“The Trump administration is preparing to impose new tariffs on [American buyers of] branded drugs from pharmaceutical companies that have not struck landmark deals with the president to lower their U.S. drug prices, CNBC has learned. [American buyers of] Patented medications and their active ingredients would be hit with a 100% tariff, according to a draft of the document obtained by CNBC. But there are pathways for drugmakers to reduce or avoid the levies [on American buyers] if they move their manufacturing to the U.S. or are negotiating deals with the administration. … The plan would represent another shift in Trump’s aggressive trade strategy, more than a month after the Supreme Court struck down the global levies he imposed in 2025, which excluded the pharmaceutical industry.” (04/02/26)
“The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan on Thursday rejected an appeal by a prominent opposition politician who is serving a nine-year prison sentence, his lawyer told Reuters. Tofig Yagublu, 65, is a member of the opposition Musavat party and has been jailed numerous times over three decades for protesting against the government of the South Caucasus country. Yagublu was arrested in December 2023 and convicted in March last year of fraud and document forgery. His supporters say the case is politically motivated, while the authorities maintain he was rightly convicted of crimes.” (04/02/26)
“A woman in Arizona who went missing 32 years ago, when she was just 13 years old, has been found alive, authorities said this week. Christina Marie Plante was reported missing in May 1994 from Star Valley, Arizona, after she ‘vanished without a trace from her community,’ according to a statement released on Wednesday by the Gila county sheriff’s office. … At the time, her disappearance prompted an extensive search effort …. 32 years after her disappearance, the sheriff’s office announced on Wednesday that Plante had been ‘located alive.’ Investigators said that they have ‘confirmed her identify, and her status as a missing person has been officially resolved.’ The sheriff’s office added that ‘out of respect for Christina’s privacy and well-being, additional details will not be released at this time.'” (04/02/26)
“ICC member states have voted to pursue disciplinary proceedings against Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan after receiving reports regarding sexual assault allegations against him, according to a Wall Street Journal report. In a vote on Wednesday by a core group of member states, 15 voted in favour, two abstained and four voted against moving forward with the process, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Khan, who investigates war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, has taken leave of absence pending an inquiry into accusations of non-consensual sexual interaction with a lawyer in his office. He rejects any allegations of wrongdoing.” (04/02/26)
“Cloudflare has lifted the wraps off EmDash, a new open source CMS that it deems to be the ‘spiritual successor’ to WordPress. The company explained an overwhelming majority (96%) of WordPress vulnerabilities come from plugins, which have full access to the database and filesystem, and run in the same environment as the core code without any isolation. To tackle this, Cloudflare is putting each EmDash plugin in an isolated sandbox, called Dynamic Workers, with plugins having to declare exactly which permission it needs upfront.” (04/02/26)
“The death in the US of ‘nearly blind’ refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam, who was found outdoors in freezing temperatures days after his release from federal immigration custody, has been ruled a homicide in New York state. The Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office said Shah Alam’s death in the city of Buffalo was caused by ‘complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer, precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration.’ The designation of homicide may include negligent acts or omissions, the local officials said. It does not imply intent to cause harm or death, or indicate criminality. In response, a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman told the BBC it was ‘another hoax being peddled by the media and sanctuary politicians to demonise our law enforcement.'” (04/02/26)
“U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week as layoffs remain sparse despite a softening labor market and rising energy costs due to the Iran war. The number of Americans applying for jobless aid for the week ending March 28 fell by 9,000 to 202,000 from the previous week’s 211,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 212,000 new filings analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting and within the range of the past several years. Filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.” (04/02/26)
“Russia plans to send a second oil tanker to Cuba, the country’s energy minister said Thursday, citing the island’s ongoing energy blockade and reiterating Russia’s solidarity with the troubled Caribbean nation. The announcement comes just two days after sanctioned Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin docked at the Cuban port of Matanzas laden with 730,000 barrels of oil, marking the first time in three months that an oil tanker reached the island. Experts have said that shipment could produce about 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to feed Cuba’s daily demand for nine or 10 days.” (04/02/26)
“The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s interim president [sic], Delcy Rodriguez, in the latest sign of warming relations between Washington and Caracas after the U.S. military ousted Venezuela’s former authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced in a post on its website Wednesday that Rodriguez, 56, had been removed from its Specially Designated Nationals list, unfreezing any assets that may have been under her name in the United States while allowing her to conduct business in the United States and with U.S. persons.” [editor’s note: The administration of which Rodriguez was a member was defeated in last year’s election; legally, she holds no position in Venezuela’s regime – TLK] (04/02/26)
“Pakistan is holding talks with Afghanistan to end the worst conflict between the South Asian neighbours since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday. The talks in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi were being held between senior officials of the two countries, the spokesperson said. China has been trying to mediate a negotiated settlement to the conflict between the allies-turned-foes that share a 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border. The fighting, that began last October, has killed scores of people on both sides.” (04/02/26)
