weeks ago, which the university would have to meet to continue receiving federal funding. Among other requirements, the administration ordered Harvard to appoint an external overseer to monitor students, faculty and staff for “viewpoint diversity,” to ban international students hostile to “American values,” and to eliminate activist faculty. The list of demands was sent by mistake, according to two people familiar with the matter, but the White House has continued to stand by the requirements. Harvard responded to the demands by filing the lawsuit in federal court. “No government, regardless of which party, should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Harvard’s president, Alan M. Garber, wrote in a statement to the university.In retaliation, the administration has frozen more than $2.2 billion in university grants and contracts.Miles J. Herszenhorn More

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      How Trump’s Second Term Is Changing Power, Institutions and More

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      <!–> [–><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–>— Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman–><!–> –><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> [–>foreign policy Treaties, Alliances and Soft Power Are Out. Raw Power Is Back In. <!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> […] More