• Trade war spirals: China said it is raising tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125% starting Saturday. U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China total 145%. Wednesday’s announcement that China faced 125% tariffs did not include a 20% tariff on China tied to its role in fentanyl production. – The Associated Press
• Inflation slowed slightly: U.S. inflation slowed last month. Consumer prices rose just 2.4% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said, down from 2.8% in February, which had been the lowest inflation figure since September. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.8% compared with a year ago, down from 3.1% in February, the second straight decline. Economists warned that the data is likely to be overtaken by the impact of tariffs. – AP
• SCOTUS sides with deportee: The U.S. government must work to return a Maryland man it admits to deporting illegally, the Supreme Court said Thursday. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, from El Salvador, was sent to a Salvadoran prison last month despite previously receiving legal protection from deportation. His counsel denies the government’s claims of his membership in the gang MS-13. About his return, the top court said the Trump administration should prepare to talk logistics. – Staff 
• Prisoner swap: A U.S.-Russia prisoner swap was touted by Washington as evidence of warming ties. The exchange occurred Thursday as talks aimed at normalizing relations began in Istanbul. U.S.-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina was convicted of treason in Russia last year after donating about $50 to a charity aiding Ukraine. Arthur Petrov, a Russian German citizen, was being held in the United States on charges including money laundering. Such swaps have occurred even during deep-freeze times. U.S. journalist Evan Gerskovich was freed in October as part of a 26-person exchange. U.S. athlete Brittney Griner was released from Russian detention in 2022. – Staff
• Baltic democracies vigilant: Lithuanian officials have called for a doubling of defense spending amid ongoing attacks on underwater electricity cables and a 10-fold uptick in sabotaging of GPS systems since last year. In Estonia, volunteers have established a cavalry unit to patrol the forested border with Russia for the first time since 1991, and the parliament this week passed an act that will require the Estonian Christian Orthodox Church to sever ties with Moscow over the Ukraine war. Latvian officials, meanwhile, are warning of hostile states possessing “new tools to infiltrate our minds” and undermine confidence in democracy. – Staff
• New celestial streaker: If you like your comets green, your moment has come. Amateur scientists have discovered a comet now visible low in the eastern sky before sunrise. It’s noteworthy for its greenish tail (thanks to the reactions of a molecule called dicarbon). Green comets are relatively rare. This one, officially C/2025 F2 but known as SWAN25F, appears to be on a 1.4 million-year circuit from its birthplace 4 trillion miles beyond Pluto. It is expected to get brighter soon. For now, you’ll need binoculars. Rise early and find the brightest star in the Great Square of Pegasus, and look for the greenish glow. – Staff

Only one tumultuous week elapsed between President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement and a sudden change of course. But the question now preoccupying U.S. trading partners worldwide is that Mr. Trump’s intention on “Liberation Day” went far beyond just fixing tariff discrepancies. Instead, it appears he may aim to opt out altogether of the global system of world trade that has operated, with strong U.S. support, since the end of World War II.

Trees occupy a special place in people’s worlds. They’re often beloved touchstones, as well as a source of shelter and cooling. After the recent fires in Altadena, California, the Army Corps of Engineers caused an uproar by incorrectly tagging some trees as hazardous and bulldozing others. But collaboration has yielded progress: Residents and professional arborists spoke up, and the Corps listened. That’s led to new measures and greater latitude for trying to rescue damaged trees – fostering a reassuring sense of home.

The number of endangered tigers in northern India has more than doubled in the past 20 years – a triumph for conservation. But as fatal attacks on humans also increase, local residents want to prioritize safety. 

As they find their way forward in a new Syria, citizens are rallying around their new flag. It rode into Damascus with the rebels who overthrew the Assad regime in December. Now, it’s draped on buildings, pinned to cars’ rear windows, spray-painted on the walls of Mr. Assad’s former palace, and for sale at the airport’s duty-free shops. For Syrians, the new flag is more than a national symbol. What was for years the opposition flag is now an embodiment of the hardships of the revolution and the joy of their newfound freedoms.

It’s understandable why folks attempt to characterize Valerie June’s unique voice, murmuring the names of eclectic Black female artists like Macy Gray and Erykah Badu. But comparison is the thief of joy. The Monitor spoke with Ms. June ahead of the April 11 release of her latest album, “Owls, Omens, and Oracles.” It features an effervescent single, the aptly named “Joy, Joy!” and guest artists who include Norah Jones and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Instead of asking whom she sounds like, it felt more apropos to talk with the earthy songstress about how she creates such powerful music.

The only Muslim country that openly cherishes its Jewish minority did something very helpful on Wednesday. Azerbaijan mediated talks between Israel and Turkey. The aim: to prevent the two Middle East giants from a military clash over a dangerous competition to influence neighboring Syria, newly liberated from a dictator and still in disarray.

Azerbaijan’s long friendship with both Turkey and Israel “has been proven in difficult times,” said President Ilham Aliyev. The talks were necessary, he added, to calm tensions that are “very troubling.”

Most people in Azerbaijan are close to Turks in language, religion, and culture. Yet their centurieslong embrace of a thriving Jewish community – less than 1% of the population – has stood out in the Islamic world as a model of religious tolerance. Muslims and Jews respect each other’s traditions. They enjoy frequent interfaith celebrations. Jews, who first migrated to Azerbaijan centuries ago, are active in political life. 

“Azerbaijan may be the only country in the world where the synagogues don’t have to lock their doors at night,” wrote Ayoob Kara of Israel’s Economic Peace Center in 2022 for The Jerusalem Post.

The talks in Baku this week help put a new spotlight on what the country can offer a troubled Middle East. “The Azerbaijan model is showing us that there is a possibility to live another way, to live together and to grow and to develop together,” Zamir Isayev, a rabbi in the capital, Baku, told The Jerusalem Post in March.

This example of religious coexistence – a result of bonds between Muslims and Jews over their Abrahamic roots – helps explain why Israel and Azerbaijan remain close in economic ties and diplomacy. Since Azerbaijan’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, its government has been the most secular of Muslim nations. In 2023, it became the first mainly Shiite country to open an embassy in Israel. That move was made possible by a people with a long history of harmony – rooted in faith.