Trump Pressed Ahead With Sweeping Tariffs

Just hours from now, at midnight, President Trump is set to impose steep new tariffs on many of America’s biggest trading partners. The fee on imports from China, for example, will rise from 30 percent to at least 104 percent. America’s top trade official defended the levies today as “a moment of drastic, overdue change.”

At least 70 governments have already approached the U.S. to discuss rolling back the tariffs, and the administration signaled today that it was ready to negotiate. But the president and his advisers have been clear that the appeals will not stop the tariffs from going into effect.

China has vowed to “fight to the end”; other countries, like Japan, indicated a willingness to compromise; the E.U. is trying to do a bit of both. Billionaire investors, worried that the tariffs will drag down the economy, have been calling the White House to push Trump to reverse course — though it’s not clear that they’ve had any effect.

That uncertainty has translated into massive volatility in the stock market. This morning, the S&P 500 was up 4 percent; it finished down about 1.6 percent. The early rally, seemed “to be pinned, in part, on the prospects for deals to lower tariffs,” Jason Karaian, our deputy business editor, said. That optimism may have faded.

Trump wants to bring back coal

Trump signed an executive order this afternoon aimed at expanding the use of coal in the U.S. It will direct federal agencies to remove barriers to coal leasing and mining and loosen environmental reviews of coal projects.

The president’s push appears designed to reverse a decades-long decline in the use of coal, the most polluting of all fossil fuels and the main driver of global warming. But utilities have switched to cheaper and cleaner electricity sources like natural gas, wind and solar power, and some analysts said a major coal revival is unlikely.

In related news, the Trump administration has opened thousands of acres of land to drilling and mining, reversing protections enacted during the Biden administration.

A deadly roof collapse in the Dominican Republic

The roof of a popular nightclub in the Dominican Republic caved in last night, killing at least 58 people and trapping many others inside. Using heavy machinery, drones and dogs, rescue workers searched through the rubble today, pulling out bodies and survivors.

The nightclub was hosting a Monday night dance party, a decades-old tradition frequented by a who’s who of Dominican society. Among those killed were a provincial governor and a former M.L.B. player. It is not yet clear what caused the collapse.

He was trapped in his house for 20 years. Then he set fire to it.

In February, firefighters responding to a blaze in Waterbury, Conn., found a 32-year-old man who weighed just 68 pounds. The man then revealed a series of shocking secrets: He had set the fire intentionally because his parents had trapped him, for the past 20 years, inside an 8- by-9-foot room. He had been forced to defecate into newspapers, and he hadn’t seen the outside world since the fourth grade.

Prosecutors charged his stepmother with kidnapping. She has denied all wrongdoing, but many in the community had feared for the man’s safety since he was a boy. Here is his story.

More top news

Six books to talk about

The shortlist for this year’s International Booker Prize — the prestigious award for fiction translated into English — was released today.

Each book on the list captures a different world. One satirizes digital nomads in Berlin. In another, a bookseller becomes stuck in a time loop. And a third is a collection of short stories about Muslim women in southern India. Together, the chair of the judging panel said, the works are “a vehicle for pressing and surprising conversations about humanity.” See the full list.

Pierre Boulez continues to influence music

The composer Pierre Boulez was a titan of 20th-century music. But a hundred years after his birth, and nearly a decade since his death, his music is out of fashion, and performances this spring celebrating his centennial were notable mostly for their rarity.

However, Boulez’s influence is still vast. Our critic Joshua Barone explained how, as a conductor and theorist, he helped change how we think about music itself by embracing experimentation and trying to dissolve the boundaries between performers and audience.

A new train station appeared overnight

It took less than six hours for workers in the Japanese city of Arida to assemble a brand-new, 3D-printed train station. Construction of the minimalist structure began after the last train pulled away at 11:57 p.m., and it ended before the first train arrived at 5:45 a.m.

The station was built with parts that were 3D-printed elsewhere and shipped in, which proved to be quick and cheap. Japanese rail officials said they hoped it would serve as an example for other rural stations.

Have an efficient evening.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Matthew

Natasha Frost contributed to today’s newsletter. Sean Kawasaki-Culligan was our photo editor.

We welcome your feedback. Write to us at evening@nytimes.com.