Plus: RFK Jr. moves to remove fluoride from water & dire wolves' de-extinction

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Good afternoon,

It’s a wrap on the NCAA March Madness finals. It’s always fun to be surrounded by people enthusiastically watching the games, even if I’m not a huge fan. This year’s finals didn’t have any shocking surprises.

Last night, the Florida Gators clinched the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship, defeating the Houston Cougars 65-63. Both teams were top seeds.
On the women’s side, No. 2 seed UConn, the University of Connecticut, won the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament, defeating defending champions South Carolina 82-59 to claim their 12th national championship, their first since 2016.

Shoutout to my Dad who made the best bracket of his life (see above); he just “forgot” to submit it to any challenges 🤣.

Lauren
Producer

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🚨 ONE IMPORTANT THING

104% Tariffs On China Taking Effect At Midnight As Negotiations Continue With Other Nations

In just a few hours, at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, President Trump’s massive reciprocal tariffs on more than 60 nations will take effect. Earlier Tuesday, he said “many other countries” are looking to strike deals.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday reaffirmed President Trump's plan to impose 104% tariffs on China starting Wednesday, saying "There will be 104% tariffs going into effect on China tonight at midnight, but the president believes that [China's President} Xi and China want to make a deal, they just don't know how to get that started."
- Stocks took another hit at the news.

Leavitt did not say what would be needed for all the ‘reciprocal tariffs’ to be withdrawn, and Trump has been pretty tight-lipped about what countries can do. In some cases, he’s said it’s not enough for countries to bring their tariffs down to zero because it doesn’t address the trade deficit on goods bought by each country. They range from a couple billion to hundreds of billions of dollars. As of publication, no deals have been made. Earlier in the week, he said there would be no pause or extension for negotiations.

LET’S MAKE A DEAL
Trump on Tuesday said tariff negotiations with South Korea, which has a free trade agreement with the U.S., have led to “the confines and probability of a great DEAL for both countries.”

Trump posted that a wide-ranging economic deal may be in the works with South Korea following a call with the country’s acting president. However, no specific details of a possible deal have been released.
- So far, leaders of Japan, Israel, and Vietnam have publicly negotiated with Trump.

Trump said the U.S. is waiting for China to call, but that “It will happen!” In the game of chicken, China thinks it can win too. On Tuesday, Chinese officials vowed to “fight to the end” in the face of Trump’s tariffs.

HOW WE GOT HERE WITH CHINA
Both countries had approximately 20% tariffs on one another as of last month. Trump announced a 34% retaliatory tariff last week for what he said were unfair trade practices, taking up the U.S. tariff to 54%. China responded by raising their tariffs by 34%. Trump then added an additional 50% tariff on top of that, taking the U.S. tariffs on all Chinese goods up to 104%.

In 2024, Americans bought nearly $440 billion of goods from China, making it the U.S.’s second-largest source of imports behind Mexico.
A look at the numbers: With the new tariffs, if a toy had been $25 wholesale from China, starting Wednesday, that would now cost $51 before it even hits the shelves — retailers would likely pass that cost on to consumers, meaning the toy that used to sell for $40–$50 might now sell for $80–$100 or more.

WAR OF WORDS
Not everyone in the White House agrees with Trump’s gamble. Tesla CEO and Trump advisor Elon Musk called the president’s trade adviser Peter Navarro “Peter Retarrdo,” “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” on Tuesday, responding to Navarro’s claim that Tesla is merely a car assembler, not a car manufacturer.

Over the weekend, Musk had mocked Navarro’s push for broad tariffs and questioned his credentials, writing, “He ain’t built s—,” which he later deleted. Navarro’s Tesla comments then led to Musk’s latest round of insults.

The White House responded to the public spat saying, “boys will be boys,” but Trump has not directly commented on it. However, he appears to be aligning with Navarro’s trade philosophy over Musk’s.

On Monday, Musk posted a video of economist Milton Friedman promoting free trade by explaining the complex supply chain that leads to building a pencil.
Other Trump allies like billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman have called for a 90-day pause before the tariffs take effect to buy time to negotiate with other countries.

🚨 ONE THING TO TAKE NOTE OF

RFK Jr. Tells CDC To Drop Fluoride Guidance; EPA Says It’s Ready To Act

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday directed the CDC to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water, a shift from decades of guidance aimed at preventing cavities.

EPA chief Lee Zeldin said his agency will reexamine fluoride risks and is “prepared to act,” citing a National Toxicology Program report linking high fluoride levels to lower IQs in children — though, the fluoride levels they were testing were more than double federal recommendations in drinking water.
- A federal judge in September ordered the EPA to further regulate fluoride in drinking water to ensure that cities were adding a safe amount, citing studies pointing to IQ risk. He did not say what those measures should be.

Kennedy and Zeldin joined Utah lawmakers in support of the state’s first-of-its-kind ban on adding fluoride — a mineral that occurs naturally in water — to public water systems.

WHAT THIS COULD LOOK LIKE
More than 60% of Americans receive fluoridated water, which the CDC says cuts cavities by 25%. Critics, including many dentists and public health experts, warn that removing fluoride could increase dental disease, especially for people without regular access to dental care.

Kennedy also plans to create a task force to review fluoride safety.
- That group might look to Calgary, Canada, where in 2011 the city council removed fluoride from the city’s water. Studies showed that more children suffered from tooth decay and cavities in the following years. More than a decade later, residents called for fluoride to be reintroduced.

⏳ SPEED READ

🚨NATION

📌 DHS revokes parole for hundreds of thousands who entered via the CBP One app (POLITICO) IRS agrees to share immigrants' data with ICE (AXIOS)

📌 Judge says White House can’t ban AP from Oval Office, Air Force One (CNBC)

📌 Supreme Court allows Trump to terminate 16,000 probationary federal workers (ABC)

📌 Trump meets with the House GOP as his ‘big’ bill of tax breaks and spending cuts teeters (AP)

📌 Supreme Court allows Alien Enemies Act deportations to resume, but with due process (MO NEWS)

📌 Harvard, UCLA, Stanford among schools across US reporting student visa revocations (ABC)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

📌 Rescuers race to reach around 100 people trapped after nightclub roof collapses in Dominican Republic, killing at least 44 (CNN)

📌 Ukraine captures two Chinese soldiers fighting for Putin, Zelenskyy says (POLITICO)

📌 South Korea says about 10 North Korean troops crossed their border so it fired warning shots (CBS)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

📌 Instagram unveils new protections for teens to block nudity, livestreams (MO NEWS)

📌 Measles cases in Texas outbreak surpass 500, with 24 new infections confirmed over last 5 days (ABC)

📌 Justice Department shuts down its cryptocurrency fraud unit (USA TODAY)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

📌 Iconic sportswoman and activist Billie Jean King honored with Hollywood star (NBC)

📌 Will there be a season 4 of The White Lotus? What we know so far — including where it might take place (PEOPLE)

📌 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex opens up about ‘scary’ condition after childbirth (CNN)

ICYMI FROM THE 📲

In case you missed it… You might have seen them on HBO’s “Game of Thrones;” scientists claim they brought the dire wolf back from extinction after some 12,000 years.

Dallas-based bioscience firm Colossal Biosciences says it has used novel gene-editing technology and dire wolf DNA found in fossils dating back between 11,500 and 72,000 years to alter gray wolf DNA and de-extinct the species.
- The pups — named Khaleesi, Romulus, and Remus — were born three to six months ago.
However, scientists caution that while the achievement is impressive, the animals aren’t true dire wolves.
- Nic Rawlence, director of the Palaeogenetics Laboratory in New Zealand, told The Washington Post, “The reality is we can’t de-extinct extinct creatures because we can’t use cloning — the DNA is just not well enough preserved.” He said the pups are gray wolves with genome edits to resemble dire wolves.

Regardless, we think it’s pretty cool.

One of our favorites is above. But after Duke’s loss this weekend, this meme started picking up serious traction 😬