Daily Briefing: Trouble in Trumpland
That brings me to today's big story. Read on.
The US Court of International Trade ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority and blocked his tariffs on trading partners from going into effect. The verdict essentially makes the tariffs, which Trump had imposed under emergency powers to combat 'unfair trade practices,' illegal.
Zoom in: Invoking the US Constitution, the court declared that Congress has the exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries. The President's emergency powers cannot override Congress's authority. While the court refused to comment on the 'effectiveness' of the President's 'use of tariff as leverage', it asserted that the law made it 'impermissible'.
Counters: The ruling came in separate cases filed by businesses and states to halt Trump's tariff march. Notably, the Trump administration, last week, had pleaded against narrowing the scope of the President's emergency powers, citing the India-Pakistan conflict. The US Commerce Secretary told the court that Trump's offer for trade access to the duelling countries had 'averted a full-scale war', and an 'adverse ruling' could jeopardise the ceasefire. The State Secretary added that the court's ruling could threaten the ongoing trade negotiations with several countries. (🎧 For more on these US claims, tune in to today's episode of the '3 Things' podcast.)
What's next: It's unclear if the tariffs would be revoked immediately and, if so, how. The Justice Department has already filed a notice of appeal. It can appeal the court's ruling in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and, ultimately, the US Supreme Court. A White House spokesman said, 'It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency'.
The Delhi Police has made concerted efforts to identify and deport illegal Bangladeshi migrants. The exercise was ramped up in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. As many as 470 illegal migrants and 50 foreigners who had overstayed were airlifted from the Hindon air base in the national capital on 'special flights' to Tripura's Agartala and then deported via the land border to Bangladesh. Intensifying the crackdown on illegal migrants, it is learnt that the Union Home Ministry has asked authorities to scan the immigration database before handing out identification cards like Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards.
Also read: A family in Assam, whose citizenship case is being heard in the Supreme Court, has alleged that one of its members has been 'pushed' into Bangladesh.
Clean chit: The anti-corruption ombudsman, Lokpal, has said there was 'not even a tittle of credible material' to prove the allegations against the former Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairperson, Madhabi Puri Buch, of having investments linked to the Adani Group.
Peace & power: A group of 10 MLAs of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) met Manipur's Governor, Ajay Bhalla, on Wednesday to press for forming a 'popular government' in the state. Manipur, rocked by ethnic violence, has been under President's rule since February 13.
Saving Mumbai: The municipal corporation in Mumbai is cracking down on illegal construction along the city's fragile coastline. In recent weeks, the BMC has issued over 100 notices and razed nearly 30 unauthorised structures in the ecologically sensitive Madh Island. Behind the clean-up lies a determined, almost decade-long battle of one man who owns ancestral land in the area: Vaibhav Thakur. My colleague Mohamed Thaver chronicles Thakur's fight.
Injustice: In her weekly column, contributing editor Neerja Chowdhury spotlights the recent—and rather imprudent—remarks made by BJP MP Ram Chander Jangra, who questioned the women survivors of the Pahalgam terror attack for not fighting back. He isn't the first BJP MP to have tainted the party's messaging with good old misogyny. Earlier, a BJP minister had referred to Colonel Sofiya Qureshi as a 'sister' of the terrorists. But Jangra's comments go a step further and 'demean all women', Chowdhury writes.
The numbers game: Recently, Niti Aayog CEO, BVR Subrahmanyam, declared that India had overtaken Japan to become the fourth-largest economy in the world. His claim, based on International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, set off a wave of self-congratulations among several Indians. However, a closer examination of IMF data shows that India is still the fifth-largest economy. My colleague Udit Misra would argue that India is, in fact, the third-largest economy. Confused? Here's how to read the data.
Cricket central: Our sports writers, Sandip G and Vinayakk Mohanarangan, surveyed nearly 250 players across the 10 teams of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to take a look at the geographical distribution of homegrown talent. Their finding may surprise you. Once irrelevant on India's cricketing map, Madhya Pradesh has transformed into a thriving nursery of IPL stars. Read on.
I leave you with the latest offering from 'Fresh Take': The era of 'Netflix parents' is here, quietly changing the living room conversations in Indian households.
That's all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta
Sonal Gupta is a senior sub-editor on the news desk. She writes feature stories and explainers on a wide range of topics from art and culture to international affairs. She also curates the Morning Expresso, a daily briefing of top stories of the day, which won gold in the 'best newsletter' category at the WAN-IFRA South Asian Digital Media Awards 2023. She also edits our newly-launched pop culture section, Fresh Take.
... Read More
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
21 minutes ago
- Indian Express
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Germany's Merz says
The United States is prepared to take part in security guarantees for Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday, according to Reuters. Speaking to German broadcaster ZDF, Merz said he and other European leaders had been briefed by US President Donald Trump following his meeting in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'The good news is that America is ready to participate in such security guarantees and is not leaving it to the Europeans alone,' Merz said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Trump in Washington on Monday. Merz told ZDF that a three-way meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy should follow soon with the aim of agreeing to a peace deal. 'If that works out, it's worth more than a ceasefire,' he said. Merz added that Trump suggested Russia might be willing to negotiate on the basis of current front lines rather than the wider regional borders Moscow claims. 'This is a huge difference because Russia is claiming territories that it hasn't occupied yet,' he told ZDF. In a separate interview with broadcaster n-tv, Merz said he did not expect Zelenskyy's talks with Trump to be as difficult as those in February, when the two leaders clashed publicly. He said European leaders would speak with Zelenskyy on Sunday to help him prepare. 'We'll give a few good pieces of advice,' Merz said. Merz also stressed that while European unity was important, the US would remain central to the conflict. 'The American president has the power both militarily and via appropriate sanctions and tariffs to ensure that Russia moves more than it currently does,' he told Reuters.
The Hindu
21 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Double standards of Centre and State govt. exposed one more time, alleges KTR
HYDERABAD Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao has ridiculed the double standards of the NDA government and the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA), stating that they are not acting on the sinking of the coffer dam of the Polavaram project for the second time. In a statement, Mr. Rao said on Saturday that the NDSA had not taken up investigation into the washing away of the Polavaram cofferdam in 2020 that happened for the first time, even after being asked to go into the matter. The NDA government gave national project status to Polavaram and funded its construction - but is not looking into the quality aspects of construction, he said. During the run-up to the last Assembly elections in Telangana, a few piers of the Medigadda Barrage of Kaleshwaram project sank and damaged the structure under suspicious circumstances, but neither the BJP leaders nor those of the Congress, who had been indulging in mudslinging on Kaleshwaram project continuously, and terming it as 'kuleshwaram' (a collapsed project) repeatedly - had raised an issue on Polavaram, Mr. Rao said. He sought to know if the BJP and the Congress have the guts to term Polavaram as 'kulavaram' since its coffer dam was washed away once and sunk for the second time. In the second instance, it sunk for 10 meters width and about 8 meters deep, and the Andhra Pradesh government had taken up repairs on a war-footing silently, he said. On the other hand, the 'foolishness' of the Congress government is preventing it from taking up repairs on Medigadda Barrage and in giving water to the large ayacut depending on waters lifted from the point, even 20 months after coming to power, he said. Further, the NDSA proved its double standards by not taking up investigation into the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel collapse in February that buried eight workers, technicians and engineers alive. It is also indicative of the Congress-BJP conspiracy against Kaleshwaram, he alleged.
Indian Express
21 minutes ago
- Indian Express
In first remarks after meeting Trump, Putin calls Alaska summit ‘timely and extremely useful'
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that his summit with US President Donald Trump in Alaska had been 'timely and extremely useful,' adding that Moscow respected Washington's position on the Ukraine conflict and continued to seek a peaceful resolution. Putin gave the remarks in a televised meeting of senior officials in the Kremlin, Reuters reported. Trump, who entered the high-stakes summit warning he 'won't be happy' without a ceasefire and threatening 'severe consequences' if Moscow refused to cooperate, also shelved his threats and instead called the talks 'extremely productive,' after the three-hour meeting with the Russian side that yielded no tangible results. On Saturday, Trump dropped plans for an immediate ceasefire, writing on Truth Social that 'the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often do not hold up.'
