US threatens Mexican airline flights over cargo, competition issues
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement the department could disapprove flight requests from Mexico if the government fails to address U.S. concerns over decisions made in 2022 and 2023. The department is also proposing to withdraw antitrust immunity from the Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), opens new tab joint venture with Aeromexico to address competitive issues in the market.
Mexico is the most popular international destination among U.S. airline travelers.
Delta said if the U.S. Department of Transportation withdraws approval it "would cause significant harm to consumers traveling between the U.S. and Mexico, as well as U.S. jobs, communities, and transborder competition."
The Transportation Department said Mexico has not been in compliance with a bilateral air agreement since 2022 when it abruptly rescinded slots and then forced U.S. all-cargo carriers to relocate operations in 2023.
Mexico's Transport Ministry and major Mexican airlines, including Aeromexico, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Duffy said Mexico was expected to complete construction to alleviate congestion at Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX), but that has yet to materialize three years later.
"By restricting slots and mandating that all-cargo operations move out of MEX, Mexico has broken its promise, disrupted the market, and left American businesses holding the bag for millions in increased costs," the department said.
The USDOT also said it could take action against European countries over limitations at airports. "We are monitoring European States to ensure that they apply the Balanced Approach process for noise abatement at their airports and do not implement unjustified operational restrictions," the department said.
The Transportation Department issued a pair of orders requiring Mexican airlines to file schedules with the department for all their U.S. operations by July 29 and requiring prior U.S. approval before operating any large passenger or cargo aircraft charter flights to or from the United States.
"Mexico has altered the playing field significantly for airlines in ways that reduce competition and allow predominant competitors to gain an unfair advantage in the U.S.-Mexico market," the department said. "Mexico's actions harm airlines seeking to enter the market, existing competitor airlines, consumers of air travel and products relying on time-sensitive air cargo shipments traded between the two countries, and other stakeholders in the American economy.'
If the U.S. rescinds antitrust approval for Delta and Aeromexico, they would be required to discontinue cooperation on common pricing, capacity management, and revenue sharing, but Delta would also be able to retain its equity stake in Aeromexico, maintain all of its existing flying in the U.S.-Mexico market unimpeded and continue a partnership.
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The Guardian
36 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Why many Black Americans are boycotting big-box retail stores: ‘using my money to resist'
Rebecca Renard-Wilson has stopped shopping at Target and all things Amazon including Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. These days, the mother of two shops for the things she needs at farmer's markets, small mom-and-pop stores or she goes directly to the websites of products she wants to purchase. 'I have options of where I put my money,' Renard-Wilson, 49, said. 'Yes, Target's convenient. Yes, Amazon Fresh is on my drive to my kids' school. The options that I have discovered have opened up new relationships. I feel more connected to my community because I'm not shopping at those big-box places. I'm able to now use my money not only to resist places that don't align with my values, but I'm able to now support places that do align with my values. To me, that's a win-win.' Renard-Wilson is among a growing group of African Americans who are ditching corporate big-box retail stores who rolled back their DEI programs and instead are shopping at small, minority- and women-owned businesses they believe value their dollars more. In February, more than 250,000 people signed a pledge to boycott Target after Rev Jamal Bryant, pastor of New Birth Baptist church outside of Georgia, called for a 40-day Target Fast that started at the beginning of the Lenten season. The boycott has become a movement across social media and within community neighborhoods nationwide with the shared goal of rejecting systems that do not value the African American community, and it has already impacted Target. In the first quarter of the year, the company reported a $500m loss in year-over-year sales, citing reaction to the boycott and lower foot traffic. Shortly after taking office in January, Donald Trump eliminated DEI programs across offices in the federal government. Retailers, including Target, Walmart and Amazon, followed the president's lead in eliminating their DEI programs and initiatives. In 2020, following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, millions marched in the streets in protest of police violence – and tech giants, retailers, Fortune 500 companies and industries pledged their commitment to diversity practices. Target specifically committed to invest $2 bn in Black-owned businesses. It increased the amount it spent with Black-owned suppliers by over 50% and doubled the number of Black-owned brands on its shelves. Customers found Black-owned hair products such as TGIN (Thank God Its Natural), Camille Rose and Pattern (by actor Tracee Ellis Ross), beauty brands Black Opal and TLB (The Lip Bar), and lifestyle merchandise like Be Rooted and Tabitha Brown's products including mugs, stationary, tote bags, home decor and kitchen essentials. Some considered it to be a 'racial reckoning'. By 2024, the reckoning had soured as racial justice fatigue and a deviance to progress set-in with the reelection of Trump. 'We are standing in righteous indignation against racism and sexism in this nation,' Bryant told his congregation. Target, he said, 'made a commitment after the death of George Floyd that you would invest $2 bn into the Black community before December 2025'. When Target dropped its DEI programs and initiatives in January, Bryant said the company was 'reneging on the financial commitment you made to our people'. Bryant partnered with the US Black Chamber of Commerce to provide a digital directory of more than 150,000 Black-owned businesses across the US and asked that the more than 250,000 people who registered to buy directly from the Black-owned businesses' online platforms and not Target. And during the Easter weekend Bryant said that five mega churches turned their spaces into retail malls so congregants could support Black-owned businesses. It wasn't an easy decision to boycott Target, Renard-Wilson said. She has friends who have products on Target shelves and liked supporting their businesses. When she learned about the boycott on social media, she was conflicted. 'Some people were saying if you boycott Target, then you are basically crippling those Black, queer, or Latino creatives who have had to put so much capital, so much time, and so much resources just to get their stuff on the Target shelves,' Renard-Wilson said. 'I was like, 'Damn, now this is complicated.'' The retailers' decisions to eliminate their DEI initiatives, Renard-Wilson said, demonstrated that they 'don't really care about' minority communities. There was a time, she says, when she shopped at Target and Amazon Fresh pretty regularly, because they were convenient. Sometimes she visited Amazon Fresh two or three times a week, because it was on the way to her kids' schools. Renard-Wilson, who lives with her husband and two young children in Los Angeles, gets a lot of the goods that she used to purchase at Target or Amazon from Costco now, which doubled-down on its commitment to DEI. 'We didn't really mess with Costco that much because it was a headache to get to and the parking was always crazy,' said Renard-Wilson. 'But when Target was like, 'Forget DEI', and Costco was like, 'We value diversity,' I was like, 'I'm going to spend my money in a place that's aligned with my values.'' And when Renard-Wilson can't find what she needs at Costco, she'll go to small local mom-and-pop stores or buy directly online from the source. She found a deodorant she likes produced by a Black woman-owned company. Renard-Wilson is also part of a Facebook group where people share where to get certain items. The financial cost of not shopping at Target or Amazon has been minimal, Renard-Wilson said. In fact, when she compared one of her pre-boycott credit card bills with her credit card bill during the boycott, she had spent $2,000 less by not shopping at the big-box retailers. She points out the one time her husband, a teacher, paid more than double for workshop supplies that he could have gotten much cheaper at Amazon. Other than that, Renard-Wilson says most products have only been a few bucks more along with the cost of shipping sometimes. 'Thankfully, prayerfully, we're in a financial position to be able to pay a little bit more,' says Renard-Wilson, who acknowledges that her family is currently in a privileged financial position to be able to explore options outside of big-box corporate retail stores. But there are families in smaller rural areas who do not have the retail options of big cities, technology access or the financial means to fully participate in the retail boycott. Karmen Jones' 82-year-old grandmother lives in rural Mississippi. The closest grocery store to her grandmother is a Walmart, Jones says, which is 30 to 40 minutes away from her grandmother's home. There is no Instacart or Uber Eats in her area that's close to the Delta, and her elderly grandmother is not going to go online to purchase items, Jones said. There's also the transportation issue. Jones often has to take her grandmother grocery shopping when she visits. 'It's a privilege to be able to protest,' Jones, 26, said. 'My grandmother does not have the privilege to say no to a Walmart if that's the nearest grocery store that she has.' Jones' family's roots run deep in Mississippi. Her family had to be protected from the Ku Klux Klan, she says, because her great-grandmother owned a successful Black business. Jones recently visited the plantation where her family lived and worked in Mississippi, and witnessed the large wealth gap between Blacks and whites in the rural area. Given her family's history, she doesn't want people to judge her grandmother if she is unable to participate in the boycott. 'I believe the elders deserve to have a break at times. They deserve to have support and to have care. That is where she [my grandmother] is in her chapter in her life. She's in a place where she deserves care,' said Jones, a communications consultant, whose family travels between Washington DC, where she first heard about the retail boycott, and Mississippi for work. She also notes that there's a difference in the robust grocery market in the DMV (Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia) versus the food deserts in Mississippi. 'In the DMV, we quickly noticed that you don't really have to go to Walmart or Target. You can go to Harris Teeter or Trader Joes,' Jones said. In Mississippi, Jones says she's shopped at Kroger or Costco since the boycott. If she goes to a particularly rural area, she has to stop at a corner store or market for goods. But more importantly, she's noticed the big financial cost to boycotting. Most of her beauty or hair products used to be purchased from Amazon, Jones says, but now she buys items from Ulta, which has remained committed to its DEI initiatives put forth in 2020 and 2021. 'There is a price to pay for protesting,' Jones said. Though Jones has had to pay more for products, she says she will not be going back to big retailers anytime soon, even if they reinstated their DEI initiatives. Target, especially, was a disappointment, Jones said. 'Target marketed itself prior to Trump's last election as being pro-DEI and being pro-Black creatives. Our faces were all around the store and even in the aisles,' she said. Bryant told CNN's Erin Burnett in May that the Target boycott will continue until things shift. He's taking a page out of the history books, pointing to the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted 381 days. That protest, which occurred 70 years ago, serves as a model. Most recently Bryant called for a boycott of Dollar General stores and McDonalds. Renard-Wilson says she doesn't plan to return to the big-box retail stores, even if there is a shift to embrace DEI again. 'I do not have any desire to continue supporting capitalistic systems that put profit over people,' Renard-Wilson says. 'I'm going to use my money and try to invest in people who care about me and my community.' This story was co-published and supported by the journalism non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
A MAGA bot network on X is divided over the Trump-Epstein backlash
A previously unreported network of hundreds of accounts on X is using artificial intelligence to automatically reply to conservatives with positive messages about people in the Trump administration, researchers say. But with the MAGA movement split over the administration's handling of files involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the accounts' messaging has broken, offering contradictory statements on the issue and revealing the LLM-fueled nature of the accounts. The network, tracked for NBC News by both the social media analytics company Alethea and researchers at Clemson University, consists of more than 400 identified bot accounts, though the number could be far larger, the researchers say. Its accounts offer consistent praise for key Trump figures, particularly support for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. As often is the case with bot accounts, those viewed by NBC News tended to have only a few dozen followers, and their posts rarely get many views. But a large audience does not appear to be the point. Their effectiveness, if they have any, is in the hope that they contribute to a partisan echo chamber, and that en masse they can 'massage perceptions,' said Darren Linvill, the director of Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub, which studies online disinformation campaigns. 'They're not really there to get engagement. They're there to just be occasionally seen in those replies,' Linvill told NBC News. The researchers declined to share specifics on how they identified the accounts, but noted they shared a number of distinct trends. All were created, seemingly in batches, around three specific days last year. They frequently punctuate their posts with hashtags, often ones that are irrelevant to the conversation. They post almost exclusively by replying to other users, often to people who pay X for verification and by repeating similarly worded sentiments over and over in short succession. At times, they will respond to someone's post by repeating it back to them verbatim. It's unclear who is behind the network, or which of the multiple AI chatbots that are widely accessible to the public was used to power it. The bots have posted support for conservative figures since 2024, including supporting Trump and other Republicans on the ballot in the lead-up to the election, and then afterward posting that they were excited for Trump to take office. Though they would occasionally mix their messages — some have professed affection for MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, for instance — their messaging was consistently in favor of MAGA figures until the recent Epstein files controversy. A core constituency of Trump supporters voted for him on the belief that Trump, a former friend of Epstein's, would expose a list of supposed rich and powerful clients and bring justice to Epstein's victims. It's only since earlier this month, when Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she would not release additional Epstein files, that the accounts' messaging has become so split, with some accounts telling different users opposite opinions almost concurrently. During the same minute last Saturday morning, for example, one account in the network both cautioned a MAGA supporter from judging Bondi too harshly and told another that Bondi or FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino should resign over the scandal.
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
What you need to know about Trump, Epstein and the MAGA controversy
The 2019 suicide of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a New York jail cell generated conspiracy theories, fuelled by US president Donald Trump's conservative MAGA movement, that he was killed by one of his famous connections. Here are some facts about Epstein and the current controversy: Advertisement Who is Jeffrey Epstein? The Brooklyn-born Epstein, a former high school math teacher who later founded consulting and financial management firms, cultivated the rich and famous. He was known for socializing with politicians and royalty, including Mr Trump, Democratic president Bill Clinton, Microsoft MSFT.O co-founder Bill Gates and Britain's Prince Andrew. Some friends and clients flew on his private plane and visited his Caribbean islands. Mr Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. During the 2021 trial of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier's longtime pilot, Lawrence Visoski, testified that Mr Trump flew on Epstein's private plane multiple times. Mr Trump has denied being on the plane. What was Epstein charged with? In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge, after federal prosecutors agreed not to charge him with sex trafficking of minors. He served 13 months in jail and was required to register as a sex offender. That punishment is now widely regarded as too lenient. Advertisement In July 2019, the US Justice Department charged Epstein with sex trafficking minors, including sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls, in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005. He pleaded not guilty. Epstein died on August 10th, 2019, at age 66 by hanging himself in a Manhattan jail cell, an autopsy concluded. He was never tried on the 2019 charges. What is the current controversy over Epstein? Though the New York City chief medical examiner determined that Epstein's death was a suicide by hanging, Epstein's ties to wealthy and powerful people prompted speculation that one or more of them wanted him silenced. In several interviews, Mr Trump left open the possibility that Epstein may not have died by suicide. During the 2024 presidential campaign, when asked on Fox News if he would declassify the Epstein files, Mr Trump said: "Yeah, yeah I would." Advertisement In February, Fox News asked attorney general Pam Bondi whether the Justice Department would be releasing Epstein's client list, and she said: "It's sitting on my desk right now to review." The 2019 suicide of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a New York jail cell generated conspiracy theories. Photo:Some of Mr Trump's most loyal followers became furious after his administration reversed course on its promise. A Justice Department memo released on July 7th concluded that Epstein killed himself and said there was "no incriminating client list" or evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent people. The demands by Trump supporters for more Epstein-related documents have caused a rare fracture within the president's base. Supporters, inspired by conservative talk show hosts and podcasters, have said the federal government is concealing records to protect wealthy and influential people with ties to Epstein. Advertisement Trying to contain the fallout, Mr Trump defended Ms Bondi and accused his supporters in a Truth Social post of falling for a hoax, calling them "weaklings" who were helping Democrats. With backlash from his base not abating, Mr Trump on July 17th requested that Ms Bondi ask a federal judge to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein's 2019 indictment. The government on Friday filed a motion in Manhattan federal court to unseal the transcripts. What happens next? Ultimately, a judge will decide whether to release the transcripts. Transcripts of grand jury proceedings are generally kept secret under federal criminal procedure rules, with limited exceptions. If a judge agrees to release the transcripts, it is likely that some material would be redacted, or blacked out because of privacy or security concerns.
