Budweiser-maker AB InBev to invest $300m in US facilities
Anheuser-Busch InBev said today it would invest $300m in its manufacturing operations in the US this year amid a push for local production under President Donald Trump.
The Budweiser maker, which said it invested nearly $2 billion over the last five years in 100 facilities across the country, also announced the launch of a new plant in Columbus, Ohio.
The brewer reported a rise in first-quarter profit last week, more than double the increase expected by analysts and boosting its profit margins despite a fall in sales volumes. It said it makes nearly all its domestic sales locally.
AB InBev had previously said it was boosting investments in key brands such as Budweiser and ramping up efforts to grow at-home consumption, as spending elsewhere - including in bars - remains pressured.
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Los Angeles police order immigration protesters downtown to go home
Los Angeles braced for another day of unrest on Monday over US president Donald Trump's immigration policies, after police declared the city's downtown an unlawful assembly area and ordered protesters to go home. California officials pushed back at the deployment of National Guard troops by the White House, saying they were unnecessary and had only inflamed the situation. Governor Gavin Newsom vowed to sue the federal government. "This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted. He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard," Newsom posted on X on Monday. "We're suing him." Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass blamed the Trump administration for inciting tension by sending in the Guard. She also condemned protesters after some burned cars and hurled bottles at police. "I don't want people to fall into the chaos that I believe is being created by the administration completely unnecessarily," Bass told a press conference on Sunday. The unrest in Los Angeles has become a flashpoint in Trump's signature effort to clamp down on illegal immigration. The Republican president has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the US-Mexico border, setting the ICE border enforcement agency a daily goal of arresting at least 3,000 migrants. Los Angeles police said some protesters had thrown concrete projectiles, bottles and other items at police. Police declared several rallies to be unlawful assemblies and later extended that to include the whole downtown area. Cleanup continues after a night of protests in downtown Los Angeles. Picture: Damian Dovarganes/AP Several self-driving cars from Alphabet's Waymo were set ablaze on a downtown street on Sunday evening. Police on horseback tried to control the crowds. Some officers used flash-bang grenades and tear gas, CNN reported. Demonstrators shouted "Shame on you!" at police and some appeared to throw objects, video images showed. One group blocked the 101 Freeway, a downtown thoroughfare. City police chief Jim McDonnell told a media briefing on Sunday evening that people had a right to protest peacefully but the violence he had seen by some was "disgusting" and the protests were getting out of control. Police said they had arrested 10 people on Sunday and 29 the previous night, adding arrests were continuing. Vanessa Cardenas, head of the immigration advocacy group America's Voice, accused the Trump administration of "trumping up an excuse to abuse power, and deliberately stoke and force confrontations around immigration." White House responds In response to California's threat to sue the government, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X that "Newsom did nothing as violent riots erupted in Los Angeles for days." Asked if the National Guard was needed, police chief McDonnell said police would not "go to that right away," but added, "Looking at the violence tonight, I think we've got to make a reassessment." In a social media post, Trump called on McDonnell to do so. "He should, right now!!!" Trump added. "Don't let these thugs get away with this. Make America great again!!!" The White House disputed Newsom's characterization of Trump inflaming the situation, saying in a statement, "Everyone saw the chaos, violence and lawlessness." Earlier on Sunday, about a dozen National Guard members, along with Department of Homeland Security personnel, pushed back a group of demonstrators outside a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, video showed. Police officers patrol the area after a night of protests. Picture: Damian Dovarganes/AP The US Northern Command said 300 members of the California National Guard had been deployed to three spots in the Los Angeles area. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CBS program "Face the Nation" that the National Guard would provide safety around buildings to people engaged in peaceful protest and to law enforcement. 'All action necessary' The Trump administration's immigration enforcement measures have also included residents who are in the country legally, some with permanent residence, spurring legal challenges. In a social media post on Sunday, Trump called the demonstrators "violent, insurrectionist mobs" and said he was directing his cabinet officers "to take all such action necessary" to stop what he called riots. Despite Trump's language, he has not invoked the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that empowers a president to deploy the US military to suppress events such as civil disorder. Asked on Sunday whether he was considering doing so, he said, "It depends on whether or not there's an insurrection." Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Saturday the Pentagon is prepared to mobilize active-duty troops "if violence continues" in Los Angeles, saying Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton were on high alert. Read More Journalist and photographer hit by non-lethal bullets during LA protests
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Chinese exports to US plunge as tariffs bite
China's export growth slowed to a three-month low in May as US tariffs slammed shipments, while factory-gate deflation deepened to its worst level in two years, heaping pressure on the world's second-largest economy on both the domestic and external fronts. US President Donald Trump's global trade war and the swings in China-US trade ties have in the past two months sent Chinese exporters, along with their business partners across the Pacific, on a roller-coaster ride and hobbled world growth. Underscoring the US tariff impact on shipments, customs data showed that China's exports to the US plunged 34.5 per cent year-on-year in May in value terms, the sharpest drop since February 2020, when the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic upended global trade. Total exports from the Asian economic giant expanded 4.8 per cent year-on-year in value terms last month, slowing from the 8.1 per cent jump in April and missing the 5 per cent growth expected in a Reuters poll, customs data showed on Monday, despite a lowering of US tariffs on Chinese goods which had taken effect in early April. READ MORE 'It's likely that the May data continued to be weighed down by the peak tariff period,' said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING. Song said there was still front-loading of shipments due to the tariff risks, while acceleration of sales to regions other than the United States helped to underpin China's exports. Imports dropped 3.4 per cent year-on-year, deepening from the 0.2 per cent decline in April and worse than the 0.9 per cent downturn expected in the Reuters poll. Exports had surged 12.4 per cent year-on-year and 8.1 per cent in March and April, respectively, as factories rushed shipments to the US and other overseas manufacturers to avoid Trump's hefty levies on China and the rest of the world. While exporters in China found some respite in May as Beijing and Washington agreed to suspend most of their levies for 90 days, tensions between the world's two largest economies remain high and negotiations are under way over issues ranging from China's rare earths controls to Taiwan. Trade representatives from China and the US are meeting in London on Monday to resume talks after a phone call between their top leaders on Thursday. China's imports from the US also lost further ground, dropping 18.1 per cent from a 13.8 per cent slide in April. Zichun Huang, economist at Capital Economics, expects the slowdown in exports growth to 'partially reverse this month, as it reflects the drop in US orders before the trade truce,' but cautions that shipments will be knocked again by year-end due to elevated tariff levels. China's exports of rare earths jumped sharply in May despite export restrictions on certain types of rare earth products causing plant closures across the global auto supply chain. The latest figures do not distinguish between the 17 rare earth elements and related products, some of which are not subject to restrictions. A clearer picture of the impact of the curbs on exports will only be available when more detailed data is released on June 20. China's May trade surplus came in at $103.22 billion (€90 billion), up from the $96.18 billion the previous month. Other data, also released on Monday, showed China's imports of crude oil, coal, and iron ore dropped last month, underlining the fragility of domestic demand at a time of rising external headwinds. Beijing in May rolled out a series of monetary stimulus measures, including cuts to benchmark lending rates and a low-cost loan program, aimed at cushioning the trade war's blow to the economy. – Reuters (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Harvard in talks with universities to host students hit by Trump visa clampdown
Harvard has been in talks with leading US and international universities to temporarily house its foreign students facing bans under US president Donald Trump 's clampdown on the college. Leaders from the University of Chicago and the London Business School are among those who have held discussions on accommodating students accepted for the coming academic year at Harvard, but who are now at risk of being denied visas, according to academics at the institutions. Other US universities are examining ways to help their own current and incoming foreign students, including relocating them to campuses outside the country. The Trump administration has banned Harvard from accepting foreign students as part of its broader campaign against what it claims is liberal bias and anti-Semitism on American campuses. A judge temporarily froze the order last week, delaying Mr Trump's actions. READ MORE The administration has suspended the review of all visa applications from prospective students seeking to study anywhere in the country as it steps up background checks, including going through social media. It has also revoked visas and detained foreign students who it claims have been involved in protests, mainly against Israel over its war with Hamas in Gaza. The campaign risks cutting funding for institutions that have grown reliant on fee income from the more than 1.1 million foreign citizens studying in the US. The majority of these students are from China and India. Foreign students are estimated to generate economic benefits of $45 billion (€39 billion) a year, according to the US department of commerce. Nafsa, a network of universities and individuals engaged in international education, criticised 'an unacceptable assault on an already thorough screening and monitoring process [which] creates a climate of uncertainty and fear'. [ Trump v Harvard: University faces existential battle against opponent that would have once been unimaginable Opens in new window ] Amit Sevak, head of ETS, which runs the largest English language test for foreign students applying for universities in the US, said there had been a double-digit drop in the number of applications for the tests. 'What's happening right now with the fall semester just around the corner is that some international students may withdraw, delay or switch to applications elsewhere,' he said. 'The bigger implication will be in 2026.' Harvard launched a fresh legal effort last week to block Mr Trump's latest moves to prevent it accepting international students. 'Contingency plans are being developed to ensure that international students and scholars can continue to pursue their work at Harvard this summer and through the coming academic year,' said Alan Garber, Harvard's president. Mr Trump has focused his fiercest attacks on Harvard, which accepts 27 per cent of its students from abroad. But international students in universities across the country have expressed fears that if they return home for the summer they may not be readmitted. Suzanne Rivera, president of Macalester College in Minneapolis, one-fifth of whose students are from overseas, has launched a fundraising campaign with alumni and is creating additional internships to support foreign students who decide not to leave the US for the holidays. 'Our concern right now is that these policy shifts may erect obstacles that would prevent students returning to campus or new ones from matriculating,' she said. 'The fear is widespread for the international students among us that if they go home they might encounter difficulties trying to re-enter even if they have a valid visa.' New York University, Northeastern and Hult are among the universities with campuses in other countries, which allows them to reallocate places abroad to non-US students if visa delays persist. Several others have branch campuses in Qatar. Martin Boehm, executive vice-president of Hult International Business School, said he had not yet seen any visa problems with prospective students. 'I'm still super confident that everything runs smoothly.' However, delegating teaching to partner universities could produce complications because of different costs and academic standards, and uncertainty over whether students can receive credit for courses completed elsewhere. Grant Cornwell, president of Rollins College in Florida, which has about 10 per cent of its student body from abroad, said the presence of foreign students provided more than just financial benefits. 'Those perspectives bring enrichment to the classroom that speaks directly to our mission: have students learn with and from people who see the world differently,' he said. 'Both current and incoming students are anxious as they await visa appointments for new issuances and renewals. We think there could be a chilling effect for the following years.' – The Financial Times Limited 2025
