Donald Trump said he would exempt the big three American carmakers—Ford, General Motors and Stellantis—from tariffs covering Canada and Mexico for one month. Their bosses had lobbied for the relief, and his spokeswoman said he is “happy to do it”. Analysts estimate that tariffs of 25% would wipe out the firms’ profits if they do not raise prices or alter production.
In another blow to Ukraine’s war effort, John Ratcliffe, the head of the CIA, said that America is stopping intelligence-sharing with Kyiv. Western intel had been used to help guide Ukrainian missiles towards targets in Russia. America suspended all military aid to Ukraine on Monday following last week’s row between Mr Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
The White House confirmed it was talking to Hamas about releasing hostages from Gaza. It is the first time America has directly engaged with the militant group, which it deems a terrorist organisation. Earlier the UN’s World Food Programme said it had less than two weeks of food supplies left in the strip. Israel cut off aid on Sunday amid fraught ceasefire negotiations.
America’s Supreme Court voted 5-4 to deny Mr Trump’s bid to freeze nearly $2bn in foreign-aid spending. A judge had ordered the Trump administration to resume the payments by last week, prompting the government to ask the Supreme Court to intervene. Wednesday’s ruling allows the lower court to set a new deadline for the administration to unfreeze payments.
Novo Nordisk slashed the monthly cost of its weight-loss injection Wegovy from more than $1,300 to $499 for American patients not paying for it through health insurance. Discounted pens will be sold directly to them through the firm’s own online pharmacy. Competition between weight-loss drugmakers is heating up; last week Eli Lilly reduced the price of some of its Zepbound pens.
America’s justice department indicted 12 Chinese nationals for their alleged involvement in a wide-ranging hacking scheme, partly at the direction of China’s government, that stole data from Americans and organisations based there. The justice department accuses China of “paying hackers for hire” to harm Americans critical of its regime. Two of the people charged are officers of China’s public-security ministry.
Time is money—so suggests the price of the world’s most accurate commercial clock, on sale from today. Intended for scientific research, the clock tracks the movement of strontium atoms in a “lattice” of laser beams. It deviates less than one second over 10bn years. Shimadzu, a Japanese precision-tool maker, plans to sell ten devices over the next three years at around $3.3m each.
Figure of the day: 3.6m. The numbers of cars that America imported from Canada and Mexico last year. Read the full story.
Donald Trump’s return to the presidency has brought exceptional changes to American politics—with consequences for the rest of the world, too. Read The US in brief, a daily update of the domestic political stories that matter. Sign up here to receive it as a newsletter, each weekday, in your inbox.