Trump Meeting With European Leaders in Oval Office
The East Room meeting included a larger group of aides. The Oval Office meeting is expected to be smaller.
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The Hill
18 minutes ago
- The Hill
Work begins in Finland on a new Canadian icebreaker for Arctic defense
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — Dignitaries at a steel-cutting ceremony Wednesday in Finland marked the start of work on a new Canadian icebreaker to be named the Polar Max and aimed at bolstering Arctic defense. The event marked the concrete beginning of a trilateral partnership of the United States, Canada and Finland announced by the White House in July 2024 to bolster defenses in a region where Russia has been increasingly active. Russia has vastly more icebreaker ships than the U.S. and Canada at a time when climate change has made the remote but strategically important Arctic more accessible. The Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact, aims to leverage Finland's advanced shipbuilding expertise and technologies to help meet U.S. and Canadian demand for new icebreakers. Canada's minister for defense procurement, Stephen Fuhr, said his country is bringing its coast guard into the military and that investing in the Arctic is important for the future. 'The North is opening up, there are many reasons to be up there,' Fuhr said. 'There's security issues, resource development.' The hull will be built at Helsinki Shipyard before being transported to Canada where it's expected to be completed in Levis, Quebec by 2030. Quebec's Economy Minister Christopher Skeete highlighted the benefits of cooperating on the building of the new icebreaker. 'It's a partnership and we have a shared responsibility for the North, so this is a unique and very opportune partnership that allows us to leverage the strengths of both our countries in terms of maritime Arctic protection,' he said. 'The North is becoming more and more accessible, there are more and more rivalries in the North, and so we have to be prepared to assert our sovereignty out there,' Skeete added. During a NATO summit in June, U.S. President Donald Trump said Finland was the 'king of icebreakers' and suggested the U.S. might be willing to buy as many as 15 of them, including the used icebreaker that Trump said might be immediately available. 'We're trying to make a good deal,' Trump said. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the U.S. hasn't built a heavy polar icebreaker in almost 50 years. The last remaining one in service is the 399-foot Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star commissioned in 1976. During a talk in February at the RAND research organization, U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier said the agency has determined it needs eight to nine icebreakers — a mix of heavy polar security cutters and medium Arctic security cutters. Building an icebreaker can be challenging because it has to be able to withstand the brutal crashing through ice that can be as thick as 21 feet (6.4 meters) and wildly varying sea and air temperatures, the report said.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why Shake Shack, Sweetgreen and Cava are flashing warning lights for the US economy
As President Donald Trump's aggressive policies on international trade and immigration gradually begin to make their presence felt, the underwhelming recent earnings results reported by some key casual food businesses are serving as flashing warning lights for the U.S. economy. Shake Shack shares tumbled 7.7 percent in response to its second-quarter results, despite their being generally positive. In comparison, Sweetgreen shares dropped 23 percent after it cut its 2025 outlook for the second consecutive quarter, and Cava's quarterly revenue disappointed estimates because of weaker-than-expected sales growth. Bloomberg columnist Connor Sen has argued that the headwinds being faced by those brands are uniquely significant because their restaurants are more likely to be based in metropolitan centers along the west and east coasts of the United States, which are likely to bear the brunt of the president's policies first. Shake Shack, for instance, has 80 of its 610 U.S. locations in New York, while one-third of Sweetgreen's branches are in New York and California, and Cava is based in D.C., which, along with Maryland and Virginia, accounts for 17 percent of its business, according to Bloomberg. Their exposure to 'critical coastal metro areas that are immigration hubs and popular international tourism destinations' contrasts with rival eateries such as Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, and Texas Roadhouse, which more typically cater to middle American diners across a wider geographic spread and have not yet suffered an equivalent financial setback. Sen points out that New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco – three of America's biggest cities, all coastal and Democrat-governed – suffered a combined 43,000 job losses in the first six months of the year, a period when the U.S. as a whole added 500,000. Over the same half-year stretch, those three locations plus Washington, D.C, saw a combined reduction in their workforces of 60,000 people, after experiencing a 160,000 increase in 2024, a phenomenon that might very reasonably be attributed to Trump's immigration crackdown. Meanwhile, New York City Tourism + Conventions has said it expects to see a 17 percent fall in international visitors this year, and Visit California is forecasting a 9.2 percent fall in arrivals, as travellers from overseas register their disapproval of Trump's administration by vacationing elsewhere. Those factors conspire to leave businesses dependent on America's coastal cities facing a smaller pool of potential customers. Furthermore, those who remain appear to be less likely to spend their disposable income, meaning a reduced likelihood of their treating themselves to a meal out. The latter point is made by a preliminary study of consumer sentiment carried out by the University of Michigan, which found left-leaning voters much less likely to spend freely in August than their Republican counterparts. While economists might traditionally look at the stock market or the unemployment rate to gauge the health of a nation's bank balance, the well-being of brands like Shake Shack, Sweetgreen, and Cava can be equally revealing, primarily by exposing regional disparities. Other surprisingly telling indicators of an economic downturn or coming recession might include declining sales of men's underwear, reduced sales of inessential goods like snacks and cigarettes in grocery stores, or, conversely, a rise in the sales of miniature bottles of alcohol, which might signal increased consumer stress. 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
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
AriZona has been 99 cents for decades. Trump's tariffs might change that
AriZona Iced Tea has warned that, for the first time in almost 30 years, it may have to raise the price of its signature 'Big Cans' from $0.99 because of Donald Trump's tariff war. Co-founder Don Vultaggio has said his company may finally have to disappoint customers and hike the retail price of its tallboy beverages, which have held steady since 1997, because Trump decides to place a 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports. 'At some point, the consumer is going to have to pay the price,' Vultaggio told The New York Times of the president's actions. 'I hate even the thought of it. It would be a hell of a shame after 30-plus years.' AriZona imports 20 percent of the aluminum used in its cans from Canada (the remaining 80 percent comes from recycled materials in the United States), meaning that rising costs could force it to change its pricing, however reluctantly. 'Our price has been dramatically bumped up because of this tariff talk,' Vultaggio said, pointing out that the few domestic aluminum manufacturers are all but sure to hike their prices in response to Trump's manoeuvring. 'I hope the administration understands and deals with the fact that if you're going to protect American manufacturers, you can't allow them to gouge the marketplace because of that protection. If I had Donald Trump's ear, that's what I would tell him directly.' The company sells approximately 2 billion cans of drinks annually, according to the Times, around half of which are tallboys. Had Vultaggio kept pace with inflation, AriZona's Big Cans would currently retail for $1.99. Still, he has preferred not to do that, believing in building up repeat purchases through earned customer loyalty, a philosophy he says he learned working in his father's grocery store in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Asked by NBC's Today Show last summer why he had never moved to raise his prices before, Vultaggio answered: 'We're successful. We're debt-free. We own everything. Why? Why have people who are having a hard time paying their rent have to pay more for our drink? 'We're going to fight as hard as we can for consumers because consumers are my friends.' AriZona has yet to announce a tariff-enforced price hike and, for now, its owner says he is maintaining an phlegmatic outlook, telling the Times: 'What happens, happens. We can find our way through it.' Justifying his decision in June to raise the metals tariffs to twice that initially announced in April, President Trump said: 'I have determined that increasing the previously imposed tariffs will provide greater support to these industries and reduce or eliminate the national security threat posed by imports of steel and aluminum articles and their derivative articles.' Charles Johnson, president and CEO of The Aluminum Association, responded to the president's decision by saying: 'Re-establishing a more level playing field for domestic producers is critical, but a Section 232 tariff of 50 percent threatens to undermine the very industry the administration aims to support. 'The Aluminum Association, which represents the full industry supply chain and 70 percent of domestic production, urges the administration to reconsider today's decision given the negative impact it will have on manufacturers.' Even before the president made his announcement, he received an open letter in February co-signed by the leaders of 20 can-based food and drink producers warning him of the unintended knock-on consequences of meddling with metal imports. 'We understand your efforts to use tariffs and other broad trade tools to level the global economic playing field and make our country's economy great again,' the signatories wrote. 'However, the unintended consequences of these measures – if not properly tailored and implemented – are extremely detrimental to American food producers, farmers, and metal can makers and, hence, our nation's food security.' The prospect of AriZona having to raise its prices has already caught the attention of New York Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, who wrote on X on Sunday: 'Since 1997, AriZona Iced Tea has proudly kept its iconic 99-cent price tag. 'For the first time in nearly three decades, Trump's tariffs (effectively a tax on American consumers and businesses) threaten to double that price to $1.99. Trump promised to lower prices. Instead, he's driving them up.' 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
