'Crazy, unreliable leadership': Democrats condemn Trump's national guard deployment to LA
National guard officers clashed with protesters in Los Angeles after arriving in the city on the orders of Donald Trump to quell demonstrations against his immigration crackdown. 'We know Trump doesn't like us' said California representative Maxine Waters. 'He's gonna try and make an example out of us,' she said. Asked if he planned to send US troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied, 'We're gonna have troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country. We're not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.'
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Daily Mail
32 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Australia's biggest aluminium smelter on verge of collapse putting up to 6000 jobs in jeopardy
Australia's biggest aluminium smelter is in crisis talks with the federal and state governments to continue operating as crippling electricity bills threaten 6,000 jobs. Tomago, which is majority owned by mining giant Rio Tinto, is negotiating on the design of its 2026 to 2029 electricity contract, The Australian Financial Review revealed last week. The Newcastle smelter employs 1,200 people full-time but its possible closure would joepardise the future of another 5,000 workers in the Hunter region, north of Sydney. Australia's key aluminium smelter, which opened in 1983, is now seeking support from the NSW and federal governments to stay afloat as Australia's only manufacturer of long-steel, in Whyalla, is propped up by the South Australian government. The latest development comes a week after Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium to 50 per cent. Sydney radio 2GB broadcaster Ben Fordham suggested taxpayers could be stumping up billions of dollars just to keep Tomago afloat. 'This is not good: Tomago Aluminium, Australia's biggest smelter is on the verge of collapse,' he said on Tuesday. 'Why? Their power bill is too high. They're in emergency talks with state and federal governments asking for billions of dollars just to stay open. And if it shuts, well, we're not just losing a smelter, we're risking 6,000 jobs. 'There are thousands of families, contractors, supplies and regional businesses on the line.' Rio Tinto, which owns 51.55 per cent of Tomago Aluminium Company, in January welcomed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's Future Made in Australia plan to provide production credits to alumunium manufacturers. Chief executive Kellie Parker also begged for federal government help to pay for sky-high electricity bills. 'The Australian government's commitment shows strong confidence in domestic manufacturing and the nation's position in the global economy,' she said. 'As traditional energy sources for heavy industry become increasingly uncompetitive, today's announcement is a critical piece in helping future-proof the industry. 'Such support is crucial for sustaining and growing regional economies.' The smelter's big shareholder Rio Tinto also flagged a bailout package from the NSW government to keep Tomago operating. 'Rio Tinto also welcomes ... looks forward to working with the New South Wales Government to help secure the future of that operation,' it said in a media release. Tomago, which is majority owned by mining giant Rio Tinto, employs 1,200 people full-time but its possible closure would jeopardise the future of another 5,000 workers in the Hunter region north of Sydney Rio Tinto also owns the Boyne Smelter in central Queensland, which last year received subsidies from the state government to transition to renewable energy. Albanese in January visited the Tomago plant with the Labor member for the then marginal seat of Paterson, Meryl Swanson. 'This is my third visit to Tomago, because this is such an important facility,' he said. 'And essentially it's about people, it's about the jobs that are created here. Up to a thousand direct jobs. 'But when you look at this local community, there's 5,000 jobs depend on this facility just locally. But more importantly than that, it's the tens of thousands of jobs throughout Australia that depend on us being able to make things here.'
Finextra
39 minutes ago
- Finextra
Why is regulation no longer a priority for US financial services?
0 Financial regulation in the US is so yesterday's news. Based on recent actions and/or comments from the Trump administration and the regulatory agencies assigned to measure and monitor a multitude of factors that surround and secure the country's financial system, oversight of banks, savings institutions and credit unions (FIs) – and even emerging sectors and those previously deemed 'risky' - isn't a top federal priority anymore. The Trump administration's postings and pronouncements in the first half-year of its tenure don't only involve reducing 'red tape' for existing financial providers and products under the purview of these agencies and others. They're also aimed at opening up the industry to new or potential products, services and entrants like crypto firms, buy now pay later (BNPL) companies, money service businesses, and other banking and fintech upstarts. New regulations cancelled, pending ones pulled, some fingers pointing to potential reasons why The marketplace in financial services is in constant flux, which is one of the reasons - along with the fact that the industry deals every second with payments, deposits, and transfers of hard-earned cash and earnings which consumers and businesses trust to be safely managed - that it has been closely regulated by the federal government for at least 100 years. As agency oversight of all kinds continues to be deemphasised by the Trump regime, keep watching as other fringe financial products and services emerge over the coming months, and advocacy for consumer protection either wanes or increases as result. Then there are the vexing 'separation of powers' and ethical issues involved. Some industry enthusiasts and others have pointed out that the Trump family's ownership and development of various cryptocurrency and other assets raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest related to personal profit and the president's influence on industry regulations. The Supreme Court may end up confronting some of these issues, though it's anyone's guess exactly when or how this would occur. Old and new financial services rules dropped, loosened under new Trump agency heads According to the Brookings Institution's Center on Regulation and Markets tracker, some of the substantial changes that have been made by Trump administration agencies to overturn previously Biden-passed or sponsored initiatives directly or tangentially involving financial services include 'nullifying' the previous cabinet's rules or executive orders limiting overdrafts for large financial institutions, protecting Americans from harmful data broker practices, governing the introduction and use of digital assets, setting the future of cryptocurrency regulation, and ensuring the development of secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence tools. Dropping enforcement actions, already on the books from the previous administration, is just a start. Some would argue there are other decisions not mentioned above but listed on the Brookings tracker - like Trump's executive order withdrawing the US from the Paris climate change agreement – that have major impacts on financial services as well. This is because financial institutions in general and especially some of the world's largest firms headquartered in this country have been identified as linchpins – due to their influence on the policies of multinational to smaller companies using their lending and other banking services - to achieving net zero carbon emissions or other environmentally related goals in the US, but across the globe. Bank and fintechs wrestling with upheaval of 'catch-and-release' 'America First' tariff edicts The current administration's 'America First' trade policy and increased or newly instituted tariffs on products made by countries from A to Z clearly have a substantial impact on financial institutions and fintechs as well. They have quickly changed the nature and likely the total number of international transactions handled by banking firms. The constant revisions and restatements of tariff policies and rules and frequent delays or suspensions of regulatory implementation for such import taxes against supply chain partners or suppliers in various nations around the globe have led to significant uncertainty. This lack of clarity impacts not just commercial enterprises and the businesses and consumers who are their customers, but established and emerging banking providers for all of them as well. Open banking regulation – as defined under Biden CFPB, is dead – yet data sharing continues One of several examples of the new administration's direction on financial regulation emerged late in May when open banking reform - via a much-discussed and debated amendment to original post-2008-10 financial crisis Dodd-Frank legislation - was officially deemed 'dead' – at least for now. The partisan Dodd-Frank Act was passed by Congress in 2010 under the Obama administration to help fix some of the damage wrought by what Investopedia termed 'perhaps the worst economic catastrophe to befall the country (and the world) since the Wall Street crash in 1929,' and widespread losses largely caused, they said, 'by greed-driven behavior and lax oversight of financial institutions.' Later, bipartisan legislation was signed in 2018 to reduce the law's regulatory burdens on smaller financial institutions. The '1033 rule,' finalised by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in October 2024 after being formally proposed a year prior, was designed to further update Dodd-Frank to modernise industry interoperability and data sharing through use of standard interfaces (APIs.) This would eliminate the 25-year-old practice of 'screen-scraping' (often at the request of customers) of one financial services company's online data records to fill another's held in that same client's name. Rule 1033 provided clear guidelines for greater consumer rights in data control and protection, data handling, and third-party sharing requirements for Fis and fintechs around financial services and inclusion. Though many financial institutions supported 1033's aims in principle, some had strong concerns about the specific technical challenges and potential liability issues that it raised. These were primarily associated with its requirements for managing customer data ownership and responsibilities for data-sharing and permissions among multiple providers. The rule (and with it, most plans to formally progress open banking initiatives) has now been sent back to the drawing board, with its declaration as 'unlawful' by federal regulators as of the end of May. About face on many regulatory fronts thrills some, concerns others in financial services arena In a business world that usually champions laissez faire governmental policies, financial services deregulation or rule repeals as described have been hailed by some as a 'good thing' for business. Some operators, especially those outside of the mainstream FI world, might go even further to say 'no' regulation at all is best. But the Trump team's recent moves to kill or reduce many landmark regulations and cut thousands of agency staff responsible for policy development and ongoing monitoring of financial services providers and rules has been more than a wake-up call for the industry. Advocate groups are worried about reduced protection and oversight for consumer and business accounts and community lending, as well as how federal regulatory retreat might derail efforts to promote financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked across society. Indeed, the rapid changes made to financial services regulations and policies have left some in-country and outside observers and even leaders of some individual entities involved concerned. That's because regulations can stabilise and standardise industry rules and expectations (help 'level the playing field') while their detractors might claim they impose undue, unfair limitations on the marketplace. Yet, given recent administration proposals to relax bank capital requirements and privatise government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the mortgage arena, more disruption surely looms in the near future for the industry in the coming year. Trump agencies steamroll regulations from A to Z, even as court challenges continue That discord and uncertainty should no longer surprise anyone. Over the past (nearly) six months, the Trump administration and the president's new agency head appointees at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), and of course the much-maligned Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – which as it's been under a 'stop work' order for weeks pending lawsuits now in process, may or may not still exist when you read this - have taken an increasingly hands-off approach to the industry they oversee. Additionally, the Biden era rule that would have added new weight to the nearly 50-year-old Community Reinvestment Act as it 'evaluated bank performance on a nationwide basis' and 'took into account deposit-taking services,' according to a report from the Goodwin Law firm, will now be withdrawn by order of the new management of federal agencies that had previously supported it. Apparently, in this case at least, Goodwin opines, most financial institutions would be in favor, as 'reversion back to the old rules would likely be seen by the industry as a lowering of the regulatory burden.' A bigger and potentially more controversial change under Trump, according to the firm's Bill Stern, comes from new guidance and the proposed removal by the FDIC and OCC of 'reputational risk' as a factor during bank and savings association examinations. This would be a significant departure from policies known well to current financial institutions and compliance departments. In Stern's view, this shift in policy is 'likely to provide some additional flexibility for banks to provide services to companies that present heightened risk – in particular anti-money laundering risk' associated with money services and crypto firms, previously off-limits as customers to most traditional banks (and their regulators.) Mergers and acquisitions get green light despite financial inclusion and consumer cost concerns Finally, regarding government regulators' and Congress's intentions to oppose or contest 'creative' new mergers or acquisitions in the financial services arena, they appear dead in the water as well. The acquisition of Discover by Capital One to create a huge new player (eighth largest bank by assets) and processing power in the cards and payments arena had been challenged by the Biden administration's policymakers for increasing industry concentration among payments providers. The Trump administration dropped its opposition in early April and the deal was approved around ten days later by the Federal Reserve and OCC. Now, as announced by Capital One in May, it is complete. This may be the start of further industry consolidation amid other similar financial services merger approvals. Based on two major rescissions of FDIC and OCC rules on mergers in late May, it looks like the federal agencies' desires to question or contest banking combinations and acquisitions – shaped for more than three decades or more under several prior administrations - have been largely squelched. The message being transmitted now from previously activist financial regulatory bodies to many of their covered entities has shifted, in less than six months, from 'Let's take a closer look at that, because...' to something akin to 'Never mind what we said last year, or during the prior administration - just go for it!'
NBC News
42 minutes ago
- NBC News
Israeli navy attacks Yemen's rebel-held port city of Hodeida for first time in the conflict
The Israeli navy attacked docks in Yemen's rebel-held port city of Hodeida on Tuesday, likely damaging facilities that are key to aid shipments to the hungry, war-wracked nation. The Israeli military said navy missile ships conducted the strikes, the first time its forces have been involved in attacks against the Houthi rebels. Tuesday's attack comes as the Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones targeting Israel during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis announced the attack via their al-Masirah satellite news channel. They said the attack targeted docks there, without elaborating. Late Monday, Israel issued online warnings to Yemenis to evacuate from Ras Isa, Hodeida and al-Salif ports over the Houthis' alleged use of seaports for attacks. 'The port is used to transfer weapons and is a further example of the Houthi terrorist regime's cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure in order to advance terrorist activities,' the Israeli military said in a statement Tuesday. Hodeida also is the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis since the war began when the Houthis seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in 2014. The Houthis have been launching persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's offensive in Gaza. From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually. The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. President Donald Trump paused those attacks just before his trip to the Mideast, saying the rebels had "capitulated" to American demands. Early Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on the social platform X that U.S. Navy ships had traveled through the Red Sea and its Bab el-Mandeb Strait "multiple times in recent days" without facing Houthi attacks. 'These transits occurred without challenge and demonstrate the success of both Operation ROUGH RIDER and the President's Peace Through Strength agenda,' Hegseth wrote ahead of facing Congress for the first time since sharing sensitive military details of America's military campaign against the Houthis in a Signal chat. It's unclear how the Houthis will respond now that an attack has come from the sea, rather than the air, from the Israelis.
