Rally to be held in Boston in response to ICE raids, National Guard deployment in Los Angeles
Cross-partisan group Mass 50501 says it 'vigorously condemns the violent actions of ICE and the Trump administration against peaceful protestors in Los Angeles,' and is mobilizing in solidarity with local union leaders in Massachusetts by holding a rally at Boston City Hall Plaza from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Parts of Los Angeles look like a warzone on Monday morning after protests escalated over the weekend. The demonstrations come in response to Trump's immigration crackdown in the city.
Authorities and demonstrators have been clashing over recent immigration raids across California. Demonstrations started Friday and quickly turned violent, with cars set on fire and buildings damaged. The protest even spilled over onto the 101 Freeway, where some blocked traffic.
Those demonstrations prompted Trump to deploy 2,000 members of the National Guard, marking the first time since 1965 that a president deployed a state's National Guard without a request from the state's governor. Trump cited failures from local officials and the governor to squash the demonstrations.
'You have violent people, and we're not going to let them get away with it,' Trump said.
Leaders in California claim this is an abuse of power and only incites more aggression.
'What we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration. And deploying federalized troops is a dangerous escalation,' Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said.
Locally, Mass 50501 says its rally will demand the release of all the protesters in Los Angeles who were arrested over the weekend, including SEIU President David Huerta.
'This is an attack on American liberty. The right to freedom of speech and due process of the law must be protected above all else, and the response by the Trump administration is tantamount to a declaration of war against the American people,' Mass 50501 Council member Kylie Bemi said. 'Make no mistake—we will be peaceful, but we will not be quiet. They will hear us from Los Angeles. They will hear us from Washington, D.C."
Mass 50501 is also calling on Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey to safeguard Bay State residents from federal forces, Attorney General Andrea Campbell to prosecute ICE 'abductions' as kidnappings, and the Massachusetts labor unions to strike until these demands are met.
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Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump tariffs live updates: Inflation starts to show up in US economy; Trump-China next steps in focus
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Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. China has told local companies to avoid using Nvidia (NVDA) H20 processors, especially for government work. This makes it harder for Nvidia to recover billions in lost sales in China and affects the US government's plan to benefit from those sales. This latest move by China appears to be in response to the deal Nvidia and AMD (AMD) made with the US government over the weekend to pay the US 15% of the revenue for AI-related chip sales to China, adding a monetization layer to the Trump administration's tariff policy that has reoriented global trade relationships. In recent weeks, Chinese officials warned several firms against using these less advanced chips. The strongest advice was to keep J20 processors out of government national security projects, both for state-owned and private companies. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Japan's Nikkei hits record high on tariff relief, tech rally The Nikkei 225 (^N225) hit a record high Tuesday as easing US tariff fears boosted optimism, led by tech stocks and tariff relief. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. The Nikkei 225 (^N225) hit a record high Tuesday as easing US tariff fears boosted optimism, led by tech stocks and tariff relief. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
Note to critics of the Trump tariffs: This is not the 1930s
You could practically hear the cheering on Thursday as critics of President Trump finally got what they've waited months for — some indication that tariffs might (finally!) drive prices higher. Yesterday's Producer Price Index report showed wholesale prices jumped 0.9 percent over the last month, the biggest gain since June 2022. It followed another benign Consumer Price Index report published earlier in the week, making it all the more surprising. But, more than three-quarters of the gain was driven by services price escalation; there was some rise in the cost of machinery and other end goods, but the impact from tariffs was inconclusive. Here's a fact: No one — not Fed Chairman Jay Powell, not Goldman Sachs' CEO David Solomon, not Paul Krugman, who predicted markets would collapse if Trump were elected in 2016, nor all the talking heads on Bloomberg and elsewhere who have blasted Trump's tariff regimen — has any idea how his upending of global trade terms will turn out. There has never been a country that dominated the global economy as the U.S. now does, nor has there ever been a president like Trump determined to take advantage of that clout. Many have compared his tariffs with the stiff duties imposed by the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930, but there are huge differences between then and now, which may account for some of the unrelenting negativity about the president's program. Today, unlike then, the U.S. is the essential nation for producers of consumer goods. Americans spent $20 trillion last year, compared to $10 trillion by residents of the European Union and $8 trillion by Chinese citizens. Though the U.S. accounted for a larger share of global GDP in 1930 than it does today (35 percent vs. 26 percent), we were not the primary buyer of other countries' goods. In fact, in 1930, the U.S. enjoyed a trade surplus; last year, the U.S. had a net goods trade deficit of $1.2 trillion and an overall (including services) trade deficit of $918 billion — a record. Consequently, we have not seen countries retaliate against the tariffs imposed by the president as they did in the 1930s. The Smoot-Hawley tariffs averaged 59.1 percent on some 20,000 different categories of goods. In response, as the Foundation for Economic Education recalls, 'An outraged Canada slammed tariffs on goods that accounted for 30 per cent of American exports. France, Germany and the British Empire followed suit, either turning to alternative markets or developing substitute manufacturing that would replace goods previously acquired from America — or elsewhere, since many other countries were erecting wall-of-death tariffs.' This time, at least so far, there has been remarkably little of that retaliatory tit-for-tat. Some countries best positioned to punch back, like Canada, whose economy is inextricably integrated with that of its southern neighbor, have backed off threats to do so. Three-quarters of Canada's exports are to the U.S., and exports account for a hefty 34 percent of the country's GDP. A recent threat to slap U.S. tech companies with a heavy new tax vanished as Canadian officials tread carefully, hoping to eliminate the 35 percent tariff on Canadian imports not covered by the USMCA trade agreement, as well as a 50 percent tax on aluminum and steel imported from Canada. Otherwise, China is the most obvious hold-out to Trump's tariff regimen. Because of its grip on rare earths that are essential to U.S. manufacturers, and because it supplies a huge amount of cheap goods to American consumers, Beijing has serious leverage over the United States. Like Trump, they are willing to use it. Still, China's economy is struggling and President Xi Jinping must know that playing hardball with Trump will eventually be a losing game. 'Between 1929 and 1933,' the Foundation for Economic Education continues, 'U.S. imports collapsed by 66 per cent. Exports plummeted by 61 per cent. Total global trade fell by a similar amount.' Some consider the global depression responsible for much of the drop; others blame tariffs. Many economists and analysts today say that history should serve as a warning against the measures being enacted by Trump. The critics have relied too much on that historical comparison. In addition, political animus has driven liberal pundits to take (and promote) the darkest view imaginable about Trump's program. So far, most have been wrong. For months they predicted that tariffs placed on imports would drive inflation higher; they haven't. They predicted that the duties placed on imports would crush growth and lead to a recession. With consumer spending steadily advancing, according to credit card data, those dark days have yet to appear. Democrats are positively hoping for disaster. Trump ran on a platform of wrestling down Joe Biden's inflation; his adversaries are hoping he will fail, and they see tariffs as the likely agent of his failure. Bloomberg, MSNBC et the others have enthusiastically promoted the direst of predictions month after month, anticipating each new release of inflation data with the eagerness of kids waiting for Santa Claus. While glumly reporting month after month of weaker than expected inflation, the merchants of gloom inevitably add a '… yet.' They are positive that any minute now the tariff damage will blossom. They may be right; tariffs will almost surely boost prices, but the impact should be modest (after all, imports are only about 11 percent of our economy). At some point the pontificators will have to reassess their assumptions about how businesses and consumers will adapt to the higher duties. Many companies are scrambling to change their sourcing to avoid tariffs, and Americans are navigating around the price increases where possible. The end game for Trump is bringing more manufacturing to the U.S., beefing up industries essential to our security — like steel — and earning significant revenues as a valuable byproduct. How this all plays out is uncertain, but that Trump is committed to all three goals is not.
Gizmodo
27 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
New Bitcoin Purchases by the U.S. Government Still on the Table, Bessent Says
Bitcoin recently hit an all-time high of $124,400 and is up 93% from over a year ago. But fans of the cryptocurrency think it can go even higher, and those folks experienced a rollercoaster of emotions on Thursday after Scott Bessent gave conflicting signals about what the U.S. government had planned for the world's most popular cryptocurrency. Initially, Bessent disappointed Bitcoin fans Thursday morning when he said the U.S. government's so-called strategic Bitcoin reserve, first announced by President Donald Trump in March, would not be stocked with newly purchased Bitcoin anytime soon. But the Treasury Secretary seemed to reverse course later in the day, sending mixed signals to crypto folks who know that it'll really help juice the price if the Trump regime buys a boat-load of digital money for no good reason. Bessent was asked about gold during an interview on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo, and pivoted into talking about Bitcoin, which the White House has argued is important for the future. 'We've also started, to get into the 21st century, a Bitcoin strategic reserve. We're not going to be buying that, but we are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up. We're going to stop selling that,' Bessent said. The Treasury Secretary said that he believed the government's bitcoin holdings were somewhere between $15 billion and $20 billion, lower than previous estimates of $23 billion, as the crypto news outlet Protos notes. Why would any of this matter to crypto watchers? Because many were disappointed back in March when it turned out that rumors about a 'strategic reserve' of crypto meant that the U.S. government wouldn't be actually buying new Bitcoin. The U.S. Department of Justice often seizes crypto during criminal prosecutions, and rather than sell that crypto as it typically does, the Trump regime proposed holding onto it as a 'reserve.' Bessent's comments on Thursday morning seemed to confirm there were no plans to actually buy new Bitcoin, something he probably heard complaints about. Because by the afternoon, Bessent sent a tweet that seemed to contradict what he'd said on Fox Business. 'Bitcoin that has been finally forfeited to the federal government will be the foundation of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that President Trump established in his March Executive Order,' Bessent tweeted. 'In addition, Treasury is committed to exploring budget-neutral pathways to acquire more Bitcoin to expand the reserve, and to execute on the President's promise to make the United States the 'Bitcoin superpower of the world.'' What does 'budget-neutral pathways' mean? That's unclear. But it doesn't close the door on acquiring more Bitcoin in a way that would make the price rise, which is the only thing Bitcoin holders care about. Holding Bitcoin in a 'reserve' serves no purpose beyond making it more scarce, thus helping drive up the price. But the dream for crypto folks is for the U.S. government to inject real U.S. dollars into Bitcoin, artificially inflating the price even more and pushing a kind of free money into the crypto liquidity pool. Because none of this works without real dollars. When those dry up, you're left with little more than digital hopes and dreams. The U.S. dollar is literally backed by the U.S. military. Bitcoin? It's backed by your faith in its price to keep going up forever.
