CHINA SYNDROME: The US and China announced an agreement to temporarily slash the drastic trade tariffs they imposed on each other while continuing talks to end the trade war threatening the world’s two largest economies.   Stock futures were up sharply this morning …

FREE SPEECH: In a blow to the Trump administration, a Tufts University foreign student detained by Immigration and Customs enforcement because she co-wrote an op-ed piece critical of Israel was released yesterday on orders from a federal judge who said the …

WHITE SMOKE: The Catholic Cardinals yesterday chose their first American pope, Cardinal  Robert Francis Prevost, 69, who immediately took the papal name Leo XIV. He becomes the leader of about 1.4 billion Catholics, roughly 20 percent of the world’s population.   In his …

ECON 101: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell revealed yesterday that the basic interest rate will remain at 4.3 percent while announcing in his bloodless style that President Trump’s tariffs are likely to put a dent in the economy.    The man of …

SIMMERING TO A BOIL: India yesterday carried out an air assault on what they said were terrorist targets inside Pakistan and within the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir.   Pakistan’s prime minister called it an act of war.   The strikes came two weeks …

YOU’VE GOT MAIL: In a surprise reversal, the Trump administration asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by three states that seeks to restrict mail-order access to the abortion pill mifepristone, modelling the same position as the Biden administration in …

DUE PROCESS: President Trump said yesterday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he’s not certain everyone in the US is owed due process of the law, despite what it says in the 5th Amendment to the Constitution..   “I don’t know,” Trump said …

TRUMP AT 100: Celebrating at a rally in Michigan yesterday, President Trump unabashedly declared that he’s had the most successful first 100 days in office of any President in US history.  “And that’s according to many, many people,” Trump said.   That’s …

“LAWLESS INSURRECTION”:  On President Trump’s 99th day in office he signed an executive order to identify and if necessary punish so-called “sanctuary cities” that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.    In an order escribing lack of cooperation by local authorities as “a …

THE FIRST 100: Donald Trump a lower approval rating in his first 100 days than any president in 70 years, according to new polling by CNN. Trump’s 100th day is tomorrow and the CNN poll puts him at 41 percent approval.   Only …