The Panama Canal is one of the most important waterways in the world, with about 7% of global trade passing through. It also relies heavily on rainfall. Without enough freshwater flowing in, the canals locks cant raise and lower ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Droughts mean fewer ships per day, and that can quickly affect Panamas finances and economies around the world.
But the same freshwater is also essential for Panamas many other needs, including drinking water for about two million Panamanians, use by Indigenous people and farmers in the watershed, as well as hydropower.
When the region experiences droughts, as it did in 20232024, the resulting water shortages can lead to increasing water conflicts.
One of those conflicts involves a new dam the Panama Canal Authority plans to begin building in 2027. It would be designed to secure enough water to keep the canal, which contributes about 4.2% to the countrys gross domestic product, operating into the future, but it would also submerge farming communities and displace over 2,000 people from their homes.
This recent drought wasnt an anomaly. As an academic who studies the effects of rising temperatures on water availability and sea level rise, Im aware that as the climate warms, Panama will likely face more extremes, both long dry spells and also periods of too much rain. That will force more trade-offs between residential needs and the canal over water use.
Complex engineering remade the landscape
The Panama Canal was built over a century ago at the narrowest point of the country and in the heart of its population center. The route was historically used by the Spanish colonies and later for a rail line between the oceans.
The idea of a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans began as a French endeavor, led by architect Ferdinand D. Lesseps, designer of the Suez Canal in Egypt. After the French effort failed, the U.S. government signed a treaty with newly independent Panama in 1903 to take over the project.
The U.S. acquired the rights to build and operate the Panama Canal in exchange for U.S.$10 million and annual payments of $250,000. Later, the Torrijos-Carter Treaty in 1977 committed the U.S. to transfer the control of operations to Panama at the end of 1999.
The canal project was designed to take advantage of the regions tropical climate and abundant average rainfall.
It harnessed the water of the Chagres River basin to run three sets of lockschambers that, filled with fresh water, act like elevators, lifting or lowering ships to compensate for the difference in water levels between the two oceans.
To ensure enough water would be available for the locks, the canals designers changed the shapes of the regions mountains and rivers to create a large watershedover 1,325 square miles (3,435 square kilometers)that drains toward the canals human-made lakes, Gatun and Alajuela.
About 65% of the water that flows from the watershed today goes to operate the locks. The majority of that water is quickly lost to the oceans.
Even the two newest locks, built in 2016, only reuse about 60% of water on each transit40% is flushed to avoid saltwater from the oceans intruding into the watershed.
Threats to water security
Panamas wet tropical weather is predominantly influenced by its location near the equator, the trade winds, and the oceans. Most of its rain falls during the wet season, from May to November. However, weather records show a drop in average precipitation starting around 1950.
The driest years resulted in dangerously low water levels in Gatun Lake that made canal operations difficult, including in 1998, 2016, and most recently 20232024. El Nio weather patterns can mean particularly low rainfall.
In December 2023, the Panama Canal Authority was forced to limit the number of daily transits to 22, compared with 36 to 38 usual crossings, because too little freshwater was available.
Water levels at Gatun Lake since 1965 show how low 2023 and 2024 were. [Image: EIA]
To avoid steep financial losses, the Panama Canal Authority raised prices and auctioned transit opportunities to the highest bidders. Without those measures, the authority estimated it would lose $100 million a month from reduced ship traffic because of the water shortage.
Ecosystems also need enough water, and changes in forest tree composition have become evident on Barro Colorado Island in Gatun Lake in response to rising temperatures and more frequent droughts.
Climate change is also creating greater variability in rainfall. Too much rain can also be a problem for canal operations. In December 2010, the biggest storm on record caused landslides and $150 million in damage that interrupted transits on the canal.
Sustaining Panamas canal and its people
Temporary measures for saving water have been already implemented. The Panama Canal Authority shortened the chamber size in some of its locks to use less water for smaller vessels and minimized direction changes.
In January 2025, the authority approved plans to build the new dam on the Indio River to increase water available for the canal. The dam could solve some water concerns during drier periods for the canal.
However, it also illustrates the countrys water conflicts. Once filled, the dams reservoir will submerge over 1,200 homes by some counts, and more people in the region will lose access to land and travel routes. The Panama Canal Authority promises that residents will be relocated, but some of those living in the region fear they will lose their livelihoods, along with the communities their families have lived in for generations.
Residents across Panama, meanwhile, regularly hear media campaigns that encourage them to save water. An Environmental Economic Incentives Program promotes forest conservation and sustainable family agriculture to conserve water resources.
The Panama Canal is a crucial part of international trade, and it will face more periods of water stress. I believe responding to those future changes, as well as market and societal demands, will require innovative solutions that respect ecosystem limits and the needs of the population.
Karina Garcia is a researcher and lecturer in climate at Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here.
OpenAI says it will release an open-source modelbut why now?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Monday that his company intends to release a powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning in the next few months. That would mark a major shift for a company that has kept its models proprietary and secret since 2019. The announcement wasnt a total surprise: After the groundbreaking Chinese open-source model DeepSeek-R1 showed up in January, Altman said during a Reddit AMA that he realized his company was on the wrong side of history and suggested an OpenAI open-source model was a real possibility.
Open models typically come with a permissive license that requires little or no payment to the model developer. Open-weight models can be more cost-effective for corporations trying to leverage AI since they allow businesses to host (and secure) the models themselvesavoiding the often risky prospect of sending proprietary data through an API to a third-party provider and paying fees to do it. More businesses are moving in this directionespecially those holding sensitive user data in regulated industries.
The catch: A corporate user doesnt have to pay to use the open model. Some AI labs release open models to gain credibility in the marketpotentially paving the way to eventually sell API access to their more powerful closed models. By releasing open models early on, the French AI company Mistral established itself as a top-tier AI lab and a legitimate alternative to U.S. players. Some AI labs release open-source models, then earn consulting fees by helping large enterprises deploy and optimize the models over time.
Metas Llama models are the most widely deployed open modelsthough the company restricts reuse and redistribution and keeps the training data and code secret, meaning they are not by definition open source. Meta had different reasons for giving away its models. Unlike Mistral and others, it makes money by surveilling users and targeting adsnot by renting out AI models. Zuckerberg continues funding Llama research because the models are a disruptive force in the industry and earn Meta the right to be called an AI company.
OpenAI now has its own reasons for releasing an open-weight model. Eighteen months ago, OpenAI was the undisputed champion of state-of-the-art AI models. But in the time since, the release of LLMs like Googles formidable Gemini 2.0 and DeepSeeks open-source R1 have cracked the competition wide open.
The market has changed, and OpenAI itself has evolved. Like Meta, OpenAI doesnt depend directly and solely on its models for its revenue. Selling access to its models via an API is no longer the companys main source of revenue. Now, most of its revenue, not to mention its staggering $300 billion valuation, comes from selling subscriptions to ChatGPT (most of them to individual consumers). OpenAIs real superpower is being a household-name consumer AI brand.
OpenAI will definitely continue pouring massive resources into developing ever-better models, but its main reason for doing so isnt to collect rent from developers for direct access to them, but rather to continue making ChatGPT smarter for consumers.
AI video generation is getting scary good
AI-video-generation tools are rapidly leaping over the uncanny valley, making it increasingly difficult for everyday internet users to distinguish between real and generated video. This could bode well for smaller companies looking to produce glossy, creative, or ambitious ads at a fraction of the normal cost. But it could spell bad news if bad actors use the technology in phishing scams or to spread disinformation. Its also yet another threat to the film sectors livelihood.
The issue is back in the spotlight following several announcements, starting with Runways release of its new Gen-4 video-generation system, which the company says produces production ready video.
AI startup Runway says the new system of models understands much of the worlds physics (a claim supported by this video of a man being overtaken by an ocean wave). The company also touts improvements in video consistency and realism, as well as user control during the generation process. Runway posted a demo video of Gen-4s control tools, which makes the production process look pretty easy, even for non-technicals). Some of the samples of finished videos posted on X look somehow more real than real (see Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation).
Runway faces some stiff competition in the AI video space in the form of perennial contenders including Googles Veo 2 model, OpenAIs Sora, Adobe Firefly, Pika, and Kling.
A new math benchmark aims to beat test question contamination
People in the AI community have been debating for some time whether our current methods of testing models math skills are broken. The concern is that while existing math benchmarks contain some very hard problems, those problems (and their solutions) tend to get published online pretty quickly. This of course makes the problem-solution sets fair game for AI companies sweeping up training data for their next models. The worry is that, come evaluation time, the models may have already encountered the test problems and answers in their training data.
A new benchmark called MathArena was designed to eliminate those issues. MathArena takes its math problems from very recent math competitions and Olympiads, which have obvious incentives to keep their problems secret. The researchers from MathArena also created their own standard method of administering the evaluation, meaning the AI model developers cant give their own models an edge via changes to the evaluation setup.
MathArena has just released the results of the most recent benchmark, which includes questions from the 2025 USA Math Olympiad. Heres one of the questions: Let H be the orthocenter of the acute triangle ABC, let F be the foot of the altitude from C to AB, and let P be the reflection of H across BC. Suppose that the circumcircle of triangle AFP intersects line BC at two distinct points, X and Y. Prove that C is the midpoint of XY. Ouch. And to make matters worse, the test requires not only the correct answer but a decription of each reasoning step the model took along the way.
The results are, well, ugly. Some of the most powerful and celebrated models in the world took the test, and none scored above 5%. The top score went to DeepSeeks R1 model, which earned a 4.76%. Googles Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking model scored 4.17%. Anthropics Claude 3.7 Sonnet (Thinking) scored 3.65%. OpenAIs most recent thinking model, o3 mini, scored 2.08%.
The results suggest one of several possibilities: Maybe MathArena contains far harder questions than other benchmarks, or LLMs arent great at explaining their reasoning steps, or earlier math benchmark scores are questionable because the LLMs had already seen the answers. Looks like LLMs still have some homework to do.
More AI coverage from Fast Company:
An AI watchdog accused OpenAI of using copyrighted books without permission
Amazon unveils Nova Act, an AI agent that can shop for you
What is AI thinking? Anthropic researchers are starting to figure it out
How Hebbia is building AI for in-depth research
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Termination notices sent by billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team to U.S. Agency for International Development staff were so rife with errors that corrected versions are being issued to avoid affecting pensions and pay, according to five sources familiar with the issue.
The Department of Government Efficiency “did this so quickly that they screwed lots of stuff up,” said a U.S. official, who requested anonymity, as did all of those who spoke to Reuters.
The State Department, which is assuming some of USAID’s functions under the Trump administration’s plan to cut U.S. foreign aid, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
USAID’s human resources staff, most of whom have been on paid administrative leave and face termination, have been brought back to the office to send out accurate notices, said the U.S. official and a person familiar with the matter.
“My letter was completely wrong,” one USAID worker told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “The only thing correct was my name.”
It is not the first time that inaccurate termination notices have upended the lives of USAID workers since U.S. President Donald Trump and Musk began in February to dismember America’s main conduit of foreign aid.
A first round set April 21 as the final employment day for most personnel and May 30 for those tapped to help shutter the agency. Those dates were reset to July 1 or September 2 in the notices sent to some 3,500 USAID workers last Friday, two sources and workers said.
Other errors included inaccurate start dates, lengths of service and salaries, according to the person familiar with the matter, the U.S. official, two former senior USAID officials, a congressional aide and four workers who received notices.
Unless fixed, those mistakes could result in reduced or canceled pensions or inaccurate severance pay, the sources said.
Several of the sources pointed to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s retirement website that says federal workers’ annual pension annuity is based on their lengths of service and three highest average annual salaries.
Reuters could not learn how many USAID personnel were issued faulty notices last Friday.
SOME STAFF RECEIVED THREE INACCURATE NOTICES
Several workers told Reuters that they and other colleagues received a third termination letter on Monday night still containing inaccurate information on promotions, tenure and other data.
One worker said the total federal service listed in their notice on Friday was short by three years and by six years in the notice they received on Monday.
“I actually have federal service dating to June 2008,” said the worker. “There doesn’t seem to be any logic to the RIF (reduction in force) process.”
“We’ve got people who have served for 25 years and their notices are showing they served for only three,” said the U.S. official. “It affects their severance. It affects their future ability to retire.”
Trump assigned Musk, a major contributor to his 2024 election campaign whose companies have federal contracts worth billions of dollars, and DOGE to ferret out waste and fraud across the U.S. government.
According to its website, the only official window into its operations, DOGE estimates it has saved U.S. taxpayers $140 billion as of April 2 through a series of actions including massive workforce cuts, asset sales, and contract cancellations.
Its savings total is unverifiable and its calculations have contained errors and corrections. Musk has said DOGE will correct mistakes when it finds them.
Since February, most USAID staff have been put on administrative leave, hundreds of contractors were fired and more than 5,000 programs terminated, disrupting global humanitarian aid operations on which millions depend.
Some termination notices sent on Friday to USAID personnel did not account for requests to waive the July 1 termination date, including from overseas staff whose children still would be in school, according to three sources.
Others had applied for waivers because they need more time to pack their homes and relocate to the U.S., the sources said.
“Some people have the wrong dates. Others have the wrong information,” said the person with knowledge of the matter, adding that people given the wrong termination date “can’t return home” unless their notices are reissued with the correct date.
The person said that the error-filled notices were sent under the supervision of USAID acting administrators Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE operative, and Kenneth Jackson, who have been overseeing the agency’s dismantlement.
They report to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who Trump tapped as acting USAID administrator.
Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle, Reuters
One of the world’s most iconic and controversial maps just got a major redesign. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York has unveiled the final version of an updated map of its subway system, marking the first time the map has had a full redesign since 1979. It’s a visually bold, user-centric design that, according to the MTA, will make it easier for people to understand where they’re going and how to use the system. The new maps are expected to be installed in train cars and stations over the next few weeks.
The map features bright, color-coded lines for each train line, which criss-cross a stylized map of the city in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal orientations. More abstract than the previous geographically representative map, the new map prioritizes visual clarity and accessible design over pure accuracy. With single-lined black text on a largely white background and black dots representing stations on bright colored route lines, the new map was designed to be easily read by people with varying levels of vision and color perception. Our approach was to make this map inclusive to all, said MTA chief customer officer Shanifah Rieara at a recent press conference unveiling the new design.
[Image: MTA]
A big part of the inclusivity is managed by simplifying the geography of the map, using abstracted forms to represent the boroughs and straight lines to represent subway routes that are in fact much more sinuous. It’s an approach that was unveiled in the now-famous 1972 subway map designed by Massimo Vignelli and the design firm Unimark International.
It was a minimalist design that became a source of controversy, and one literal debate. In 1978, Vignelli was pitted on stage against John Tauranac, then chair of the MTA’s Subway Map committee, who wanted the system to have a more geographically representative map. Tauranac’s approach won out, and the so-called spaghetti version of the map with winding routes and geographically accurate depictions became the map that has been used from 1979 until now.
Though the printed map is being put into service as of this week, this design was first piloted back in 2021, and builds on Work & Co’s live, interactive digital map of the system that has a similar Vignelli-inspired aesthetic. When the pilot design was first launched, an MTA official told Fast Company a final version of the map was expected within months.
Four years later, the printed maps are finished. Part of the long gestation has to do with the way the MTA vetted the design, conducting rider surveys to learn more about how people use the map, and the ways some maps make using the system more difficult. Based on this feedback, the map’s design evolved.
[Photo: Marc A. Hermann/MTA]
The biggest changes relate to some of the most challenging parts of riding a complicated, multi-lined subway system: the transfer. Steven Flamm, manager of mapping for MTA’s Creative Services department, says the map’s design was tweaked to improve the way the map visually explains how to transfer train lines, whether on the other side of a platform, through a tunnel, or across a street.
You’ll see a different treatment for hubs and complexes that make it more obvious, so people know they can get their trains in that station, says Flamm.
The MTA sees the new map as a mix of the Vignelli design’s minimalist simplicity and a more geographically accurate approach from the Tauranac version that helps people to navigate the system more easily. Design-minded riders may see more of the Vignelli in this new map, but that doesn’t mean the Tauranac version in use for the last four decades has disappeared, according to MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber. The real superfans out there will recognize the colors that were established in the famous Tauranac map, he said.
As the weekend deadline for TikTok to find a buyer approaches, bidders for the short-video social media site are piling up.
Amazon and, separately, a consortium led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely are the latest to throw their hats into the ring for TikTok. The site faces an April 5 deadline to reach a deal to find a non-Chinese buyer under threat of being banned from the United States.
U.S. officials have raised security concerns over the app’s ties to China, which TikTok and owner ByteDance have denied. Trump administration officials are meeting on Wednesday to discuss the various options for TikTok.
Startup Zoop, which is run by Stokely, founder of adult content social media site OnlyFans, has partnered with a cryptocurrency foundation to submit a late-stage plan to bid for TikTok, the two told Reuters Wednesday.
A U.S. administration official confirmed Amazon had sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Amazon declined to comment, while TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shares of Amazon rose about 2% following news of the last-minute TikTok bid.
Amazon has long harbored ambitions for an in-house social media network that could help it sell more goods and appeal to a younger audience. It bought live video site Twitch in 2014 for nearly $1 billion and book review site Goodreads in 2013 as part of its efforts to build a viable social network.
Amazon also developed and tested a TikTok-like short-form video and photo feed called Inspire that it shuttered earlier this year.
Trump said last month his administration was in touch with four different groups about the sale of the platform, without identifying them.
Private equity firm Blackstone is discussing joining ByteDance’s non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing fresh capital to bid for TikTok’s U.S. business, Reuters reported last week.
U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is also in talks to add outside funding to buy out TikTok’s Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by Oracle and other American investors to carve it out of ByteDance, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
White House-led talks entail plans to spin off a U.S. entity for TikTok and dilute Chinese ownership in the new business to below a 20% threshold required by U.S. law, Reuters reported last month.
The New York Times first reported Amazon’s involvement on Wednesday. Various parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously, the Times reported.
The future of the app used by nearly half of all Americans has been up in the air since a 2024 law, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, required ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19.
Washington officials have said TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government, and Beijing could use the app to conduct influence operations against the United States and collect data on Americans.
Dawn Chmielewski, Anna Tong and Greg Bensinger, Reuters
Violent storms and tornadoes tore through cities from Oklahoma to Indiana during what could be a record-setting period of deadly weather and flooding, destroying homes and sending debris nearly five miles (eight kilometers) into the air in one location.Dozens of tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued Wednesday and early Thursday from Texas to West Virginia as storms hit those and other states. Forecasters attributed the violent weather to daytime heating combining with an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming into the nation’s midsection from the Gulf.Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri Highway Patrol said at least one person was killed in southeast Missouri, KFVS-TV reported, while part of a warehouse collapsed in a suburb of Indianapolis, temporarily trapping at least one person inside. In northeast Arkansas a rare tornado emergency was issued as debris flew thousands of feet in the air.The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed two weather-related fatalities, one in McNairy County and the other in Obion County, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency announced early Thursday.The coming days were also forecast to bring the risk of potentially deadly flash flooding to the South and Midwest as severe thunderstorms blowing eastward become supercharged. The potent storm system will bring “significant, life-threatening flash flooding” each day through Saturday, the National Weather Service said.With more than a foot (30 centimeters) of rain possible over the next four days, the prolonged deluge “is an event that happens once in a generation to once in a lifetime,” the weather service said. “Historic rainfall totals and impacts are possible.”More than 90 million people were at some risk of severe weather in a huge part of the nation stretching from Texas to Minnesota and Maine, according to the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center.
Tornadoes touch down, and more could be coming
A tornado emergencythe weather service’s highest alertwas briefly declared around Blytheville, Arkansas, on Wednesday evening, with debris lofted at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers), according to Chelly Amin, a meteorologist with the service.“It’s definitely going to be a really horrible situation here come sunrise in the morning in those areas,” Amin said.A tornado was also reported on the ground near Harrisburg, Arkansas, in the evening.The Arkansas Division of Emergency Management reported that there was damage in 22 counties due to tornadoes, wind gusts, hail, and flash flooding. At least four people were injured, but there were no reports of fatalities as of Wednesday evening.In Kentucky, a tornado touched down Wednesday night around Jeffersontown, a suburb of Louisville, passing the Interstate 64 and Interstate 265 interchange, according to the weather service.Four people were injured in Kentucky when a church was hit by debris from a suspected tornado, according to Ballard County Emergency Management. One person was in critical condition, while the others have non-life-threatening injuries.
Warehouse collapse is part of damage in Indiana
Two workers were injured at a Sur La Table distribution center in Brownsburg, Indiana, that was significantly damaged in the storm Wednesday, a company spokesperson said in a statement.Emergency crews worked for several hours to free a trapped worker at the distribution center, where the roof and a wall collapsed.“It was just heavy debris that had fallen on top of her,” Brownsburg Fire Department spokesperson Kamrick Holding told WTHR-TV. “She happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”The woman was conscious and talking to a doctor during the rescue and was taken to a hospital. Her condition was not immediately known.Five semitrucks were blown over on Interstate 65 near Lowell, Indiana, state police reported.Indianapolis Public Schools announced a remote learning day Thursday due to power outages at multiple buildings. At least 10 districts in Indiana have canceled or delayed in-person classes Thursday.The town of Delta, in southern Missouri, which has under 400 people, had downed powerlines and trees, and damaged buildings. Road entrances to the town were blocked off. School was canceled for the rest of the week as the Red Cross and an electric utility took over a parking lot at the high school.“There is too much damage in town,” Superintendent David Heeb posted online. “We need to give our families a chance to regroup and take care of the things they need to focus on right now.”A tornado touched down in the northeastern Oklahoma city of Owasso on Wednesday, according to the weather service. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but the twister heavily damaged the roofs of homes and knocked down power lines, trees, fences, and sheds.Power was knocked out to more than 330,000 customers in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee as of Thursday morning, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.
Floods could inundate towns, sweep cars away
A line of thunderstorms dropped heavy rain through parts of Indiana on Wednesday night. At least one street was flooded in Indianapolis, with water nearly reaching the windows of several cars, according to the city’s metropolitan police department. No one was in the vehicles.Additional rounds of heavy rain were expected in parts of Texas, the lower Mississippi Valley, and the Ohio Valley from midweek through Saturday. Forecasters warned that they could track over the same areas repeatedly, producing dangerous flash floods capable of sweeping cars away.Middle Tennessee was looking at severe storms followed by four days of heavy rains as the front stalls out and sticks around through the weekend, according to NWS meteorologist Mark Rose.“I don’t recall ever seeing one like this, and I’ve been here 30 years,” Rose said. “It’s not moving.”Rain totaling up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) was forecast over the next seven days in northeastern Arkansas, the southeast corner of Missouri, western Kentucky, and southern parts of Illinois and Indiana, the weather service warned, with some areas in Kentucky and Indiana at an especially high risk for flooding.
Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia; and Ed White in Detroit.
Jeff Martin and Hallie Golden, Associated Press
Sweeping new tariffs announced Wednesday by U.S. President Donald Trump provoked dismay, threats of countermeasures and calls for further negotiations to make trade rules fairer.But responses were measured, highlighting a lack of appetite among key trading partners for an outright trade war with the world’s biggest economy.Trump said the import taxes, ranging from 10% to 49%, would do to U.S. trading partners what they have long done to the U.S. He maintains they will draw factories and jobs back to the United States.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said they are a “major blow to the world economy,” while Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said they will have a “great impact” on U.S.-Japan relations and Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo called for emergency measures to support industries affected by the tariffs.Asian markets fell in Thursday trading and U.S. futures tumbled.
Here’s the latest:
Norway’s foreign minister says tariffs hurt NATO allies
Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the new U.S. tariffs may violate NATO’s Article 2, which stresses the importance of economic cooperation among allies to avoid conflict.“If you want a strong NATO, you should ensure that there is as much economic growth as possible in the NATO countries. That was the insight of those who established NATO, that economic cooperation would be good for the entire alliance,” Eide said during a visit to Brussels for a NATO meeting, according to the NRK broadcaster.Eide told NRK that he will raise the tariff war with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the meeting.
Polish prime minister says tariffs may shave off 0.4% of GDP
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the new U.S. tariffs many reduce Poland’s GDP by 0.4%.He said it was “a severe and unpleasant blow, because it comes from the closest ally, but we will survive it.” The Polish-U.S. friendship, he added, “must also survive this test.”
Spanish PM announces measures to mitigate US tariffs
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Thursday that his government will implement a $15.6 billion (14.1 billion euro) spending package to mitigate the effects of U.S. tariffs on the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy.The Spanish leader called the tariffs “19th-century protectionism,” against which the European Union and Spain had to act proactively and diversify their economic ties with the rest of the world.Sánchez also called for a negotiated solution with the U.S. “We’re once again asking President Trump to reconsider, to sit down at the negotiating table with the European Union and also with the rest of the world.”
Australia puzzled by tariffs on remote islands
The local government leader of Christmas Island, one of several Australian external island territories that like Australia have been assigned a 10% U.S. tariff, said his Indian Ocean atoll exported nothing to the United States.The Australian outpost of fewer than 2,000 people 360 kilometers (225 miles) south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta has used U.S. heavy machinery to mine phosphate for decades, Christmas Island Shire President Gordon Thomson said.The uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands in the remote Antarctic are another Australian territory included in the 10% tariff. The mostly barren islands include two active volcanoes and can only be reached by sea.Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia imposes no tariffs on U.S. imports. The U.S. and Australia have a free trade agreement.
Hong Kong urges US to withdraw tariffs
Hong Kong strongly opposed the extra tariffs announced by Trump and urged the U.S. to withdraw them. It said Hong Kong, as a free port, always practices free trade and doesn’t impose tariffs on imported goods, including those from the U.S.It said the U.S. had a trade surplus of $271.5 billion with the semiautonomous Chinese territory over the past decade, the highest among its global trading partners.“The U.S. imposing tariffs on Hong Kong products as so-called reciprocal tariffs defies logic,” Hong Kong’s government said in a statement, adding that it would take measures including filing complaints with the WTO.Hong Kong, a former British colony returned to China in 1997, has a different economic and political system from mainland China that allows it to set its own policies most of the time.
India wants to expedite trade talks with US
India’s Trade Ministry is assessing the latest U.S. tariffs announced by President Donald Trump. It said the Indian government strives to expedite the negotiations for a trade agreement with the U.S. to potentially garner some concessions and offset the impact of higher import taxes.The agreement, first tranche of which is expected to be in place by the fall, would focus on enabling both nations to boost trade, investments and technology transfers in addition to deepening supply chain integrations, it said.“We remain in touch with the Trump administration and expect to take them forward in the coming days,” it said.The U.S was New Delhi’s biggest trading partner in 2024 with trade estimated at $129 billion. The countries have now set an ambitious target of more than doubling their bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
Stock market in Vietnam plunges and people rush to buy gold
Vietnam’s stock market plunged Thursday while gold prices reached a record high after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped 46% tariffs on Vietnam’s exports. Meanwhile people lined up to buy gold in Hanoi despite the high prices.“Investing in gold would be at lower risk because the economy is very uncertain at the moment,” said Nguyen Trung, a buyer.Vietnam has long realized that it was too reliant on the U.S. and has been diversifying its trade relations by signing free trade agreements with over a dozen countries, said Dan Martin, international business adviser of Dezan Shira & Associates.“The lesson is clear now, the reliance that Vietnam had as a U.S. export market, it’s not safe,” he said.Especially hard-hit will be the garments and sportswear section, including household names like Adidas and Nike. Nike made of its shoes and about a third of its clothes in Vietnam last year, while factories in Vietnam made 39% of Adidas’s shoes and 18% of its clothes.
US tariffs on goods from Vietnam among the highest on any country
Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the country still hoped to reach its economic growth target of at least 8% despite the Trump administration imposing 46% tariffs on its exports.Chinh chaired a Cabinet meeting Thursday to assess the impact of the tariffs, among the highest imposed on any country, and said that Vietnam hoped that U.S. policy would be “consistent with the good relations between the two countries.” He added that Vietnam was still overcoming the consequences of the long war between the two nations.The tariffs will deal a severe blow to Vietnam since the U.S. is its largest export market. Exports to the U.S., valued at $142 billion, in 2021 made up a third of the country’s GDP.
Ukrainian minister says her country can get better tariff conditions from US
Ukraine is working to get better tariff conditions from the United States, Ukrainian Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko wrote on her X account.Svyrydenko says Ukrainian tariffs on U.S. goods are “quite low” and that Ukraine imported more goods from the U.S. in 2024 than exported to the country.She said the 10% tariff Trump imposed on Ukrainian goods will mainly impact small producers. “Ukraine has something to offer the United States as a reliable ally and partner. Both our countries will benefit from fair tariffs,” she wrote.
Japan PM regrets US tariffs and says ready to negotiate with Trump
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it was “extremely regrettable” that the United States slapped the 25% auto tariff on Japan despite its huge contribution to the U.S. economy.Japanese companies have been the world’s biggest investors in the U.S. since 2019, especially automakers, creating jobs for millions of Americans, Ishiba said.Ishiba said Japan will continue to strongly request the United States to reconsider its tariffs measures and that he will directly negotiate with Trump, whenever it is considered appropriate. “I will do so at a most appropriate time and method without hesitation.”
Germany’s Scholz says tariffs are an ‘attack’ on global trade
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says the tariffs are an “attack” on a trading system that brought global prosperity and that America itself helped design.Scholz said Thursday “the whole global economy will suffer from these decisions that haven’t been thought through.” He added that “the U.S. administration is setting off on a road at the end of which there will only be losers.”Scholz said in Berlin that “this is an attack on a trading order that has created prosperity across the globe a trading order that is also to a very significant extent the result of American efforts.”
Fiji criticizes tariffs as ‘disproportionate’ and ‘unfair’
Among the small island nations of the South Pacific Ocean, a few were singled out for higher tariff rates than the 10% baseline. Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad on Thursday criticized as “disproportionate” and “unfair” the 32% tariffs announced on Fiji’s exports to the U.S.The U.S. is a major trading partner for the nation of 924,000 people, accounting for 10% of total imports and exports, Prasad said Thursday on social media. Fiji’s biggest export to the U.S. is bottled water, with its most famous brand Fiji Water owned by a U.S. conglomerate.The U.S. administration justified Fiji’s higher tariffs with a claim that the Pacific nation imposes 63% tariffs on American goods arriving on its shores. Prasad rejected that figure, telling reporters that Fiji does not impose such tariff rates on any country.
‘There are no winners in trade wars,’ China’s Foreign Ministry says
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson says “there are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars, and protectionism is not a way out. What the U.S. should do is to correct its wrong practices and resolve trade disputes with all countries, including China, through consultations based on equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit.”Guo Jiakun added that the tariffs violate WTO rules, “harm the common interests of people of all countries, and do not help solve the problems of the U.S. itself. It is clear to everyone that more and more countries are opposing the U.S.’s unilateral bullying actions, such as imposing tariffs.”
Israeli finance minister says his office is ‘analyzing’ tariff implications
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says his office is studying Trump’s tariff order and “analyzing its implications for the economy,” in the country’s first reaction to Trump’s announcement of a 17% tariff on imports from Israel.On Wednesday, ahead of Trump’s announcement, Israel cancelled all remaining tariffs on imports from the U.S. The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement the move would go into effect after final approval by the economy minister and the parliament’s finance committee.Smotrich said in a statement on X he was talking with industry leaders about Trump’s new order and would meet Thursday with the Finance Ministry leadership to decide on “courses of action” in response to it.
Spain’s economy minister says negotiations with US essential
Spain’s Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said a negotiated solution with the United States was essential for the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, but that Spain was prepared to take steps to protect its companies and industries.“We have a lot at stake. We have to protect the very important trade and economic relationship we have between the planet’s two biggest partners,” Cuerpo said in an interview Thursday with the RNE radio station after the U.S. announced 20% tariffs against the European Union.
German economy minister says this day will become US Inflation Day
“This day is not going to become Liberation Day for consumers in the U.S., but Inflation Day,” said Germany’s vice chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck. “The U.S. mania for tariffs could set off a spiral that could also pull countries into recession and cause massive damage worldwide.”“We have always pushed for negotiations, not confrontation. That remains right,” Habeck said. “So it is good that the European Commission still aims for a negotiated solution with the U.S. There is still some time for that. But if the U.S. doesn’t want a negotiated solution, the EU will give a balanced, clear and determined answer. We have prepared for this.”
Germany’s main industry federation calls for a coordinated reaction to tariffs
Germany’s main industry lobby group, the Federation of German Industries, sai that “the EU must now strengthen its alliances with other major trading partners and should coordinate its reaction with them. A coordinated reaction is also necessary to counter diversionary effects in international trade.”The group, known by its German acronym BDI, said that the tariffs are “an unprecedented attack on the international trade system, free trade and global supply chains. The reasoning for this protectionist escalation is incomprehensible.”The United States was Germany’s biggest single trading partner last year for the first time since 2015, displacing China.
UK’s Starmer vows to act with ‘cool and calm heads’ to Trump’s tariffs
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. government would react with “cool and calm heads” to Trump’s announcement of a 10% tariff on imports from Britain.Starmer told business leaders gathered in 10 Downing St. that “clearly there will be an economic impact,” but that he still hoped to get tariffs lifted through a trade deal with Washington.“Negotiations on an economic prosperity deal one that strengthens our existing trading relationship they continue and we will fight for the best deal for Britain,” Starmer said.“Nobody wins in a trade war. That is not in our national interest,” he added.
Honda CEO says company will take some time to determine how to respond to tariffs
Honda Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe says the Japanese automaker will take some time to look at the market situation and other factors to determine the right way to respond to Trump’s tariffs.“Sudden changes like this are tough as it’s hard to respond speedily,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Taiwan calls US tariffs ‘strongly unreasonable’
Taiwan responded to the imposition of a 32% tariff on its high-tech economy by calling it “strongly unreasonable and highly regrettable,” adding it would “lodge solemn representations with the United States.”“The proposed tax rate does not reflect the actual economic and trade situation between Taiwan and the United States (and) is unfair to Taiwan,” Cabinet spokesperson Lee Hui-chih said in an official news release.Lee said the tariff calculation method was unscientific and unclear and “cannot reflect the high degree of complementarity in the trade structure between Taiwan and the U.S. and the actual trade relationship.”Taiwan’s exports to the U.S. and corresponding trade surplus have risen significantly in recent years, mainly reflecting the surge in demand from U.S. customers for semiconductors and related products, especially AI products, Lee said.
British officials say they will push to secure a free trade deal with US
The British government says it will push to secure a free trade deal with the United States rather than retaliate after Trump slapped a 10% tariff on U.K. goods.Labelling the announcement a “disappointment,” Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said “I’m pleased the U.K. is in a better position than other countries, but I’m not satisfied.”Reynolds told Sky News that the message he was hearing from businesses was “remain at the table, don’t overreact.”Britain argues that it has a broadly balanced trade relationship with the U.S., and has been negotiating with Washington on a trade deal in hope of escaping import taxes.
Japan’s prime minister says tariffs will have a ‘great impact’ on U.S.-Japan relations
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says the tariffs are a matter of great concern and stressed that Japan’s contributions to the American economy are significant both in terms of investment and jobs.He said he repeatedly made his case with the Trump administration not to move ahead with the tariffs.“They will have a great impact not only on U.S.-Japanese economic relations but also on the global economy and various trade relations overall,” Ishiba told reporters Thursday.“We as the government will work as one to decisively protect people’s lives, jobs and industries,” he added.
Thailand says it is ready to negotiate with US over trade balance
The Thai prime minister says her country is ready to negotiate with the U.S. to find a fair trade balance for both sides, after Trump announced 36% tariffs on Thailand.Paetongtarn Shinawatra said Thursday that Thailand is committed to working with the U.S. to achieve sustainable economic growth.She added that Thai exporters should also look for additional markets for their products to reduce their risk of relying on one main market.
Indian analysts see opportunity in supply chain realignments
Indian exporters and analysts say Trump’s new tariffs are a mixed bag for the country.Trump announced a reciprocal tariff of 26% for India, as compared to 34% for China, 46% for Vietnam, 37% for Bangladesh and 36% for Thailand.Observers said Thursday the move will likely impact Indian industry and pressure jobs, but that there is room for new business to come in since India is in a lower band than its Asian peers.“These tariffs do present challenges, but India’s position remains comparatively favorable,” said S.C Ralhan, president of the Federation of Indian Exports Organisations.Ajay Srivastava, a former Indian trade official and founder of the New Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Initiative, said the protectionist tariff regime could be a catalyst for India to gain from global supply chain realignments.South and Southeast Asia are targeted with some of the highest tariff ratesVietnam, Sri Lanka and other countries across South and Southeast Asia are the targets of some of the highest tariff rates.Trump imposed 46% “reciprocal” duties on goods from Vietnam, 49% on products from Cambodia, 37% on Bangladesh and 44% on Sri Lanka.The duties will affect domestic exporters to the U.S. but also Chinese, Japanese and South Korean companies that have over the past few years shifted production to Southeast Asian nations to escape the trade frictions during Trump’s first term in office.
Automaker Stellantis will shut down its assembly plant in Windsor, Canada, for 2 weeks
Automaker Stellantis will shut down its assembly plant in Windsor, Canada, for two weeks from April 7, the local union said late Wednesday.The president of Unifor Local 444, James Stewart, said more scheduling changes were expected in coming weeks.“The company said there are multiple factors at play, with the primary driver behind the final decision being this afternoon’s announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump of the U.S. tariffs,” Stewart said. “This has and continues to create uncertainty across the entire autoindustry. This is not just affecting our plantit’s impacting facilities in the U.S. and Mexico as well.”
EU leader says tariffs are a major blow to the world economy
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the tariffs are a “major blow to the world economy.”“The consequences will be dire for millions of people around the globe,” von der Leyen said. Groceries, transport and medicines will cost more, she said, “And this is hurting, in particular, the most vulnerable citizens.”Von der Leyen acknowledged that the world trading system has “serious deficiencies” and said the EU was ready to negotiate with the U.S.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary calls tariffs ‘extremely regrettable’
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary has called the tariffs “extremely regrettable,” saying officials thought the country deserved an exemption, after Trump slapped 24% additional tariffs on Japan.Yoshimasa Hayashi on Thursday also questioned whether the tariffs are compatible with Japan-U.S. bilateral trade agreements and said the move would likely impact their economic ties, as well as the global economy and multilateral trade system.He said Japanese officials are continuing to negotiate with Washington seeking an exemption. Asked if Japan would consider retaliatory tariffs or file complaints with the World Trade Organization, Hayashi declined to comment.
Asian markets tumble following Trump’s tariff announcement
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index dipped more than 3.4%, while the Kospi in South Korea dropped 1.8%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 also sank 1.8%.U.S. stocks whipped through another dizzying day before Trump’s unveiled the tariffs Wednesday. The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, and the Dow gained 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite surged 0.9%.Tesla swung from a sharp loss in the morning to a gain later in the day to help pull the market higher. Treasury yields also veered from lower to higher following a better-than-expected report on the job market. Read more about markets’ reaction to the tariffs
House majority whip praises Trump’s actions, including tariffs, during town hall
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer fielded mostly friendly questions during an hourlong telephone town hall with constituents in Minnesota.House Speaker Mike Johnson has encouraged Republican lawmakers to avoid holding in-person town halls where they’d run the risk of hostile questioning and protesters.Emmer extensively praised the actions that Trump has been taking in his first months back in office, including the tariffs he announced earlier Wednesday.“How about we give this guy some grace while he tried to actually do what he’s been campaigning on for years and his mission to protect American companies and workers?” Emmer said. “There’s still going to be some choppy waters, but when we come out the other side, it’s going to be much better than it was beforehand, and certainly much better than it was the last four years.”
South Korea prime minister calls for emergency measures to support industries affected by tariffs
South Korea’s acting leader called for swift emergency measures to support the auto industry and other businesses potentially affected by the Trump administration’s new tariffs, pledging full government efforts to address what he described as a looming “global tariff war.”During an emergency government meeting, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo also instructed officials to work with business groups to analyze the impact of the U.S. tariff increases and actively engage in negotiations with Washington to “minimize damage” to South Korea’s economy, the trade ministry said.Han, serving as South Korea’s acting leader while President Yoon Suk Yeol remains impeached over his December imposition of martial law, convened the meeting with trade and foreign policy officials after Trump announced a 25% tariff on South Korea.
Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced a slew of tariffs on nearly every country in the worldover 180 of them, notes CNBC. The tariffs Trump announced are higher than most economists and business leaders feared.
Trump chose to hold off on announcing the tariffs until after the markets closed yesterday, and after seeing how those markets have since reacted, it’s easy to understand why. Individual stocks and the markets as a whole plummeted after the tariffs were revealed, and in premarket trading, those markets and stocks remain greatly depressed.
Major American companies like Apple, Amazon, Nike, Tesla, and Walmart are seeing their share prices decline this morning, while Nasdaq, Dow, and S&P futures have fallen significantly.
President Trumps tariffs explained
Trumps tariffs were announced yesterday on a day the president coined Liberation Day. Business leaders, economists, and global heads of state were on edge before the announcements, fearing just how high the tariffs would be.
It turns out, in many cases, they were worse than expected.
President Trump announced a minimum 10% tariff on nearly every country worldwide. That means that nearly every good that is imported into the United States will be slapped with a default 10% levya levy which will then either have to be absorbed by the U.S. company importing the product, leading to reduced profits, or passed on to American consumers, leading to increased prices.
However, countries that were only hit with a 10% tariff could count themselves relatively lucky. Thats because Trump levied much higher tariffs against dozens of countries, which are also the countries from which American companies import most of their goods and parts.
Here are some of the countries that got hit the hardest with high tariff rates:
China: 54%
Cambodia: 49%
Vietnam: 46%
Bangladesh: 37%
Thailand: 36%
Taiwan: 32%
South Africa: 30%
India: 26%
Japan: 24%
European Union (27 member states): 20%
There are two big omissions from the list of key trading partners above: Canada and Mexico. Trump did not announce new tariffs on either country yesterday, but previous tariffs imposed on both nations remain in place, notes Reuters.
Reactions from global leaders to the swatch of new tariffs have been vocal and swift. Many condemned Trumps tariffs and vowed to retaliate in kind, leading to fears that an all-out global tariff war is about to begin. Foreign stock markets have already fallen today, but the worst fall may be yet to come when U.S. markets open in just a few hours.
American stock marketsand tech sharessink
American investors are already not taking the news of Trumps tariffs well. As of the time of this writing, Americas three largest stock markets are down a significant amount, according to data from Yahoo Finance:
S&P 500 Futures: down 3.23%
Dow Futures: down 2.57%
Nasdaq Futures: down 3.6%
But things are even worse for many big-name tech stocks. Here is how many of Americas largest tech giants’ shares have reacted as of the time of this writing:
Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG): down 2.76%
Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN): down 5.7%
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL): down 7.4%
Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META): down 4.23%
Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT): down 2.27%
NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA): down 4.46%
Shopify Inc. (Nasdaq: SHOP): down 10.13%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE: TSM): down 4.84%
Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA): down 4.86%
As you can see, some tech stocks are being hit worse than others. Apples shares are among the worst hit. A significant reason for that is that Apple manufactures most of its products in China, Vietnam, and Indiaall countries that got hit with some of the most considerable tariffs. That means that Apple will either need to absorb those costs or increase prices for consumers.
If Apple does the former, it will reduce the companys margins and profitability. If it does the latter, fewer people may buy its products, reducing the companys profitability.
Likewise, NVIDIA and TSMC shares are among the biggest tech losers since their products rely on supplies from some of the hardest-hit countries, including China and Taiwan. As for Amazon, many of the goods the company sellsfrom tech to clothingcome from a number of the hardest-hit countries, including China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and more.
Shopify is one of the hardest hit tech companies this morning, because many of the goods sellers on its platform offers originate from the countries that are hardest hit by Trumps tariffs.
As for Tesla, many of the components that go into its electric vehicles are sourced from overseas.
Even tech giants that dont generate too much of their revenue from selling physical goods imported from overseaslike Meta and Googleare seeing their share prices fall, because those companies rely on infrastructure made overseas, like servers, to keep their businesses going.
Physical retailers and apparel makers see stock prices get hit, too
But its not just Americas tech stocks that are getting hammered. Here is how many of Americas largest retailers and apparel makers shares are reacting:
Costco Wholesale Corporation (Nasdaq: COST): down 3.4%
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU): down 12.48%
NIKE, Inc. (NYSE: NKE): down 9.6%
Target Corporation (TGT): down 5.12%
Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT): down 4.96%
Much of the apparel Americans buy comes from countries like China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Indiaall of which were hit hard by Trumps tariffs. Its no wonder then that apparel makers, including Lululemon and Nike, are seeing some of the biggest share price drops today.
And just as Amazon and Shopify are seeing large declines in their stock prices, Americas brick-and-mortar retailers are as wellagain, due to the fact that they import many of their goods from the countries hit hardest by Trumps tariffs. Thse retailers include Costco, Target, and Walmart.
How will the tariffs affect me?
Every American will likely be affected by Trumps tariffs. This will primarily happen in two ways.
First, Americans will likely see most of the goods they buyfrom gadgets to food to clothing to carsjump in price over the next days and weeks. This means Americans money will be able to buy less, and Americans with lower incomes will be hit harder than those with higher incomes because they already have less discretionary spending power.
Second, as of this morning, many Americans who invest directly or indirectly in the stock marketwhether through a brokerage account, 401 (k), or pension planwill likely see their investments be hit. Those who dont need to tap into these funds for years or decades may be able to ride out the tariff storm. But those older Americans who are or will be tapping into their investments in the coming weeks will, if the stock price declines today hold, see that their investments are worth less than they were before the tariffs went into effect.
However, as poorly as the markets have already reacted after Trumps tariff announcements yesterday, things could get even worse in the days ahead.
Thats because we do not yet know how, exactly, other countries will respond. If they respond as strongly in kindand its likely many will, including trading powerhouse Chinathen many experts fear that Trumps tariff wars could lead to another global recession like the one the world has not seen since 2008.
Are you ready for another 140 days of summer vacation?
Disney announced today that the long-awaited reboot of its animated hit Phineas and Ferb will be back on June 5 for the start of a 40-episode run across Disneys linear and streaming platforms.
The action picks up the summer after the shows original run left off, with the kids a year older but not visibly changedexcept for an extra orange stripe on Phineass trademark T-shirt. Co-creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh are back at the helm.
Originally launched on Disney XD in 2008 (after a 2007 sneak peek), the animated showabout two inventive stepbrothers on summer vacation, their pet platypus, and a bumbling supervillain named Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtzaired for 126 episodes, the longest-running show in Disney TV history. It beat out rival Nickelodeons SpongeBob SquarePants to become the No. 1 animated TV series among tweens (ages 9 to 14) in 2009, and became the most successful animated series for kids and tweens in Disney Television Animation history.
The show spawned six one-hour specials, two movies, a soundtrack album, a touring live show, and a really dedicated cult following both IRL and online (Povenmire has 6.8 million followers on TikTok). Its multilevel humor, catchy songs, and lively visuals appealed not only to its tween target audience but also to their parents.
Now those kids are in college, their parents are in their forties and fifties, and theres a whole new generation of younger viewers who have discovered the show on Disney+. (Across linear and streaming platforms, more than 13 billion hours of Phineas and Ferb content has been viewed since the shows launch.) Disney has extensive plans to reach all of those viewers where they are.
The new episodes will air first on Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Channel YouTubeand the next day on Disney+.
Its summer again.
A decade may have passed in real time since stepbrothers Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher had their last summertime adventure on TV, but its just one unremarkable school year later for the characters in the beloved animated TV series Phineas and Ferb.
The longest-running show in Disney Channel history, Phineas and Ferb aired from February 2008 to June 2015, winning five Emmys and becoming the most successful animated series for kids (ages 6 to 11) and tweens (ages 9 to 14) in Disney Television Animation history. It became the No. 1 animated TV series among tweens in 2009, supplanting Nickelodeons SpongeBob SquarePants. Tina Fey, Ben Stiller, Seth MacFarlane, and Chaka Khan guest-starred, among many others, attracting a wide audienceroughly 25% of whom were older than 18. A live show featuring costumed actors doing musical numbers toured North America from 2011 to 2013.
Then, after a seven-year run of 126 two-part episodes, co-creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh ended the show. They were exhausted. But viewers were notPhineas and Ferb has since racked up more than 13 billion viewing hours across linear and streaming platforms. It remains Disneys top-ranked title among boys 6 to 11, and has achieved cult status among many of its original fans.
Dan Povenmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh, creators and executive producers of Disneys Phineas and Ferb [Photo: Disney/Michael Kirchoff]
During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Povenmire got on TikTok because I was bored, he says. Almost immediately I got millions and millions of followers. (He has 6.8 million today.) I realized that all the twentysomethings who grew up with the show had all moved to TikTok. Posts in which hed evoke the voice of Phineas and Ferb archvillain Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz would get millions of views overnight.
[Image: Disney]
In January 2023, Disney announced it was bringing the show back. Forty new episodes are set to run, starting with two episodes on Thursday, June 5, at 8 p.m. ET and PT on Disney Channel and Disney XD. (The first episode will be available that same day on Disney Channel YouTube). The first 10 episodes of the season will then premiere the next day on Disney+ and also be available to stream on Disney Channel On Demand.
The action picks up the summer after the shows original run, with the kids a year older but not visibly changedexcept for an extra orange stripe on Phineass trademark T-shirt. (You can see the new trailer here.)
[Image: Disney]
If you were bingeing the whole series and got to the end of the fourth season and went right into the fifth season, it shouldnt feel like a different show, says Povenmire, who returns to the helm with longtime collaborator Marsh (they also voice the characters of Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Major Monogram, respectively). Most of the original voice cast is also returning, and the new series will have the same format: two stories contained in a 30-minute time slot.
But since the shows original run, the world has changed, the way audiences consume media has evolved, and the Disney universe has expanded. So with the reboot of Phineas and Ferb, Disney is using every trick in its marketing playbook, hoping to optimize new platform synergies and maximize engagement with fans well beyond the typical Disney Channel demographic of 6- to 14-year-olds.
With Phineas and Ferb, we have a rare opportunity to tap into both nostalgia and discovery, says Shannon Ryan, president of marketing at Disney Entertainment Television. Many original fans are now young adults or parents, and our campaign is designed to celebrate that cross-generational appeal.
[Image: Disney]
“Hey, Ferb! I know what were going to do today!
Phineas and Ferb is known for its rapid-fire puns, visual gags, and zany pop-culture eferences, all of which came easily to creators Povenmire and Marsh, veterans of The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy. The shows plot is essentially always the same: Phineas and Ferb dream up an over-the-top, large-scale inventionan other-dimensionator, a giant robot shark, a tower to the moon, an animal translator, a time machine, a backyard beach with an oceanand get their pals to help them build it. Their teenage sister, Candace, tries to bust them.
Meanwhile, the boys pet platypus, Perry, in his alter ego as super-spy Agent P., battles the gleefully evil supervillain Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his latest -inator device (De-Love-Inator, Hot-Dog-Vendor-Revenge-Inator, Double-Negative-Inator, to name a few). Almost always, the story ends with the evidence of the boys invention being wiped away, leaving Candace fuming.
Early on, we decided to make the show a nicer show, Povenmire says. We decided to get rid of a lot of the attitudinal humor that is the easiest to write and say, Let’s see if we can make a good, edgy show without making the characters into jerks and idiots. And I think thats what you geta show that’s wholesome but not cringey.
[Image: Disney]
Integral to the shows appeal are its catchy songs, written by Povenmire, Marsh, and collaborator Martin Olson. Every episode of Phineas and Ferb features at least one musical number, and these songs have continued to inspire viral content on TikTok and Instagram many years later.
Id see Jason Derulo [dancing to] Platypus Controlling Me, Povennmire says, Lizzo doing Squirrels in my Pants in front of a sold-out crowd at a concert, Jimmy Fallon and Reese Witherspoon doing Squirrels on TV. It was really bizarre, but it gave us this feeling like theres still a very rabid fan base out there.
Its an unusually broad one. The first generation of Phineas and Ferb fans are college age. Their parents, who were often won over as well, are now (gulp) in their fifties. And an entire new generation of youngsters has discovered the show through streaming on Disney+.
Each of these audiences has different viewing habitsand presents unique marketing challengesand Disney has made a calculated plan to appeal to them all.
[Image: Disney]
Seize the day!
Even during the shows original run, it was clear that fan appetite extended beyond traditional TV, Ryan says. Thats why we launched early original short-form series like Take Two With Phineas and Ferb and Doofs Daily Dirt to keep the world alive between seasons.
This summer, Disney will debut two new original shorts, Cartoonified With Phineas and Ferb, a Take Two update featuring interviews with real-life celebrities drawn in the style of the series, and Agent P, Under C, featuring Perry as Agent P. battling rivals from A.N.A.T.H.E.M.A. (the Alliance of Nefarious Animals That Has an Exceptionally Memorable Acronym). The shorts will play on Disney Channel, Disney+, and Disney YouTube channels.
The new episodes themselves will initially run at 8 p.m. ET and PT on Disney Channela prime family viewing hour. They will then stream on Disney+ the next day, with more episodes released over subsequent weeks. The linear and streaming platforms dont seem to be cannibalizing each other, says Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded TV. Kids are title loyal, platform agnostic, and they watch anything, any and everywhere.
[Image: Disney]
Meanwhile, thanks to Disney+s extended constellation of properties including Marvel and Star Wars, there are new brand synergies to capitalize on. There were a couple of crossover episodes in the original run of the series, including Mission Marvel and Star Wars. This time around, Marvel will publish new comics featuring Phineas and Ferb and other show characters reimagined as superheroes.
[Image: Disney]
New show-related merch will include the first Phineas and Ferb FunkoPop! collectible figures and, on May 9, an album from Disney Music Group called Lofi: Phineas and Ferb, featuring chilled-out renditions of 10 songs from the original series.
The summer celebratory takeover, in Disneys marketing speak, will also include trailer placement with in-theater screenings of the Warner Bros. Minecraft movie; promotion at this years Vans Warped Tour music festival; branded ice-cream trucks at beaches; and a sponsorship at the San Diego Zoo, home to the only two platypuses in the U.S.
Near the start of the new series pilot, Phineas, Ferb, and their gang frantically throw out dozens of ideas for their next invention. Rather than deciding on one, they build them all. Disney seems to be doing much the same thing. Our campaign is about more than launching a new season of a hit show, Ryan says. Its about making Phineas and Ferb the must-experience event of the summer. Its going to be hard to miss.
