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U.S. Appeals Court Deals Major Blow to Trump’s Tariff Strategy

  U.S. President Donald Trump holds a chart next to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick at the White House in Washington on April 2. A federal appeals court has ruled that most of former President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are illegal, striking at the heart of one of his signature economic policies. In a 7-4 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that Trump overstepped his authority under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) when he imposed broad “reciprocal” tariffs on numerous countries, as well as targeted levies against China, Canada, and Mexico. The court determined that IEEPA does not grant the president the power to impose tariffs, a responsibility the Constitution assigns to Congress. While the ruling invalidates the legal basis for the measures, the judges allowed the tariffs to remain in place until October 14 to give the Trump administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court. Trump had justified the tari...

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Tensions Flare at Eurasian Economic Union Meeting


 A tightly-scripted meeting of the Russia-dominated Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) took an unexpected turn on Thursday when Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko engaged in a heated exchange during a live broadcast.

The altercation occurred at a resort near St. Petersburg, where leaders from Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan gathered for the EEU summit. Pashinyan, who joined the meeting via video link after testing positive for COVID-19, responded to Lukashenko's insistence that he visit Belarus for the next meeting by stating his intention to attend via video call. This prompted Lukashenko to press for an explanation and even offer to send a plane to fly the Armenian delegation to Minsk.

Pashinyan pointed to his earlier decision to freeze high-level visits to Belarus over Lukashenko's support for Armenia's rival, Azerbaijan. "I don't think this is the right format for discussing these issues," Pashinyan added. But Lukashenko kept arguing, and Pashinyan snapped back, leading to a tense moment watched in stony silence by Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders.

The EEU, formed a decade ago to encourage stronger business ties and facilitate trade between its members, has been marred by economic and other disputes between members. This latest incident underscores the ongoing challenges within the union.


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