Markets continued their free fall for a second straight day today, while the Fed indicated it's not likely to provide the interest-rate cuts President Trump wants.

• Trump's steadfast belief in tariffs is being tested from all sides.

💰 What they're saying: Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Trump's tariffs will translate into higher inflation and slower economic growth — and the higher inflation could be persistent, not temporary.

• Powell's remarks suggest that the Fed will offer no imminent relief from plunging markets and scrambled supply chains, Axios' Neil Irwin writes.
• The fear of lasting inflation will make the Fed wary of cutting rates even if the economy falters.
• "CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

🔻 By the numbers: The S&P 500 fell 6% today after China imposed retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. It's now down 17.4% since mid-February.

• The Nasdaq shed another 5.8%, bringing its two-day drop to 11.4%.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the S&P 500 is down 17.4% (not 20%) since mid-February.

America's warplanes of the future — the newly unveiled Air Force F-47 and a soon-to-be-named U.S. Navy fighter — look a lot like the past, Axios' Colin Demarest reports.

• Even in the age of cheap killer drones, the Pentagon is pouring tens of billions of dollars into incredibly high-tech planes built by legacy contractors.

⚡️ The intrigue: Far simpler drones have proven highly effective in Ukraine and elsewhere. But you're not going to replace U.S. airpower with thousands of $500 jury-rigged UAVs.

• U.S. pilots will be flying manned missions well into the future — partly because of a deeply engrained pilot culture, partly because drone tech is still ripening, and partly because of the dynamism of air combat.
• "If you talk to all those UAV pilots who used to be bomber pilots and fighter pilots and stuff, they will tell you there's a small percentage of missing the situational awareness of not being there," a retired Air Force lieutenant general told Axios.

🔨 State of play: The Air Force picked Boeing to build its new fighter. The Navy will announce a winner any day now between Boeing and Northrop Grumman.

• It will be years before either plane actually reaches an airstrip or carrier deck. But once they're delivered, these two aircraft will be the most sophisticated in America's public arsenal for a decade or more.

1. 📱President Trump gave TikTok another 75-day reprieve from the law banning it in the U.S. He said a deal for a partial sale is close. Go deeper.
2. ✈️ A Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador due to an "administrative error" must be returned to the U.S., a federal judge said. Go deeper.
3. ⚖️ British authorities charged comedian Russell Brand with rape and sexual assault. The alleged offenses involved four women and took place between 1999 and 2005. Go deeper.

Roughly, 1 in 5 Roku users in Sioux Falls, S.D., watched the first round of the women's NCAA tournament — more than any other market, Axios' Maxwell Millington reports.

• Columbia, S.C. — home to the defending champion Gamecocks — stole the viewership crown for the Elite 8, after South Dakota State was eliminated.

💙 Lexington, Ky., had the highest viewership for the first two rounds of the men's tournament.

• Kentucky made it to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019 under its new head coach, former UK player Mark Pope.

🏆 What's next: The women's Final Four tips off tonight at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. The championship game is Sunday.

• The men's Final Four begins tomorrow at 6 p.m. ET on CBS, with the championship on Monday.