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To sow or not to sow? Canola farmers in Canada’s vast western Prairies region have found themselves in the crossfire of trade wars with both the United States and China.”We have two economic superpowers of the world having a trade war with us at the same time,” Rick White, head of the Canadian Canola Growers Association, told AFP.”We’ve had our challenges but nothing of this magnitude. This is the worst of all scenarios,” he said, weeks before planting is to begin.Canada, a major agricultural economy, is among the world’s top producers of canola — an oilseed crop that is used to make cooking oil, animal meal and biodiesel fuel.But the bulk of canola exports go to just two customers, the United States and China, two countries with which Ottawa is now in standoffs over tariffs.A few days ago, Beijing announced 100 percent tariffs on canola oil and meal in response to Ottawa’s levies on Chinese electric vehicles, which align with those imposed on China by the United States under former president Joe Biden.Meanwhile, since coming to office in January, US President Donald Trump has threatened widespread tariffs on imports of Canadian goods into the United States.The price of canola has plunged as a result of the Chinese tariffs, dragging the price of European rapeseed down with it.- Seeding soon -All of this must be sorted out in the coming weeks, fumes Jason Johnson, a farmer from Manitoba province in Canada’s agricultural heartland.”We’re going to be seeding in about a month and once we do, we can’t change crops,” he said, while waiting for a call from a seed dealer about possible alternative crops.China accounts for nearly one third of Canadian canola exports, mainly canola seeds, while the United States is the largest market for canola oil and meal.Johnson believes it was wrong for Canada to impose tariffs on China.”We should go back to China and say, ‘We’ll lift our tariffs if you lift yours,’ basically doing a Trump by threatening tariffs and then retracting them,” he told AFP.On his 2,500-acre farm just north of the Canada-US border, he grows canola each year on about 1,000 acres, and feels certain the United States will ramp up tariffs against Canada that will be widespread and hit hard.Those tariff threats have already sent shockwaves through Canada, as more than 75 percent of its exports go to the United States. A trade war between the two neighbors, with Canada retaliating, would cause significant damage to the Canadian economy.- ‘Engage with China’ -Canola Council of Canada chief executive Chris Davison is urging the Canadian government “to immediately engage with China, with a view to resolving this issue.”Ottawa and Beijing have been at loggerheads for several years, relations having soured after Canada detained a senior Huawei executive on a US warrant in December 2018 and Beijing retaliated by holding two Canadians. A deal was reached that saw all three detainees released in September 2021, but bad blood remains, with Beijing criticizing Ottawa for aligning itself with Washington’s China policies and Canadian authorities regularly accusing China of interference.As this goes on Canadians wonder if bright yellow fields of canola will be seen in the Prairies this spring.Johnson says switching from canola to alternative crops at the last minute wouldn’t be easy. Markets for other crops are mostly smaller and if canola farmers switch to cultivating them it would lead to an oversupply and a drop in prices for those agricultural commodities too.He noted also that Canada has “invested a lot in the last 20 years in infrastructure” to crush canola into oil and meal.

Donald Trump promised a new “Golden Age” for America. In the Oval Office, at least, he has lived up to his promise with a blingy makeover.The Republican has decked out the inner sanctum of the US presidency with gilded trophies and gold-plated, Trump-branded coasters, and filled almost every available inch of wall space with portraits of his predecessors.Almost every day seems to bring something new. This week Trump installed a copy of the Declaration of Independence — the historic document triggering America’s freedom from the British monarchy 250 years ago.Far more than during his first term, it’s as if the 78-year-old former reality TV star and billionaire property mogul is creating something that is part-studio and part-exclusive real estate.”President Trump is very good at playing the role of Donald Trump,” Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media, told AFP.”The show is the point. Part of the show is the bling. It would be surprising if Trump did not remake the Oval Office into a TV set that reflected his brand.”- Presidential portraits -But there’s also a serious political message behind Trump’s frenetic redecoration.The Oval Office is the most potent symbol of American power, a backdrop to his frequent news conferences and televised meetings with foreign dignitaries — including a recent meltdown between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.It was, therefore, no coincidence when the gallery of presidential portraits got a new addition: the 19th-century president James Polk.Under Polk, the 11th US president, the United States saw its biggest period of territorial expansion by taking in huge swaths of the west coast, the southwest and Texas. It was a clear piece of political symbolism at a time that Trump is alarming allies by openly talking about annexing Greenland, reclaiming the Panama Canal and taking over Gaza.- ‘Would Biden do this?’ -Each president picks most of their decor from similar sources including the White House art collection, but they still manage to stamp a very personal touch on the Oval.The difference from Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden could hardly be greater — as the 47th president himself is well aware.”Do you think Joe Biden would do this? I don’t think so,” Trump said Tuesday as he pulled back light-protecting drapes on the Declaration of Independence in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle.”Biden’s Oval was a relative model of restraint with five portraits around the famed fireplace, including wartime president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s directly above the hearth.Trump has nine — and that doesn’t count others near his desk, including Republican icon Ronald Reagan’s.While Biden had a sprawling Swedish ivy plant that reputedly dated back to John F. Kennedy on the mantelpiece, Trump has seven ornate gilded vessels, some of which are more than 200 years old.And while both Trump and Biden had a bust of civil rights leader Martin Luther King on display, Trump has brought back the bust of Britain’s World War II prime minister Winston Churchill that he had during his first term.- Framed mugshot -The ostentatious display should probably not come as a surprise for a man who announced his first presidential run by descending on a golden escalator at Trump Tower in New York. The billionaire has long branded everything he can with his name, from buildings to bibles.And Trump’s makeover rarely shies away from promoting both his own brand and an image of strength that has been central to his political career.Recently, one item that has been on permanent display is a large map identifying the “Gulf of America,” which the Trump administration has renamed from the Gulf of Mexico.Trump is even reportedly planning to pave over the famed Rose Garden that the Oval Office overlooks, to give it the patio-like feel of his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.One of Trump’s proudest touches, though, is a very unconventional portrait that hangs near those of his illustrious forebears.Right outside the Oval Office in a gold frame hangs a photo of Trump — his 2023 mugshot, as featured on the cover of a tabloid newspaper, from when he was booked in Georgia for alleged attempts to interfere with the 2020 election.

America’s ice-climbing epicenter was facing a bleak future, with climate change endangering its water supply, until an unlikely savior came to its rescue: a nearby silver mine.Nestled in the heart of the Rockies, at an altitude of 2,400 meters (7,800 feet), Ouray is famous among mountaineers around the world for its artificial ice park.For 30 years, the village has piped in water that washes down the walls of a nearby gorge in winter, freezing in place and creating dozens of climbing routes.”It’s definitely an ice climbing Mecca,” said mountain guide Clint Cook.”I can’t think of anywhere else that attracts this many people specifically to one place, just for ice climbing.”But a damaging decades-long drought threatened the area’s water source, even as the number of winter visitors exploded.”I can remember some people going around town and be like ‘Don’t shower tonight! We need that water in the tank to build ice,'” said Cook, 47.But starting next season, all that is set to change, after Ouray Silver Mines stepped in and offered to lease the rights to millions of liters (gallons) of water every year — for a $1 fee.”The water from the mine will give us anywhere from three- to five-times more water than we have access to right now,” said Peter O’Neil, executive director of the nonprofit Ouray Ice Park.”And we’re not dependent on the city water tanks.”- ‘Ghost town’ -That should secure the park’s future not only for the “next generation of ice climbers,” but also for all the local businesses that depend on tourists.”If there was no ice park in the winter, the town would be a ghost town,” said O’Neil. “Most of the hotels and motels would be closed.”Ouray, a village of around 900 people, was founded in the 19th century during the Colorado Silver Rush — a past that is commemorated by the statue of a miner that greets visitors.Silver mining dwindled over the 20th century, but renewed demand from new technologies like solar panels has reinvigorated the industry.Brian Briggs, the former CEO of Ouray Silver Mines, who sealed the partnership transferring water rights to the ice park, said the alliance was a win for everyone.Under Colorado’s water use rights, the mine was entitled to millions of gallons for “recreational use,” simply by dint of being a significant land owner.It wasn’t using them, and Briggs recognized the need to improve the image of his industry.”Most people don’t like things in their backyard that are mining or industrial,” he said.Donating the water, he figured, was a nice way to give back to the community in an effort to build good will.”People need to know that the mine’s not just this bad group of people,” Briggs said.- ‘What if there’s no ice?’ -Earth’s warming climate, caused chiefly by humanity’s unchecked burning of fossil fuels, has not only hit water supplies, but also causes problems with rising temperatures.Ideally, the park needs several consecutive days where the temperatures stays below -7C (19 Fahrenheit) for the ice to form properly, hence the importance of being able to turn the taps on when the weather is right.For the thousands of people who travel to the self-proclaimed “Switzerland of America” spending around $18 million a year, the deal is a real boost.Jen Brinkley, from California, has been visiting Ouray almost every season for 30 years.When she was younger, she said, she would ask: “How many times can we get up there this year? It was more about like, how many trips could we take?””There was never a thought of, ‘oh, wait, what if there’s no ice?'” Brinkley hopes the water from the mine — which is pumped from a river and returns there when it melts in the Spring — will secure the park’s future and make the climbing there even better.”With more routes open you definitely have people that can spread out and so everybody can have a chance to climb,” she said.

US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an order Thursday aiming to dismantle the Department of Education, fulfilling a long-held goal of American conservatives.The order, which several media outlets on Wednesday reported would be signed during a White House ceremony, comes as efforts are already underway in the department to drastically downsize its staffing and slash funding.Trump’s education secretary, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, issued a memo shortly after her swearing in on March 3 saying the agency would be beginning its “final mission.”The next week, she moved to halve the department’s staff.Trump, 78, promised to decentralize education as he campaigned for a return to the White House, saying he would devolve the department’s powers to state governments, as desired for decades by many Republicans.Traditionally, the federal government has had a limited role in education in the United States, with only about 13 percent of funding for primary and secondary schools coming from federal coffers, the rest being funded by states and local communities.But federal funding is invaluable for low-income schools and students with special needs. And the federal government has been essential in enforcing key civil rights protections for students.The order directs McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate” the department’s closure, according to a copy seen by Politico, which reported several Republican governors would be attending the ceremony.Several key programs are to be spared, such as those providing grants to university students and funding for low-income schools across the country, multiple outlets reported.Such an order has been widely expected after a circulating draft was obtained by media outlets shortly after McMahon took over.By law, the Education Department, created in 1979, cannot be shuttered without the approval of Congress and Republicans do not have the votes to push that through.However, as with other federal agencies under Trump’s second administration, the department is likely to see further cuts to programs and employees, which could significantly cripple its work.The moves are being spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose rapid actions have met pushback in courts for possibly exceeding executive authority.A similar move to dismantle the US Agency for International Development was halted on Monday by a federal judge, who said the push likely violated the Constitution.McMahon, after she ordered the halving of her staff, told Fox News it was a step toward fulfilling Trump’s demand that she “put herself out of a job.””His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished,” she said.

Nvidia boss Jensen Huang expressed confidence Wednesday that the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant can handle US President Donald Trump’s trade war.”We have a really agile network of suppliers; they are not just in Taiwan or Mexico or Vietnam,” Huang said while meeting with journalists at Nvidia’s annual developers conference in San Jose, California.”If we add onshore manufacturing by the end of this year, we should be quite good.”Nvidia is not expecting tariffs to significantly affect its financial performance in the short term, according to Huang.He noted that the tariff situation is evolving, and that what it does to Nvidia costs will depend on which countries are targeted by Trump.Trump has threatened to slap extra tariffs on imports of computer chips to the United States, which will heap pressure on Nvidia’s business, which depends on imported components mainly from Taiwan.Since returning to power in January, Trump has imposed tariffs on Washington’s three main trading partners, Mexico, Canada, and China.Trump has talked of imposing “reciprocal tariffs” against other countries in early April, creating uncertainty for businesses and financial markets.The White House recently put out a release saying Trump is intent on making the US a “manufacturing superpower,” ramping up pressure to shift production back to this country.However, chip fabrication facilities can take years to build.Since its founding in 1993, Nvidia has specialized in graphics processing units (GPUs) coveted by video game enthusiasts.GPUs are also ideally suited for AI and the rise of that technology has catapulted the Silicon Valley-based chip maker into the spotlight.”We’re not making chips anymore; those were the good old days,” Huang quipped. “What we do now is build AI infrastructure.”High-end versions of Nvidia’s chips face US export restrictions to the major market of China, part of Washington’s efforts to slow its Asian adversary’s advancement in the strategic technology.Asked about this, Huang replied that his company is not alone in needing to respect each country’s laws.

The White House accused judges on Wednesday of “usurping” executive power in its latest broadside against federal courts whose rulings have gone against President Donald Trump’s administration.Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt alleged there had been a “concerted effort by the far left” to pick judges who were “clearly acting as partisan activists” to deal with cases involving the Republican’s actions.”Not only are they usurping the will of the president and the chief executive of our country, but they are undermining the will of the American public,” Leavitt said at a daily briefing.Leavitt in particular lashed out at District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the suspension over the weekend of deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants carried out under an obscure wartime law, calling him a “Democrat activist.”Trump’s administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport the alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador as part of its mass deportation program of undocumented migrants. Their names or alleged offenses have not been made public. Trump personally called for the judge’s impeachment on Tuesday, saying Boasberg was “a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama.”The Yale-educated Boasberg, 62, was first appointed to the bench by president George W. Bush, a Republican, and later named a district court judge by Obama, a Democrat.Trump’s comments drew a rare public rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.”For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said.Boasberg, in an order in the deportation case on Wednesday, also issued a pointed reminder to Justice Department lawyers that court rulings are to be obeyed.”As the Supreme Court has made crystal clear, the proper recourse for a party subject to an injunction it believes is legally flawed… is appellate review, not disobedience,” he said.- ‘Assault on democracy’ -Federal judges are nominated by the president for life and can only be removed by being impeached by the House of Representatives for “high crimes or misdemeanors” and convicted by the Senate.Impeachment of federal judges is exceedingly rare and the last time a judge was removed by Congress was in 2010.Trump, in an interview aired on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle” on Wednesday, said the chief justice “didn’t mention my name in the statement.””But many people have called for (Boasberg’s) impeachment,” he said. “He actually said we shouldn’t be able to take criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the worst people, gang members, gang leaders… out of our country.”Well, that’s a presidential job,” Trump said. “That’s not for a local judge to be making that determination.”Judges have dealt Trump a number of setbacks in recent weeks as his administration pursues its wholesale overhaul of the federal government.Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship has been blocked by the courts and a judge on Tuesday ordered an immediate halt to the shutdown of the main US aid agency by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).On the same day, another judge suspended the Pentagon’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.The South African-born billionaire Musk railed against what he called a “judicial coup” in posts on his social network X.”We need 60 senators to impeach the judges and restore rule of the people,” Musk said, misstating the process and the actual number of senators required — 67.White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller also lashed out at the judiciary, accusing it of waging an “assault on democracy.””District court judges have assumed the mantle of Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security and Commander-in-Chief,” Miller said on X.Trump, the first convicted felon to serve in the White House, has a history of attacking the judges who presided over his civil and criminal cases.But Trump’s administration now appears bent on a showdown with the judiciary as he asserts extraordinary levels of executive power.

A New York businessman was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Wednesday for his role in a plot to force a US resident to return to China.Quanzhong An, 58, was one of seven people charged in October 2022 for involvement in a Chinese government repatriation scheme known as “Operation Fox Hunt.”An, who pleaded guilty in May of last year to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, was the leader of the multi-year campaign, according to the Justice Department.Judge Kiyo Matsumoto sentenced him to 20 months in prison and a financial penalty of $5 million, including $1.3 million in restitution to the US resident targeted in the repatriation plot.The US resident who was the victim of threats, harassment and intimidation by An and others has not been identified.According to the Justice Department, Operation Fox Hunt involves extra-judicial repatriation squads that clandestinely attempt to force expatriates to return to China.Beijing has defended the operation as part of an anti-corruption campaign and said its law enforcement agencies follow international laws when abroad.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at the time of the October 2022 indictment that Beijing was “fighting crimes, repatriating fugitives and recovering illegal proceeds.”

From erasing the stories of Navajo “code talkers” on the Pentagon website to demolishing a “Black Lives Matter” mural in Washington, President Donald Trump’s assault on diversity across the United States government is dismantling decades of racial justice programs.Delivering on a campaign promise, the Republican billionaire made it one of his first acts in office to terminate all federal government diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, which he said led to “illegal and immoral discrimination.”The crackdown on DEI initiatives at the Pentagon has been broad, ranging from a ban on recruiting transgender troops — a move stayed by a court this week — to removing vast troves of documents and images from its website.Earlier this month, Civil War historian Kevin M. Levin reported that Arlington National Cemetery had begun to wipe its website of the histories of Black, Hispanic and women war veterans. “It’s a sad day when our own military is forced to turn its back on sharing the stories of the brave men and women, who have served this country with honor,” Levin wrote on his Substack.”This insanity must stop.”- ‘Woke cultural Marxism’ -References to war heroes, military firsts, and even notable African Americans were among the swathe of images and articles marked for deletion, according to a database obtained by the Associated Press.Among the more than 26,000 items marked to be removed were references to the Enola Gay, the US aircraft that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 — apparently because the plane’s name triggered a digital search for word associated with LGBT inclusion.   Other content removed by the Pentagon included stories on the Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first African American military aviators, and baseball legend and veteran Jackie Robinson. Responding to a question on those and other removals, the Pentagon on Wednesday said it saluted the individuals, but refused to see “them through the prism of immutable characteristics.””(DEI) is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission,” said Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot.He added that in “rare cases” that content was removed that should not have been, it would be restored — as was the case with the articles on Robinson and on Navajo “code talkers” — but defiantly stood by the purge as a whole. – ‘Erase history’ -Not everyone has been convinced by the Pentagon’s explanations around the purge.Descendants of the Native Americans who played a vital role for US forces in World War II said they had been shocked to discover their ancestors’ heroic contributions had been effectively deleted from the public record.”I definitely see it as an attempt to erase the history of people of color in general,” said Zonnie Gorman, daughter of military veteran Carl Gorman. Carl Gorman was one of the young Navajo “code talkers” recruited by the US Navy in 1942 to test the use of their Indigenous language, whose complex structure made it an almost impossible-to-crack wartime code.Several web pages detailing the role of the group, whose contribution was key to the United States’ victories in the Pacific between 1942 and 1945 in battles such as Iwo Jima, recently disappeared from the Pentagon’s site.For Gorman, a historian, the action was an insult.”From the very beginning, we are very invisible in this country, and so to have a story that was so well recognized for us as Indigenous people, that felt good,” she told AFP.”And then this is like a slap in the face.”- Chilling effect -The US president’s move to end DEI programs has also affected more than just the federal government.Since he won last year’s election, several major US corporations — including Google, Meta, Amazon and McDonalds — have either entirely scrapped or dramatically scaled back their DEI programs. According to the New York Times, the number of companies on the S&P 500 that used the words “diversity, equity and inclusion” in company filings had fallen nearly 60 percent compared to 2024.The American Civil Liberties Union says Trump’s policies have taken a “‘shock and awe’ approach that upends longstanding, bipartisan federal policy meant to open doors that had been unfairly closed.”US federal anti-discrimination programs were born of the 1960s civil rights struggle, mainly led by Black Americans, for equality and justice after hundreds of years of slavery, whose abolition in 1865 saw other institutional forms of racism enforced.Today, Black Americans and other minorities continue to disproportionately face police violence, incarceration, poverty, homelessness and hate crimes, according to official data.

President Donald Trump’s administration advanced another major US natural gas export project on Wednesday, handing oil companies a win the same day as a White House meeting with industry executives.The Energy Department approved an export authorization for the Venture Global CP2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, drawing praise from business groups and withering criticism from environmentalists.The project is the fifth major LNG export venture progressed since Trump returned to the White House, the Department of Energy said in a news release.Energy Secretary Chris Wright touted the project following the late-afternoon White House meeting, which included the CEOs of ExxonMobil, Chevron and other oil giants, according to US media.”We want to bring low cost, affordable, reliable, secure energy to Americans and our allies around the world,” said Wright, who slammed former president Joe Biden’s administration for suspending LNG expansions over environmental concerns.The White House meeting comes as uncertainty around Trump’s trade tariffs and threats stokes concerns about the economy slowing.The oil industry has kept a muted public stance on Trump’s myriad tariff actions, while privately expressing misgivings about the policy.Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told reporters that dialogue on tariffs was “ongoing,” while downplaying the chances that there will be a significant economic impact.Burgum and Wright said they were committed to streamlining permitting of new petroleum projects, addressing the industry’s criticism about lengthy delays due to protests from environmental groups.Environmentalists have attacked projects like the CP2 LNG venture because of the increased pollution affecting communities near such industrial sites, while slamming LNG as exacerbating climate change.”The Trump administration’s conditional approval of CP2 illustrates everything that’s wrong with Trump’s fossil fuel agenda,” said Allie Rosenbluth, US campaign manager for Oil Change International.”It comes on the same day as Trump welcomes oil and gas industry donors to the White House to brag about the favors he’s done them -– clear evidence of who this administration actually serves.”Mahyar Sorour of the Sierra Club called the latest LNG project approval “a disaster for local communities devastated by pollution, American consumers who will face higher costs, and the global climate crisis that will be supercharged by the project’s emissions.”

The US Federal Reserve paused interest rate cuts again on Wednesday and warned of increased economic uncertainty as it seeks to navigate an economy unnerved by President Donald Trump’s stop-start tariff rollout.Policymakers voted to hold the US central bank’s key lending rate at between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent, the Fed announced in a statement. They also cut their growth forecast for 2025 and hiked their inflation outlook, while still penciling in two rate cuts this year — in line with their previous forecast in December.”Uncertainty today is unusually elevated,” Fed chair Jerome Powell told reporters after the US central bank’s decision was published, adding that at least part of a recent rise in inflation was down to tariffs.All three major Wall Street indices closed higher on the news, while government bond yields fell after the Fed announced it would slow down the rate at which it is reducing its balance sheet, which swelled during the pandemic. In an unusual move, Fed governor Christopher Waller opposed the Fed’s rate decision because of his colleagues’ support for slowing down the pace at which it is shrinking the balance sheet. – ‘Unclear’ tariff policy -Since returning to office in January, Trump has ramped up levies on top trading partners including China, Canada and Mexico — only to roll some of them back — and threatened to impose reciprocal measures on other countries.Many analysts fear Trump’s economic policies could push up inflation and hamper economic growth, and complicate the Fed’s plans to bring inflation down to its long-term target of two percent while maintaining a healthy labor market.”Everybody knew there was not going to be a rate cut,” Moody’s Analytics economist Matt Colyar told AFP after the Fed’s decision was published. “What has changed is the kind of broader economic environment, mostly coming out of chaotic policy coming from DC.”Until fairly recently, the hard economic data pointed to a robust American economy, with the Fed’s favored inflation measure showing a 2.5 percent rise in the year to January — above target but down sharply from a four-decade high in 2022.Economic growth was relatively robust through the end of 2024, while the labor market has remained quite strong, with healthy levels of job creation and the unemployment rate hovering close to historic lows. But the mood has shifted in the weeks since Trump returned to the White House, with inflation expectations rising and financial markets tumbling amid his on-again, off-again rollout of tariffs. – Recession risk up -In updated economic forecasts published Wednesday, Fed policymakers sharply cut their growth forecast for this year to 1.7 percent, down from 2.1 percent in the last economic outlook in December. They also downgraded their outlook for growth next year, while raising their forecast for headline inflation in both 2025 and 2026.  But they kept their rate cut predictions largely unchanged, penciling in two rate cuts this year and next, in line with their previous forecast.Powell told reporters that the risk of recession in the United States had risen slightly in recent weeks, but was not yet a cause for concern.”If you go back two months, people were saying that the likelihood of a recession was extremely low,” he said. “It has moved up but it’s not high.”At the White House, which sits a short walk from the Fed’s Washington headquarters, Trump’s National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett took questions about the Fed chair’s press conference.”I try not to cherry pick things that chairman Powell said,” he told reporters. “And I think that chairman Powell is clear that if there were a tariff effect, it’s a transitory one.” “What gets tariffed and not is something that you’ll have complete clarity on on April 2,” he added, referring to the date at which Trump has said he intends to impose retaliatory levies on US trading partners.