• Markets tumble: Financial markets around the world plunged Thursday following President Donald Trump’s latest volley of tariffs. The S&P 500 fell 4.8%, more than other major global stock markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,679 points, and the Nasdaq composite was down 6%. Markets in Europe and Asia fell further on Friday. – The Associated Press
  • Related Monitor story: The U.S. administration appears certain that some mistakes – or even a recession – are OK if larger goals are being served.
• Ruling in South Korea: Its Constitutional Court removed Yoon Suk Yeol as president. Friday’s verdict comes more than three months after the National Assembly impeached Mr. Yoon after he threw the nation into turmoil by declaring martial law in an effort to break legislative gridlock. The country must hold a new presidential election within two months. – AP
• Security agency firings: The White House fired Gen. Tim Haugh as director of the National Security Agency, along with a civilian deputy. Dismissed earlier Thursday: several officials from the National Security Council, reportedly after Mr. Trump was presented with a list of staffers deemed “disloyal” and insufficiently committed to the “America First” foreign policy by far-right activist Laura Loomer. According to reports, national security adviser Mike Waltz was spared despite his embarrassing role in “Signalgate.” – Staff
• Rubio reassures NATO: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration’s new envoy to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, are seeking to reassure wary members of the United States’ commitment to the alliance. Mr. Rubio decried “hysteria and hyperbole” in the media about the U.S. president’s intentions, despite signals from Washington that NATO may no longer be relevant. – AP
• Minerals for security in Congo? The U.S. is in talks to invest billions of dollars in mineral-rich Congo and to help end a conflict in the country’s east, a senior adviser for Africa said. The Democratic Republic of Congo, which has reserves of cobalt, lithium, and uranium, has been fighting Rwanda-backed rebels who have seized swaths of territory. The U.S. said a Congolese senator contacted U.S. officials to pitch a deal. – Reuters
  • Related Monitor story: The preconditions and relationships are different. But in mineral-rich Ukraine, reactions to U.S. overtures included seeing some promise in American investment.
• India targets Muslim land: Indian Parliament’s lower house passed a bill moved by the Hindu nationalist government to amend laws governing Muslim land endowments. The bill would give the government a larger role in validating land holdings. The government says the changes will fight mismanagement and promote diversity. Critics are concerned they could be used to confiscate mosques and other property. The bill goes next to the upper house. – AP

It’s easy to start a trade war. It’s harder to stop one. And it’s almost impossible to win one. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump unleashed such a war on the world. The next phase is more dangerous: whether targeted nations’ responses will set off rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs.

As the Trump administration claims broad authority to summarily deport “alien enemies” in an “invasion,” efforts to control U.S. borders and immigration are running up against concerns for individual rights. For immigrants, one of the most basic rights – the ability to have due process in a court of law – is in question. Our explainer looks at the factors in play on an issue that’s been litigated for over a century.

President Donald Trump’s derisive attitude toward longtime allies has resulted in boycotts of American goods and plummeting opinion polls. Nowhere in Europe, for example, does more than half the population have a positive attitude toward the United States, according to a YouGov poll. But it has a silver lining: These countries are finding a renewed sense of common purpose and national pride.

You’re a Saskatchewan farmer looking for a better life. You’ve decided that moving to another country is the best way to get there. Is Russia your destination? Our Moscow-based writer, also Canadian, went to the Russian countryside to find out why one family said yes. “My hope is that every one of our children will become a farmer,” Arend Feenstra told Fred Weir. “You can’t do that in Canada anymore.” Mr. Feenstra was part of a small wave that began in September after Vladimir Putin signed a decree easing the way. But in the past two years, some 3,500 immigrants from “unfriendly countries” have made their way to Russia. – Gail Russell Chaddock and Jingnan Peng

Find story links and a full transcript here. 

When rockets target Israel, correspondent Dina Kraft and her family rush to a local bomb shelter, which is really just a dusty storage space under a Tel Aviv apartment building. In this “letter,” she tells of being part of a community that has formed over the course of the Israel-Hamas war – and of watching its youngest children grow, including in their awareness of why they’re there.

“The Friend” unspools a tale of loss, grief, and understanding. The human-animal film genre, as Monitor critic Peter Rainer notes, can fall prey to gushiness and treacle. But “The Friend,” with its blend of melancholy and comedy, avoids that pitfall. Naomi Watts gives one of her best performances ever, Peter says, and her canine companion proves a worthy partner.

The most-watched show globally on Netflix last month was “Adolescence,” a fictional and disturbing drama about a 13-year-old British boy charged with killing a girl. The intense acting and film style (one continuous take per episode) explores the origins of such an evil act.

The popularity of the four-part series, however, lies largely in the boy’s lonely descent into the digital universe of misogynistic social media and cyberbullying. The show has revived interest in restricting teens’ access to the internet – such as Australia’s pending ban on social media for people under age 16 – as well as banning phones in schools.

Yet like a good plot twist, this cultural moment in film has a countermoment in another medium. Young people in the United States are descending on (physical) bookstores, driven not only because of the popularity of a video-posting site, BookTok, but also so they can enjoy the safe and inclusive community that many bookstores now offer.

Members of Generation Z and Generation Alpha are discovering what life was like before the iPhone, when reading books like “Lord of the Flies” and “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” came with the touch of paper, the smell of ink, and in-person conversation about the relevance of a coming-of-age story to teenage angst.

To be sure, the percentage of boys between the ages of 8 and 18 in Britain who enjoy reading has fallen over the past two decades, from 46% to 28%, according to the National Literacy Trust. The country’s prime minister wants “Adolescence” to be shown in schools to encourage “conversations” about what troubles today’s boys. Still, almost two-thirds of people between the ages of 16 and 25 say BookTok has nudged them to discover a passion for reading, according to a survey by the Publishers Association.

In the U.S., meanwhile, the biggest (and once flailing) bookstore chain, Barnes & Noble, opened or reopened 57 shops last year and plans to open at least 60 more this year. The entire book industry has been revived largely because young people are using BookTok, a subcommunity of TikTok, to review and share their favorite books and authors.

Many bookstores now display favorites on BookTok or organize social gatherings around those books. “Many stores have ... truly become a go-to destination for kids and teenagers to gather after school,” a Barnes & Noble spokesperson told Business Insider.

Or as one college student, Karis Hudgins at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, wrote in her school newspaper: “The world of literature is now more inclusive and accessible than ever before.” Lonely boys, take note.