Stories by Associated Press

Tuesday’s escalation and retreat in the ongoing trade war between the United States and Canada only compounded the rising sense of uncertainty in terms of how President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes affect the economies of both countries.

The Trump administration had already been whittling the agency’s staff, though buyout offers and the termination of probationary employees. After Tuesday’s layoffs, the Education Department’s staff will sit at roughly half of its previous 4,100, the agency said.

The S&P 500 was down 2.1% in midday trading, coming off its worst week since September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 405 points, or 0.9%, as of 11:20 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 3.6% lower.

Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, will host a new weekly podcast series starting this month featuring a special guest pulled from the world of entertainment, sports, health and business.

For decades, the Presidential Management Fellows program was seen as a building block for the civil service with the expectation that the few who earned the position would one day become leaders in the federal workforce. Now the road ahead is uncertain.

Shohei Ohtani’s bat is ready for the Los Angeles Dodgers while Shota Imanaga has looked good on the mound for the Chicago Cubs with less than 10 days remaining before baseball’s regular-season opener in Japan.

In the last five years, voters in 33 Illinois counties have been asked if they want to consider separating from Chicago’s Cook County to form a new state. Each time, a majority said yes. Some politicians in neighboring Indiana seem up for the idea.

The funding freeze has sparked panic among grant recipients who are stranded outside their home countries without clarity on the future of their programs or the money needed to support themselves.

Across-the-board cuts at the Social Security Administration are prompting questions about how the benefits of millions of recipients may be affected. Here’s a look at cuts to the agency, which serves more than 70 million Americans, and potential effects for recipients.

The country’s bitterly tribal politics are spilling into text chains, social media posts and heated conversations as Americans absorb the reality of the government’s cost-cutting measures. Expecting sympathy, some axed workers are finding family and friends who instead are steadfast in their support of what they see as a bloated government’s waste.

In a statement Thursday, SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler said offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City and Seattle will be relocated to “less costly, more accessible locations that better serve the small business community and comply with federal immigration law.”

President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs threats have roiled financial markets, lowered consumer confidence, and enveloped many businesses in an uncertain atmosphere that could delay hiring and investment.

Deerfield-based Walgreens said Thursday that Sycamore will pay $11.45 per share, giving the deal an equity value just under $10 billion. Shareholders could eventually receive up to another $3 per share under certain conditions.

U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction in the lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen Democratic states after a Trump administration plan for a sweeping pause on federal spending stirred up a wave of confusion and anxiety across the United States.

The pause comes after Trump spoke with leaders of the “big 3” automakers, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, on Wednesday, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Veterans have already been speaking out against the cuts at the VA that so far had included a few thousand employees and hundreds of contracts. More than 25% of the VA’s workforce is comprised of veterans.

At age 90 and 95, this Catholic nun dynamic duo have been “peacefully and respectfully” fighting for immigrant rights for over 40 years. And they never take no for an answer.

By a 5-4 vote, the court told U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to clarify his earlier order that required the Republican administration to release nearly $2 billion in aid for work that had already been done.

Trump’s prime-time speech Tuesday was the latest marker in his takeover of the nation’s capital, where the Republican-led House and Senate have done little to restrain the president as he and his allies work to slash the size of the federal government and remake America’s place in the world.

President Donald Trump launched a trade war Tuesday against America’s three biggest trading partners, drawing immediate retaliation from Mexico, Canada and China and sending financial markets into a tailspin as the U.S. faced the threat of rekindled inflation and paralyzing uncertainty for business.

Most of those 57,000 Greenlanders are Indigenous Inuit. They take pride in a culture and traditions that have helped them survive for centuries in exceptionally rugged conditions. In their close link to nature. In belonging to one of the most beautiful, remote, untouched places on Earth.

Tariffs are in the news at the moment. Here’s what they are and what you need to know about them.

The moment comes some five years after President Donald Trump held up congressionally authorized assistance to Ukraine in 2019 as he sought to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate.

States and the federal government jointly pay for Medicaid, which offers nearly-free health care coverage for roughly 80 million poor and disabled Americans, including millions of children. It cost $880 billion to operate in 2023.

An audit of the November election won by President Donald Trump in swing-state Wisconsin found that not a single vote was counted incorrectly, altered or missed by tabulating machines.

Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes over the crime that renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination in the Chicago area’s large and established Palestinian community.