Stocks' sell-off worsens as Wall Street wonders how much pain Trump will accept for the economy
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market’s sell-off cut deeper on Monday as Wall Street questioned how much pain President Donald Trump will let the economy endure through tariffs and other policies in order to get what he wants.
The S&P 500 dropped 2.7% to drag it close to 9% below its all-time high, which was set just last month. At one point, the S&P 500 was down 3.6% and on track for its worst day since 2022. That’s when the highest inflation in generations was shredding budgets and raising worries about a possible recession that ultimately never came.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 890 points, or 2.1%, after paring an earlier loss of more than 1,100, while the Nasdaq composite skidded by 4%.
It was the worst day yet in a scary stretch where the S&P 500 has swung more than 1%, up or down, seven times in eight days because of Trump’s on -and- off -again tariffs. The worry is that the whipsaw moves will either hurt the economy directly or create enough uncertainty to drive U.S. companies and consumers into an economy-freezing paralysis.
The economy has already given some signals of weakening, mostly through surveys showing increased pessimism. And a widely followed collection of real-time indicators compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta suggests the U.S. economy may already be shrinking.
Ukraine will propose a limited ceasefire during talks with the US in Saudi Arabia, officials say
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A Ukrainian delegation set to meet with America’s top diplomat in Saudi Arabia about ending the 3-year war with Russia will propose a ceasefire covering the Black Sea and long-range missile strikes, as well as the release of prisoners, two senior Ukrainian officials said Monday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about Tuesday’s meeting, also told The Associated Press that the Ukrainian delegation is ready during the talks to sign an agreement with the United States on access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals — a deal that U.S. President Donald Trump is keen to secure.
The officials discussed the confidence-building measures, with no further details, ahead of the Ukrainian negotiating team's meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jeddah.
Kyiv is trying to repair the damage done when Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Feb. 28 visit to Washington descended into an Oval Office argument with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
At stake is the military aid and intelligence previously offered by the United States that had helped Ukraine in the war but is now paused as Washington pushes for a peace agreement.
For Trump the peace negotiator, might makes right. History offers different lessons
As President Donald Trump seeks to end wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, his approach to both seems to boil down to giving the stronger party what it wants and pushing the weaker to accept it.
His defenders view it as hardnosed realpolitik – a recognition that the strong eventually prevail, so better to cut one’s losses in the interest of a certain kind of peace. “You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in their White House blowup.
“ He’s transactional," said Aaron David Miller, a former veteran U.S. diplomat now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Trump is "looking for quick wins — deals, I would argue — not anything remotely related to the incredibly difficult work” of conflict resolution.
But the eventual outcome of conflicts is not always determined by military power alone – see America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan, where the world's strongest military failed to defeat a tenacious insurgency.
And the mercurial Trump has a way of complicating any unified theory of his actions: In recent days, he has threatened new sanctions against Russia and his administration unnerved some Israelis by negotiating directly with Hamas., which the U.S. and Israel view as a terrorist group.
Donald Trump is reviving the fortunes of governments and leaders that talk tough against him
TORONTO (AP) — Canada's governing Liberal Party appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year. Then Donald Trump declared economic war and threatened to annex the entire country as a 51st state. Now the Canadian Liberals and their new prime minister could come out on top.
Then there's Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, facing a groundswell of visible support at home for her approach to Trump's tariff threats. There's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who visited the White House last month and was knocked on his heels, then went back to Europe to receive what many offered as a hero's welcome. Even Emmanuel Macron’s comeback in French polls might be linked, some say, to his taking a more robust approach with the new U.S. president during recent weeks.
Saying the United States will always do what's best for the United States first, Trump has shaken up decades of international order. In weeks, he has sent leaders of other nations scrambling to shore up their own economies, partnerships and defenses against a Russia threat — and solidify their own polls at home, too.
“Trump is like a flaming freight train that is igniting everything in its path,” said Kory Teneycke, a conservative Canadian campaign director. “It’s not just a big thing. It’s almost the only thing that is moving the electorate right now.”
Everyone, it seems, is responding to Trump. But nearly two months after his blizzard of executive orders, threats and trade wars, some leaders are steadying their messages with defiance and plans — not that they will necessarily change the Trump administration's approach to it all.
Ontario slaps 25% tax increase on electricity exports to US in response to Trump's trade war
TORONTO (AP) — Ontario's premier, the leader of Canada’s most populous province, announced that effective Monday it is charging 25% more for electricity to 1.5 million American homes and businesses in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war.
Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan.
“I will not hesitate to increase this charge. If the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference in Toronto.
"Believe me when I say I do not want to do this. I feel terrible for the American people who didn't start this trade war. It’s one person who is responsible, it’s President Trump.”
Ford said Ontario’s tariff would remain in place despite the one-month reprieve from Trump, noting a one-month pause means nothing but more uncertainty. Quebec is also considering taking similar measures with electricity exports to the U.S.
Doctors declare Pope Francis no longer in imminent danger due to pneumonia, but remains hospitalized
ROME (AP) — Doctors said Monday Pope Francis is no longer in imminent danger of death as a result of pneumonia that has kept him hospitalized for nearly a month, but have decided to keep him hospitalized for several more days to receive treatment.
In a late update, the doctors said the 88-year-old pope remains stable and has consolidated improvements in recent days, as determined by blood tests and positive responses to drug treatments.
The Vatican said the doctors had lifted their previous “guarded” prognosis, meaning they determined he was no longer in imminent danger as a result of the original respiratory infection he arrived with on Feb. 14. But their caution remained.
“However, in view of the complexity of the clinical picture and the important infectious picture presented on admission, it will be necessary to continue medical drug therapy in a hospital setting for additional days,” according to the Vatican statement.
In a sign of his improved health, Francis followed the Vatican’s weeklong spiritual retreat via videoconference on Monday in both the morning and afternoon sessions.
Trump warns that arrest of Palestinian activist at Columbia will be 'first of many'
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump warned Monday that the arrest and possible deportation of a Palestinian activist who helped lead protests at Columbia University will be the first “of many to come” as his administration cracks down on campus demonstrations against Israel and the war in Gaza.
Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful U.S. resident who was a graduate student at Columbia until December, was detained Saturday by federal immigration agents in New York and flown to an immigration jail in Louisiana.
“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”
But a federal judge in New York City ordered Monday that Khalil not be deported while the court considered a legal challenge brought by his lawyers. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Khalil’s detention drew outrage from civil rights groups and free speech advocates, who accused the administration of using its immigration enforcement powers to squelch criticism of Israel.
LA district attorney says he won’t support resentencing the Menendez brothers because they lied
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The district attorney of Los Angeles County said Monday that he does not support the resentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez because the brothers have repeatedly lied about why they killed their parents at their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
Resentencing, which could make the brothers immediately eligible for parole, is just one of the pathways they are pursuing to walk free after their 1996 convictions for murder. District Attorney Nathan Hochman's predecessor, who lost reelection, had backed resentencing, and advocates for the siblings had waited anxiously to see whether the new DA would do the same.
Hochman told reporters his decision hinged on the fact the brothers had failed to take “complete responsibility” for lies told as the case unfolded, including their original claim that they did not kill their parents. He said their repeated argument that they shot their parents in self-defense does not match the facts of the case that show their premeditated steps to plan the killings and make it look like a gang hit.
“They have lied to everyone for the last 30 years,” Hochman said.
Hochman compared the Menendez case to that of Sirhan Sirhan, who shot and killed U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. He noted that, like the Menendez brothers, Sirhan had many letters of support and was determined to be a low-risk inmate. However, Gov. Gavin Newsom blocked his parole in 2022, saying Sirhan still posed an unreasonable threat to the public.
Disney didn't copy 'Moana' from a man's story of a surfer boy, a jury says
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury on Monday quickly and completely rejected a man’s claim that Disney’s “Moana” was stolen from his story of a young surfer in Hawaii.
The Los Angeles federal jury deliberated for only about 2 ½ hours before deciding that the creators of “Moana” never had access to writer and animator Buck Woodall’s outlines and script for “Bucky the Surfer Boy.”
With that question settled, the jury of six women and two men didn’t even have to consider the similarities between “Bucky” and Disney’s 2016 hit animated film about a questing Polynesian princess.
Woodall had shared his work with a distant relative, who worked for a different company on the Disney lot, but the woman testified during the two-week trial that she never showed it to anyone at Disney.
“Obviously we’re disappointed,” Woodall's attorney Gustavo Lage said outside court. “We’re going to review our options and think about the best path forward.”
Deals for QBs Darnold and Fields, pass rushers Williams and Sweat highlight start of NFL free agency
The NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles are losing two of their defensive disruptors who pressured Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl.
Defensive tackle Milton Williams agreed to a deal with New England worth $26 million annually and edge rusher Josh Sweat is heading to the Arizona Cardinals on a four-year, $76.4 million contract, people with knowledge of the terms told The Associated Press.
Williams and Sweat combined for 4 1/2 sacks, four quarterback hits, four tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in the Eagles' 40-22 rout of the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
The NFL's 52-hour legal tampering period arrived Monday with a slew of stars getting big contracts following a weekend flurry that featured league MVP Josh Allen's record-setting $330 million extension and Myles Garrett set to become the highest-paid non-quarterback in history.
The QB carousel kept turning Monday with the Seattle Seahawks grabbing Sam Darnold (three years, $100.5 million) following his bounce-back season in Minnesota and Justin Fields landing with the New York Jets ($40 million over two years) to replace Aaron Rodgers.
