Good morning. In this edition:

• 📝 The tech tariff reprieve
• 🚀 Blue Origin to launch all-female space crew
• 🔭 Prime Antarctic views

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.33-minute read (1,153 words).

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"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."

–Zig Ziglar (1926-2012)

This weekend, the Trump administration officially exempted smartphones, laptops, and other electronic products from the President’s latest reciprocal tariffs—but also signaled that those products will soon be subject to new tariffs targeting the global semiconductor industry.

Catch up quick

On Friday evening, the US Customs and Border Protection issued a rule exempting smartphones, laptops, memory chips, and other electronic products from President Trump’s recently enacted reciprocal tariffs, in a statement without any further explanation.

• The move has the biggest immediate impact on tech imports from China, because of the heights to which US tariff rates have risen in recent days (currently 145%).
• The exempted products—including those from Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Samsung, Dell, and other tech giants—cover ~$390 billion in US imports last year, including $100+ billion from China (roughly a quarter of all Chinese imports).
• “This is a small step by the US toward correcting its wrongful action of unilateral ‘reciprocal tariffs,’” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement in response to Friday’s pause.

It appears temporary: On Sunday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick—and later President Trump himself—revealed the electronic products that were exempted on Friday will all face separate tariffs in a month or two, following a federal trade investigation into the global semiconductor industry. "All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they're going to have a special focus-type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored,” Lutnick said.

Looking ahead…Trump is expected to issue a national security study on semiconductor trade in the coming days or weeks, a move that historically has resulted in new tariffs. Top Trump officials also indicated that pharmaceutical products will soon receive their own separate tariff rate, similar to semiconductors.

📊 Flash poll: In general, which of the following best describes your opinion regarding Trump’s tariff policies?

• I agree in theory and in practice
• I agree in theory, but not in practice
• I disagree
• Unsure/other

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Katy Perry can finally sing 🎶“extraterrestrial”🎶 in space.

Blue Origin’s latest commercial spaceflight is set to launch this morning, sending six women into orbit on the company’s New Shepard rocket. The crew includes Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Kerianne Flynn, Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King, and—yes—popstar Katy Perry.

• Today’s launch will be the first all-female flight since the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova flew into space solo in 1963.
• Overall, ~11% of astronauts who have ventured into the great dark void have been women.

Up, Up, and Away

The crew’s journey past the "Kármán line," the internationally recognized boundary of space, will last a total of 11 minutes. They’ll experience around four minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth—something that moved actor William Shatner to tears following a previous flight—before heading back down to the landing pad.

It’ll be glam: In preparation for today’s flight, Sánchez—journalist, pilot, children’s book author, philanthropist, and fiancée of Jeff Bezos—worked with clothing brand Monse to design new spacesuits specifically for women.

Zoom out: The launch comes as Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, is working to catch up to and better compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Blue Origin has successfully completed 30 flights to-date, vs. SpaceX’s 470.

Boarding passes and checking in for flights may soon join Pan Am and smoking on planes in the obsolete pile. The International Civil Aviation Organization—the UN body that crafts airline policy from which the FAA takes cues—is considering the biggest shake-up to air travel in 50 years, The Times of London reports.

What it entails: Under the new rules, passengers would be issued a “journey pass” when they book a flight. This digital boarding pass replacement will be automatically updated if changes are made to the booking or flights are delayed. Passengers will also be able to upload their passports to their phones.

Additionally, these rules would eliminate manual check-in, with airlines notified when passengers arrive at the airport via facial recognition scanners.

About the journey, not the destination: The moves are part of a larger push to streamline the air travel experience and bring it in line with modern technological standards, an effort many analysts compare to the implementation of e-ticketing in the early 2000s. Most of the systems used by airlines—including the one that caused Southwest’s December 2023 meltdown—are decades old.

Looking ahead…These changes could come in two to three years, according to The Times.

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Finally, an umpire in the news for something good—during last Thursday’s matchup between the Royals and Twins, MLB umpire Mark Ripperger became just the second home plate umpire to call a perfect game since record-keeping began in 2015, according to Umpire Scorecard. This means Ripperger got every single ball and strike call—136 pitches—correct.

For context: While not as rare as a perfect game thrown by a pitcher, it’s close—there have been 24 perfect games thrown in MLB’s 149-year history, or an average of 0.16/year, compared to an average of 0.20 perfect games called by umpires each year.

More baseball history: The Chicago Cubs beat the Dodgers 16-0 on Saturday night, handing LA their first home loss of the season as well as the worst home shutout loss in franchise history.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 US markets rose across the board last week (S&P: +5.7%; Dow: +5.0%; Nasdaq: +7.3%).
• 📲 Meta’s antitrust trial over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp begins today in Washington, DC.
• 🤖 Safe Superintelligence, the AI startup led by OpenAI’s cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, reportedly raised $2 billion at a $32 billion valuation.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with OPC

• 🏌️ The Masters: Rory McIlroy defeated Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff to win the first green jacket of his career (and his first major since 2014); Rory is now the sixth golfer to ever complete a career Grand Slam.
• 📺 Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us premiered last night; Season 1 won eight Emmys. | 🎥 A Minecraft Movie led the domestic box office with ~$80.6 million in its second weekend; becomes highest-grossing movie of the year so far with ~$550 million globally.
• 🙏 Actor Nicky Katt, known for his roles in Dazed and Confused and Boston Public, died at 54.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🌀 La Niña, the global cooling weather phenomenon driven by cold water in the Pacific Ocean, has disappeared after a short three months.
• 💀 An ancient jawbone found off the coast of Taiwan marks the first confirmed presence of Denisovans, an ancient human relative, in Southeast Asia.
• 🌌 The first-ever observation of a planet being swallowed by a star was recently analyzed by NASA.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

in partnership with 120/Life

• 🇺🇸🇮🇷 The US and Iran held a “constructive” first round of talks over Tehran’s nuclear program on Saturday; a second round of talks is set for this week.
• 🧑‍⚕️ President Trump is in “excellent cognitive and physical health,” according to a memo from his physician published by the White House following his annual physical.
• 🔫 Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a first-of-its-kind law requiring a special license and training to buy most firearms with detachable magazines; it’s one of the strictest gun laws in any state, covering many popular firearms. | 🧑‍⚖️ The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump admin must take steps to return a Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

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👆 Coachella 2025 kicked off this weekend; hundreds of thousands flocked to Southern California in festival fits galore to see performances from Benson Boone, Lady Gaga, Tyla, Green Day, Yo Gabba Gabba, and more; it concludes this upcoming weekend.

🤔 Did You Know? Ridge A is a spot in Antarctica said to be the best surface on Earth for astronomical research. Described as a place “so calm there's almost no wind or weather at all,” Ridge A acts as the Eye of a Storm, with all wind from Antarctica appearing to originate here. The site is currently claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory.

📰 Worth a Read: How a secretive gambler called ‘The Joker’ took down the Texas Lottery

🖱️ Clickbait: Colorful birds you may not know existed

Monday: EU trade officials meet US counterparts in Washington to talk tariffs

Tuesday: NBA Play-In Tournament tips off; Tax Day (there's still time to file an extension for October)

Wednesday: National Orchid Day

Thursday: Weekly jobless claims

Friday: 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride; Sinners starring Michael B. Jordan hits theaters

On Friday, we covered how Tax Day could look a bit different this year on the federal government’s side, amid ongoing plans by the Trump administration to shrink the Internal Revenue Service.

❓ Our question to you: In general, how do you feel about the US government’s recent moves to reduce IRS headcount and funding?

• 👍 Approve: 32%
• 👎 Disapprove: 56%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 12%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 2,019 votes and 221 longform responses.

🎧 The Library of Congress selected 25 songs, albums, and sounds 10 years or older to officially preserve in the National Recording Registry. This year’s inductees include the 1960 World Series Broadcast, Elton John’s 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and the Windows 95 Jingle.

🐾 New research suggests having a cat or a dog around could boost humans' well-being and overall life satisfaction as much as being married or meeting up regularly with friends and relatives.

🌏 The 2025 World Expo kicked off this weekend in Osaka, Japan, with the theme “Designing the Future Society for our Lives.” The event involves six months of exhibitions and events celebrating our common humanity.

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words.

1. Myth
2. Nox
3. Per
4. Rog
5. Sed

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p

s

c

r

o

l

l

i

n

g

1. Myth = Story (e.g., mythology)
2. Nox = Harmful (noxious)
3. Per = Thoroughly (persist)
4. Rog = Ask (interrogate)
5. Sed = Calm (sedative)