By MOURAD EL-TOUNI, Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — With the normally brisk Easter season around the corner, the mood in Switzerland’s chocolate business is bittersweet, thanks to high cacao prices and — now — the newly added U.S. tariffs on imports.

Many Swiss, from the government to chocolatiers to watchmakers and other businesses, are sensing “shock” over the tougher American position on trade, but many are also taking a wait-and-see stance.

At the Festichoc chocolate festival in Geneva over the weekend, the Trump administration tariffs announced last week were on many minds, though they seemed to do little to sour the mood on Switzerland’s most famous sweets.

Julie Jammes, marketing manager for Canonica, a Geneva chocolatier with three stores in San Francisco, said her company hasn’t yet made any decision on what actions might be taken. “We’re waiting a little longer, but it’s clearly a shock for us,” Jammes said.

FILE – Two bars of the Toblerone Swiss chocolate are pictured in London, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

That meshes with Switzerland’s overall approach: Despite hefty 31% U.S. tariffs slapped on Swiss goods — well more than the 20% faced by exports from European Union – the government in Bern is taking a cautious approach for now. But it has warned of the impact on crucial Swiss industries like watches, coffee capsules, cheese and chocolate.

“An increase in trade tensions is not in Switzerland’s interests. Countermeasures against US tariff increases would entail costs for the Swiss economy, in particular by making imports from the USA more expensive,” the government said last week, adding that the executive branch “is therefore not planning to impose any countermeasures at the present time.”

The government said Swiss exports to the United States on Saturday were subject to an additional 10% tariff, and another another 21% beginning Wednesday.

The United States is Switzerland’s second-biggest trading partner after the EU – a 27-member-country bloc that nearly surrounds the wealthy Alpine country of more than 9 million – and U.S.-Swiss trade in goods and services has quadrupled over the last two decades, the government said.

The Swiss government said Switzerland abolished all industrial tariffs on Jan. 1 last year, meaning that 99% of all goods from the United States can be imported into Switzerland duty-free.

The atmosphere remained bubbly at Festichoc, where eager shoppers nibbled chocolate squares and ogled at chocolate Easter bunny and egg sculptures at the annual gathering in the Geneva town of Versoix.

Jammes, of Canonica, expressed hope that the “loyal clientele” in the United States would remain faithful, but she said “I put myself in the consumer’s shoes” and realized a pocketbook pinch might dissuade many shoppers.

“I don’t see why I would pay $45 tomorrow for a box (of chocolates) that I’d pay $30 for today,” she said Saturday. “It’s still a very complicated issue.”

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The Swiss chocolate industry association Chocosuisse has expressed its disappointment over the Trump tariffs, even though it can still count on the domestic market: The Swiss are among the world’s top consumers of chocolate, scarfing down more than 22 pounds per year.

“It is completely incomprehensible that Switzerland is targeted by these tariffs,” Chocosuisse said, adding that it was taking the situation “very seriously” and decried how the U.S measure “hits our businesses hard and represents a heavy burden that will weigh on exports to the United States.”

Philippe Pascoet, a chocolatier from Geneva, lamented a sharp increase in cocoa prices over the last six months, and said the U.S. market has always been tricky for smaller producers.

“Trump now has wanted to impose taxes on imported products. But it has always been complicated to send chocolate to the United States, just for sanitary reasons,” he said. “They want to control what is imported into their country. So even people who used to order chocolate from us online often found it blocked at customs.”

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (AP) — A bogus rumor that President Donald Trump was considering a pause in tariffs briefly lifted markets Monday before the White House shot down the unfounded reports.

The confusion — which was amplified on social media and by some traditional media outlets — lasted less than a half hour but reflected a jittery mood on Wall Street as stocks plunged over worries that Trump’s tariffs could torpedo the global economy.

The origin of the false report was unclear but it appeared to be a misinterpretation of comments made by Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, during a Fox News interview earlier Monday morning.

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Asked whether Trump would consider a 90-day tariff pause suggested by a prominent hedge fund manager, Hassett said “I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide.”

Nearly two hours later, multiple user accounts on social media platform X posted identical messages claiming Hassett said Trump is considering a pause for all countries except China. Stock traders and some news outlets picked up the story, and the market skyrocketed on the hint of good news.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly erased a morning loss of 1,700 points, shot up more than 800 points and then went back to a loss of 629 points. The S&P 500 likewise made sudden up-and-down lurching movements.

The White House initially appeared as confused as everyone else. But after 20 minutes, a government account rejected the report as “fake news.”

Kevin Bacon plays a bail bondsman killed one day on the job, only to be suddenly back among the living and working for the devil as a demon hunter in Amazon’s “The Bondsman.”

It’s not like things were going well for Hub Halloran anyway. He was a lowlife to begin with and he committed a terrible act that doomed him to this fate. Still, he has no interest in doing the devil’s work — snuffing out demons is treacherous and messy — but he’s not in a position to negotiate. “You’re only standing here now because we brought you back,” says the nice young woman named Midge (Jolene Purdy) who is his supervisor. “Think of this like a work release and I’m your parole officer.” The alternative is a fast track to a very hot place and I’m not talking about Aruba. Good thing his Earthly skills are needed at the moment.

The eight-episode series is flecked with comedy. Hub’s death, for example, is the result of a deep knife wound across the neck. Turns out, nothing a little duct tape can’t fix. A duct tape joke! And the show starts out promisingly enough thanks to Bacon’s tongue-in-cheek, wiry beef-jerky swagger. But as with so many streaming series, my complaint remains unchanged: Shoulda been a movie. In this case, it probably could have been something along the lines of 2009’s “Zombieland,” which I didn’t even like that much, but at least it hangs together as a story with propulsion.

There are wayward demons wandering around terra firma in human form, it seems, and the devil would like them obliterated so they can be sent back into his welcoming arms. As far as his lower-level minions are concerned, Lucifer himself is like the unseen CEO of any conglomerate: Somewhere doing something, while mid-level managers and their subordinates ensure the day-to-day work gets done, quotas and all.

That’s a great conceit — Hell as a corporate nightmare and pyramid scheme — and it’s too bad the show doesn’t develop that idea further because it’s funny! Just in case Hub has any conscience-stricken moments, he’s informed that “demons nowadays first kill their victim, then possess them — helps them work around any kind of exorcism wrinkles.” So Hub is free to blast and bash away without any pangs of guilt that he’s also finishing off the previous owner of said body. But nobody else knows this; by all appearances, it just looks like he’s going on a murder spree. So he better not get caught.

His mom (the great Beth Grant) happens to be sitting next to him as Midge lays out the details of his new line of work, and somehow she takes it in stride. Later she says: Tell me the truth, did you die? “Yeah,” comes the casual reply, “I think maybe I did.” Before you know it, mom becomes his admin and sidekick. Another fun idea that isn’t developed enough. Hub arms himself with only a gun or two, which rarely does the trick. A chainsaw through the head? More effective. When he’s successful, the mangled corpse bursts into flames and heads back to you-know-where.

From left: Kevin Bacon as Hub Halloran and Jolene Purdy as Midge in “The Bondsman.” (Tina Rowden/Amazon)

Eventually Hub’s ex-wife Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles) and estranged teenage son Cade (Maxwell Jenkins) learn the truth about Hub and also the fact that Maryanne’s current boyfriend is the same two-faced scumbag who paid to have her ex killed in the first place.

Lacking shape and pacing, the series (created by Grainger David) is fundamentally at odds with what TV does best. It should have followed a rip roaring formula where Episode 1 had a heist-flavored sequence as we watch the gang get together and formulate a series of demon-killing strategies (Hub has no strategy, it’s just “show up and hope for the best”) and then everything thereafter could follow a monster-of-the-week template. There actually is a monster of the week, but these portions feel like afterthoughts rather than the central story. It doesn’t help that the core characters aren’t developed beyond their initial outlines. You keep waiting for the show to reveal what it’s really about.

That’s because “The Bondsman” struggles to figure out what it even is. The obvious comparison would be something like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but the show takes a long and winding road to nowhere instead. It’s a problem inherent to the ultra-short streaming seasons. The show’s genre and its episode order are at odds.

“The Bondsman” — 2 stars (out of 4)

Where to watch: Amazon

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.

By Sally French, NerdWallet

Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer in the U.S., but the days leading up to it tend to bring the biggest airport crowds. Some days around the long weekend are significantly busier than others, and if you can afford to be flexible when flying during Memorial Day weekend, you’ll save money and avoid the chaos at the airport.

The best and worst days to fly Memorial Day weekend

NerdWallet analyzed the past three years (2022, 2023 and 2024) of Transportation Security Administration checkpoint data for the six days before and six days after Memorial Day, which shows how many passengers were screened at TSA checkpoints.

For every year analyzed, the Friday before Memorial Day was the most crowded day to travel before the holiday, which is observed on the last Monday of May. For post-holiday travel, the Sunday after has attracted the largest crowds over the past three years.

We calculated the average daily number of passengers flying during this time frame in the past three years. Here are the most- and least-crowded days for the 13 days surrounding Memorial Day (including the holiday), ranked.

Flying before Memorial Day:

Most crowded:

Friday before Memorial Day (2.69 million passengers).
Thursday before (2.65 million).
Wednesday before (2.39 million).

Least crowded:

Saturday before (2.21 million).
Tuesday before (2.25 million).
Sunday before (2.26 million).

Flying on or after Memorial Day:

Most crowded:

Sunday after Memorial Day (2.62 million).
Memorial Day (Monday; 2.56 million).
Friday after (2.55 million).

Least crowded:

Saturday after (2.21 million).
Wednesday after (2.24 million).
Tuesday after (2.34 million).

Why flying the Friday of Memorial Day weekend isn’t ideal

Memorial Day weekend is often the first busy travel period of the year.

In 2024, the Friday before Memorial Day set a then-record for the busiest travel day at U.S. airports. However, that record was broken four more times in 2024 — three separate days during the summer and again on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (which currently holds the title of busiest travel day at U.S. airports ever).

The smarter, cheaper Memorial Day weekend itinerary

If you work a standard Monday-to-Friday workweek and have the holiday off, then leaving Friday after work and returning the Sunday after Memorial Day might make sense if you’re trying to maximize your vacation days. It would give you eight full days of vacation, and you’ll only need to request five days of vacation time.

But flying on Friday, Memorial Day Monday or the Sunday after Memorial Day means you’ll probably have to contend with higher flight prices and bigger airport crowds.

Try these travel days instead:

Travel on Saturday: Rather than rushing out from work Friday afternoon, take that evening to pack, spend Friday night in your own bed and take an early flight out Saturday. Morning flights are often more reliable than evening ones.

Fly home on the Tuesday or Wednesday after: A lot of people opt for traveling on Memorial Day itself, and many people fly the day after. But relatively few people extend their trip one more day and fly out on Tuesday, or even into Wednesday.

If you do, you’ll avoid the worst of the airport crowds. This can increase your chances of saving money on airfare. Plus, you’ll be home in time for a delightful two-day workweek — which might be just enough time to wrap up lingering tasks without getting fresh projects dumped on your desk.

Fly home the Saturday after: You can still have a weeklong vacation and avoid Sunday’s crowds by flying home the Saturday after Memorial Day.

Then you’ll have a full day at home to knock out laundry and meal prep before the next workweek starts. After all, sometimes the most relaxing way to end a trip is taking a vacation from that vacation.

Sally French writes for NerdWallet. Email: sfrench@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @SAFmedia.