Dow drops more than 1,100 points as China hits back with tariffs on US imports. Follow live updates.

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By Claire Thornton, Globe Staff

The Trump administration this week terminated a $1.3 million grant to the Massachusetts affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of several cultural agencies and organizations around the state that have seen their funding slashed.

The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association lost $300,000 in grant funding. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum in Hadley: $40,000.

The funding cuts affecting cultural organizations across Massachusetts come after the Department of Government Efficiency instructed the NEH to launch deep cuts to staff and programs at the federal level, the New York Times reported.

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By the Associated Press

The state’s Attorney General Josh Kaul had sued in a last-minute effort to stop Elon Musk from handing out $1 million checks to voters before the state’s Supreme Court election, which was ultimately won by Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford.

Columbia County Circuit Judge Andrew Voigt’s order dismissed Kaul’s lawsuit as “woefully deficient” and said “it is this Court’s opinion that Wisconsin’s system of justice was abused by this case.”

The judge dismissed the case at Kaul’s request after the state Supreme Court rejected it without comment. Musk then gave out checks to two Wisconsin voters, declaring them spokespeople for his political group after Kaul accused him of violating state law by inducing voters with money.

Kaul’s statement says he’s proud of his “rapid action” to “help protect the integrity of the recent election.”

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By the Associated Press

Three alleged MS-13 gang members have been federally charged in connection with a killing a decade ago in Florida, US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday, seeking to highlight the Trump administration’s push to prosecute violent gangs.

Bondi joined law enforcement officials in Fort Lauderdale to promote the Justice Department’s efforts to go after the gang, which the Republican administration has designated a “foreign terrorist organization” and has seized on as the threat posed by illegal immigration.

“More arrests are coming,” Bondi said. “If you are a gang member living in this country, I’d self-deport right now because we’re coming after you.”

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By the Associated Press

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities is requesting a meeting with the State Department, alarmed that the Trump administration’s widening crackdown will persuade sought-after foreign students to stay away from the United States.

College officials say the new, harsher tactics and vague justifications being used to push some students out of the country will have much broader consequences.

America’s universities have long been seen as a top destination for the world’s brightest minds — and they’ve brought important tuition revenue and research breakthroughs to US colleges. But international students also have other options, said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, an association of international educators.

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By the Associated Press

President Trump’s escalating trade war is roiling the markets.

The S&P 500 dropped 2.7% early Friday, coming off its worst day since COVID wrecked the global economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,000 points, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 3%.

Not even a better-than-expected report on the US job market was enough to stop the slide.

European stocks saw some of the day’s biggest losses, and the price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021 on worries about how a trade war could cause a recession.

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By the Associated Press

“CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED – THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!” he wrote in a social media post Friday morning.

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By the Associated Press

Stock markets worldwide are careening even lower after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs in an escalating trade war.

The S&P 500 dropped 2.7% early Friday, coming off its worst day since COVID wrecked the global economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,100 points, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 3%.

Not even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market was enough to stop the slide. European stocks saw some of the day’s biggest losses, and the price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021 on worries about how a trade war could cause a recession.

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By the Associated Press

Although experts have harshly criticized the president’s economic policies, he’s finding support on TikTok.

He shared a video on Friday morning that said “Trump is crashing the stock market” and “he’s doing it on purpose” as part of “secret game he’s playing, and it could make you rich.”

Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, for the weekend. In another all-caps post, Trump said he would stay the course despite fears about a potential recession.

“TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE. THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!” he wrote.

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By the Associated Press

Major US indexes plunged sharply before Friday’s opening bell, then doubled their losses after China matched Trump’s tariffs.

Futures for the S&P 500 fell 3.6% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 3.4%, falling below the 40,000 mark. Nasdaq futures tumbled 4%.

That follows Thursday’s wipeout, Wall Street’s worst day in five years.

Markets in Europe were having an even rougher time — by midday Friday, Germany’s DAX had lost 5%, the CAC 40 in Paris slipped 4.2% and Britain’s FTSE 100 gave up 3.8%.

Oil prices fell as much as 8%.

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By the Associated Press

A top trade analyst says the Trump tariffs calculations are “not standard economics” and in many cases impose rates far higher than what targeted countries apply to US goods.

Julia Spies, chief of trade and market intelligence at the International Trade Center, said how exactly the US Trade Representative’s office and other US officials came up with the tariffs remains uncertain.

She told a UN briefing in Geneva by video that the figures presented by Trump roughly match the US trade balance — or imbalance — with a specific country, divided by imports from that country, “and that, divided by two, gives us the reciprocal tariff” imposed by the US.

The US calculation also somehow included other regulations and policies — such as each country’s sanitary measures and technical barriers, and alleged currency manipulations, and “all of that led to this – what they call ‘tariffs’.”

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By the Associated Press

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers called on the US to “correct its wrong actions.” It said the tariffs “will further raise car prices, and impose additional burdens on consumers in various countries including Americans and have a negative impact on global economic recovery.”

China is one of the major exporters of car parts, many used in car repairs. For example, about 6 in every 10 auto replacement parts used in US auto shop repairs are imported from Mexico, Canada and China. The new taxes are also estimated to make cars imported into the US thousands of dollars more expensive.

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By the Associated Press

Asian traders are reacting to President Trump’s tariffs, with the scope of Friday’s selloff limited because markets in Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Indonesia are closed for holidays.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 4.3% to 33,263.58, while South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.8% to 2,441.86. The two US allies said they were focused on negotiating lower tariffs with Trump’s administration. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 2.2% to 7,684.30.

In other trading early Friday, the US dollar fell to 145.39 Japanese yen from 146.06. The yen is often used as a refuge in uncertain times, while Trump’s policies are meant in part to weaken the dollar to make goods made in the US more price competitive overseas. The euro gained to $1.1095 from $1.1055.

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By the Associated Press

Chinese industry groups on Friday sharply criticized the US tariffs as well as the closing of the de minimis loophole which had allowed low value goods to be imported tax-free.

“America’s action crudely destroyed the normal order of trade between the US and China, severely impacted cooperation between global industries, and greatly harmed the rights of consumers, including American citizens,” said a statement from the China Light Industry Association.

The tax exemption for packages valued at $800 or less helped China-founded e-commerce companies like Shein and Temu to thrive while cutting into the US retail market.

The China National Textile and Apparel Council expressed support Friday for “the Chinese government’s forceful measures.”

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By the Associated Press

President Trump’s announced tariff on Vietnam “is not in line with the reality of mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation between the two countries,” foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said.

Vietnam’s tariffs are among the highest of any country, more than competitors like Thailand and Malaysia. At stake are electronics, textiles, footwear, seafood and other exports to the US that totaled nearly $120 billion last year, nearly a third of the country’s total.

Deputy Prime Minister and former finance minister Ho Duc Phoc is scheduled to visit the US and Cuba from April 6-14.

She said Vietnam has actively engaged with the US to address concerns, promote ties and work towards fair, mutually beneficial trade in the spirit of the comprehensive strategic partnership the two countries inked in 2023, evolving beyond what President Joe Biden called the “bitter past” of the Vietnam War.

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By the Associated Press

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said he will offer the “greatest support” to industries impacted by the new tariffs. Lai acknowledged that Taiwan had a trade surplus with the US, but that much of it came from Taiwanese industries trying to fulfill the US demand for Taiwan’s information technology products.

“We feel that this is unreasonable and are also worried about the subsequent impact these measures may have on the global economy,” Lai said in a statement on his Facebook page Thursday night.

Lai said he instructed Premier Cho Jung-tai to work closely with industries that are impacted and to communicate with the public about their plans to stabilize the economy.

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By the Associated Press

The president does not have anything on his schedule during the day. At 7:30 p.m., he will attend a MAGA Inc. candlelit dinner at Mar-a-Lago, according to the White House.

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By the Associated Press

President Trump offered a rosy assessment after the stock market dropped sharply Thursday over his tariffs, saying, “I think it’s going very well.”

“The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom,” he said when asked about the market as he left the White House to fly to one of his Florida golf clubs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 1,600 points on Thursday as US stocks led a worldwide selloff.

Trump talked about trillions of dollars in investment that is “coming into our country” from companies that want to make their products in the US to avoid tariffs.

“The rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal,” he said.

Later, speaking with the reporters on aboard Air Force One, Trump said that he’d be open to using tariffs to negotiate with other countries and that it would depend on whether they had something “phenomenal” to offer in return.

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By the Associated Press

China announced Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, part of a flurry of retaliatory measures following Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.

The new tariff matches the rate of the US “reciprocal” tariff of 34% on Chinese exports that Trump ordered this week.

The Commerce Ministry in Beijing also said in a notice that it will impose more export controls on rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries.

Additionally, the Chinese government said it has added 27 firms to lists of companies subject to trade sanctions or export controls.

16 are subject to a ban on the export of “dual-use” goods. High Point Aerotechnologies, a defense tech company, and Universal Logistics Holding, a publicly traded transportation and logistics company, were among those listed.

Beijing also announced it filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the tariffs issue.

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By the Associated Press

Trump’s expansive new tariffs reverse a decades-long global trend of lower trade barriers and are likely, economists say, to raise prices for Americans by thousands of dollars each year while sharply slowing the US economy.

The White House is gambling that other countries will also suffer enough pain that they will open up their economies to more American exports, leading to negotiations that would reduce the tariffs imposed Wednesday.

Or, the White House hopes, companies will reverse their moves toward global supply chains and bring more production to the United States to avoid higher import taxes.

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By Nick Stoico, Globe Staff

Federal and state elected officials from Massachusetts are demanding the Trump administration reconsider its move to draw back more than $100 million in unspent COVID relief funds that local schools were expecting to have another year to spend.

In a letter to US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon on Thursday, members of the state’s congressional delegation said they were “alarmed at this abrupt termination of congressionally authorized” funding and “astonished at the callous disregard for the wellbeing of students, educators, and communities.”

The letter was signed by Senators Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with members of congress from Massachusetts and Governor Maura Healey.

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By Aidan Ryan, Globe Staff

The Trump administration’s crackdown on college protesters has presented student journalists with a dilemma that cuts against the very tenets of the profession they hope to join: can they capture this divisive moment without either censoring their work or endangering the people they cover?

Student journalists had a brush with this question in the early days of the war in Gaza, when campus protesters lost job offers and had their private information shared widely. But the arrest and attempted deportation of Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, who coauthored an op-ed in the student newspaper critical of Israel, has put the issue before them in the starkest possible terms.

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By Julian E.J. Sorapuru, Globe Staff

Amber Crist thought she had found the job she would retire from.

In September, she left her tax auditor position with the West Virginia state government to work as a revenue agent in the small business division of the Internal Revenue Service. As a single mother with three kids, the increased pay and better benefits that came with the federal government job were too good to pass up.

Then, on Valentine’s Day, she was one of the thousands of federal workers in their probationary period who were laid off.

For over a month, Crist had no income. Her unemployment insurance claim was denied because the IRS alleged she was fired due to poor performance. Crist, 42, had to rely on family and friends to help her buy groceries and pay bills. She spent her days applying to other jobs, trying to forget her fantasy of retiring as a decorated civil servant.

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By The New York Times

The Trump administration has failed to disburse congressionally approved funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the news network originally set up to counter Soviet propaganda during the Cold War, despite a judge’s order to keep it operating, according to court filings and officials at the news organization.

The news group, known as RFE/RL, has not received nearly $12 million for its April funding from the US Agency for Global Media, the federal entity overseeing it. The unusual delay in the disbursement has forced the news organization, which relies almost exclusively on congressional funding, to furlough some of its staff and cut parts of its programming.

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By the Associated Press

Lawyers for a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador will ask a federal judge on Friday to order the Trump Administration to return him to the US.

The White House already has argued against the idea in legal briefs. They have cast Kilmar Abrego Garcia as an MS-13 gang member and assert that US courts lack jurisdiction over the matter because the Salvadoran national is no longer in the US.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have countered there is no evidence he was in MS-13. The allegation is based on a confidential informant’s claim in 2019 that Abrego Garcia was a member of a chapter in New York, where he has never lived.

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By the Associated Press

A crackdown on foreign students is alarming colleges, who say the Trump administration is using new tactics and vague justifications to push some students out of the country.

College officials worry the new approach will keep foreigners from wanting to study in the US.

Students stripped of their entry visas are receiving orders from the Department of Homeland Security to leave the country immediately — a break from past practice that often permitted them to stay and complete their studies.

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