Los Angeles curfew to continue for ‘couple more days'
Demonstrators began protesting on June 6 against raids on undocumented migrants. (San Francisco Chronicle/AP pic)
LOS ANGELES : A nightly curfew in Los Angeles will continue for 'a couple more days', mayor Karen Bass said today, the ninth day of protests that have seen US President Donald Trump launch a military-backed crackdown.
Demonstrators began protesting on June 6 against immigration raids launched by the Trump administration to round up undocumented migrants in the heavily Latino city in Democrat-led California.
The rallies have been mostly peaceful and confined to a small area of Downtown Los Angeles, but marred by sporadic and eye-catching violence which Republican Trump has used as a pretext to send in 4,000 national guards and 700 marines.
The extraordinary deployment came over the protests of local officials who have insisted that the situation was under control.
Bass issued an overnight curfew on June 10 on the downtown area at the heart of the protests to stop incidents of vandalism and looting.
Today she said she is hoping that the number of people behind the violent incidents 'will taper off'.
'So I know the curfew will be on for at least a couple more days,' she said in a televised interview with local news channel KTLA, adding that she cannot predict how many more days exactly.
'We don't know how many raids are going to happen, we don't know what the character of the raids will be, and every time that happens it really generates a lot of anger in the city,' she said.
Trump, seemingly unfazed by the protests, today directed federal authorities to ramp up their deportation efforts, including in Los Angeles.
Bass noted the anger and fear that the raids by the immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agency have generated in Los Angeles.
'People are afraid to leave their homes,' she said, adding that raids have at times felt 'indiscriminate'.
'This is the US. You are not supposed to have to show your papers if you go out in public,' she said.
'It's hard for me to believe it's targeted.'
Trump said on social media that ICE agents had been subjected to 'violence, harassment and even threats' and ordered them to 'do all in their power' to effect mass deportations.
Los Angeles was mostly calm today after a massive rally and march a day earlier – part of the 'No Kings' series of anti-Trump protests across the country – saw thousands of people turn out to condemn the raids and the military crackdown.
A small group of demonstrators marched around city hall during the sunny afternoon under the watchful eye of law enforcement, including several woman clad in bikinis carrying signs with slogans including 'Hot Girl Summer Melt ICE'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Tariff 'stacking' adds another headache for US importers
JOHN Hamer, president of Rodgers Wade Manufacturing in Paris, Texas, makes store fixtures for big retailers like Ross Dress for Less and Ulta Beauty. He sources many of the goods from China, which until recently meant he paid 70% in tariffs on metal fixtures. "The media was saying it was 30%, but that was never true," he said, referring to the tariff rate for China announced in May as part of a truce between the Trump administration and Beijing as it negotiated a broader deal. That's because Hamer's 30% tariff was stacked on top of existing tariffs, including a tariff on Chinese steel products that varies depending on the amount of steel used in a fixture. When U.S. President Donald Trump adds a new tariff the old ones don't go away. Some companies will pay far more because of a phenomenon called tariff stacking, the latest complication for U.S. importers trying to navigate Trump's on-again, off-again trade war. The reality for many U.S. businesses is that their tariff bills are often far higher than the headline number touted in trade talks. Tariff stacking applies to any country exporting to the U.S., but the most extreme cases tend to be with China, where the U.S. has accumulated a long list of sometimes hefty existing tariffs, implemented under different provisions of U.S. trade law. The latest twist is an announcement that the two sides have agreed to a 55% tariff, but that's in part only an estimate of what the average pre-existing tariffs were. Hamer isn't sure what his tariff total will be now, but he figures it couldn't get much worse. "Hopefully this will bring the (tariff) number down - and some of the clients who've been sitting on the sidelines will go ahead and place orders," he said, "because it's been all over the map." 'HERE'S THE TARIFF BILL' Hamer is searching for suppliers outside China to avoid his stacked tariffs. He's checked Mexico and is planning a trip to India next month as part of the effort. In the meantime, he is passing through all the tariffs. "The customers pay the tariff," said Hamer. "When it comes in, we say, 'Here's the tariff bill.'" Many businesses are still hoping for a reprieve from President Donald Trump's trade war. Federal courts, including the U.S. Court of International Trade, have ruled that Trump's imposition of tariffs exceeded his authority. A federal appeals court is considering the administration's appeal to that ruling, and the tariffs remain in effect while that plays out, a process expected to take months. Some are counting on tariff exemptions, a popular tool used by companies during the first Trump administration to get goods imported without the taxes. Michael Weidner, president of Lalo Baby Products in Brooklyn, is one of them. "We believe there should be an exemption for baby products," he said. "Same with toys." The Trump administration has said it will resist creating such carve-outs. And even during the last trade war, it was a complex process. For instance, Lalo imports a "play table" from China that happens to be classified under a customs category that was subject to a 25% tariff under a part of trade law that aims to fight unfair trade practices. So Weidner has been paying 55% tariffs on those, thanks to stacking. Trump campaigned on a vow to use tariffs to pull manufacturing back to U.S. shores and collect revenue to help fund a major tax cut. His battle with China quickly spiraled into a conflagration with the U.S. imposing a 145% across-the-board tariff that shut down much of the trade between the world's two largest economies. The agreement to curb the tariffs is part of a larger effort to negotiate individual deals with most of the U.S.'s trading partners. PASSING COSTS THROUGH On Wednesday, a White House official said the 55% figure represents a sum of a baseline 10% "reciprocal" tariff Trump has imposed on goods from nearly all U.S. trading partners; 20% on all Chinese imports because of punitive measures Trump has imposed on China, Mexico and Canada associated with his accusation that the three facilitate the flow of the opioid fentanyl into the U.S.; and finally pre-existing 25% levies on imports from China that were put in place during Trump's first term. "It sounds like that's the way he's thinking of the baseline - 55% - at least for some products," said Greta Peisch, a trade lawyer at Wiley Rein in Washington. Ramon van Meer's business selling filtered shower heads from China may yet survive the trade war, though he's not certain. That depends entirely on whether he can can manage the multiple tariffs placed on his $159 shower heads, which became a viral sensation on Instagram. When the Trump administration trimmed tariffs on China to 30% in May, van Meer's tariff bill was actually 43%. That's because the 30% tariff was stacked on top of an existing 13% tariff. It's an improvement over the 145% tariffs slapped on Chinese imports in April, when he halted shipments entirely. "At least I can afford to pay it," said van Meer, chief executive of Afina, based in Austin, Texas, referring to his latest calculations. "And I don't have to raise the price by that much."
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
G7 Summit opens amid global crises and Trump tensions
KANANASKIS: Leaders from the Group of Seven nations begin annual talks on Monday amid wars in Ukraine and the Middle East that add to global economic uncertainty, as host Canada tries to avoid a clash with U.S. President Donald Trump. The G7 leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S., along with the European Union, are convening in the resort of Kananaskis in the Canadian Rockies until Tuesday. But beyond the serene and picturesque mountain setting, they confront challenges. The first five months of Trump's second term upended foreign policy on Ukraine, raised anxiety over his closer ties to Russia and resulted in tariffs on U.S. allies. With an escalating Israel-Iran conflict, which is spiking global oil prices, the summit in Canada is seen as a vital moment to try and restore a semblance of unity between democratic powerhouses. "The most important goal will be for the world's seven largest industrial nations to reach agreement and take action," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said before attending his first G7. That will not be easy. After years of consensus, the traditional allies have scrambled to keep Trump engaged and maintain unity. Canada has abandoned any effort to adopt an all-encompassing comprehensive communique to avert a repeat of a 2018 summit in Quebec, when Trump instructed the U.S. delegation to withdraw its approval of the final communique after leaving. Instead, Ottawa has sought to get consensus for a chair's statement that summarizes the key discussions and six other pre-negotiated declarations on issues such as migration, artificial intelligence and forest fires. Talks on Monday will centre around the economy, advancing trade deals, and China. Efforts to reach an agreement to lower the G7 price cap on Russian oil even if Trump decided to opt out have been complicated by the surge in oil prices since Israel launched strikes on Iran on June 12, two diplomatic sources said. The escalation between the two regional foes is on the agenda, with diplomatic sources saying they hope to achieve at least a joint statement to urge restraint and a return to diplomacy. "We are united. Nobody wants to see Iran get a nuclear weapon and everyone wants discussions and negotiations to restart," France's President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in Greenland on Sunday before travelling to Canada. He added that given Israel's dependence on U.S. weapons and munitions, Washington had the capacity to restart negotiations. Trump said on Sunday many calls and meetings were taking place to broker peace. RUSSIAN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM Highlighting the unease among some of Washington's allies, Trump spoke on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggested the Russian leader could play a mediation role. Macron dismissed the idea, arguing that Moscow could not be a negotiator because it had started an illegal war against Ukraine. A European diplomat said Trump's suggestion showed that Russia, despite being kicked out of the group in 2014 after annexing Crimea, was very much on U.S. minds. "In the eyes of the U.S., there's no condemnation for Ukraine; no peace without Russia; and now even credit for its mediation role with Iran. For Europeans, this will be a really tough G7," the diplomat said. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will attend the summit on Tuesday. European officials said they hoped to use the meeting, and next week's NATO summit, to convince Trump to toughen his stance on Putin. "The G7 should have the objective for us to converge again, for Ukraine to get a ceasefire to lead to a robust and lasting peace, and in my view it's a question of seeing whether President Trump is ready to put forward much tougher sanctions on Russia," Macron said.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Seeking unity, G7 meets amid escalating Ukraine, Middle East conflicts
KANANASKIS: Leaders from the Group of Seven nations begin annual talks on Monday amid wars in Ukraine and the Middle East that add to global economic uncertainty, as host Canada tries to avoid a clash with U.S. President Donald Trump. The G7 leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S., along with the European Union, are convening in the resort of Kananaskis in the Canadian Rockies until Tuesday. But beyond the serene and picturesque mountain setting, they confront challenges. The first five months of Trump's second term upended foreign policy on Ukraine, raised anxiety over his closer ties to Russia and resulted in tariffs on U.S. allies. With an escalating Israel-Iran conflict, which is spiking global oil prices, the summit in Canada is seen as a vital moment to try and restore a semblance of unity between democratic powerhouses. "The most important goal will be for the world's seven largest industrial nations to reach agreement and take action," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said before attending his first G7. That will not be easy. After years of consensus, the traditional allies have scrambled to keep Trump engaged and maintain unity. Canada has abandoned any effort to adopt an all-encompassing comprehensive communique to avert a repeat of a 2018 summit in Quebec, when Trump instructed the U.S. delegation to withdraw its approval of the final communique after leaving. Instead, Ottawa has sought to get consensus for a chair's statement that summarizes the key discussions and six other pre-negotiated declarations on issues such as migration, artificial intelligence and forest fires. Talks on Monday will centre around the economy, advancing trade deals, and China. Efforts to reach an agreement to lower the G7 price cap on Russian oil even if Trump decided to opt out have been complicated by the surge in oil prices since Israel launched strikes on Iran on June 12, two diplomatic sources said. The escalation between the two regional foes is on the agenda, with diplomatic sources saying they hope to achieve at least a joint statement to urge restraint and a return to diplomacy. "We are united. Nobody wants to see Iran get a nuclear weapon and everyone wants discussions and negotiations to restart," France's President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in Greenland on Sunday before travelling to Canada. He added that given Israel's dependence on U.S. weapons and munitions, Washington had the capacity to restart negotiations. Trump said on Sunday many calls and meetings were taking place to broker peace. RUSSIAN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM Highlighting the unease among some of Washington's allies, Trump spoke on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggested the Russian leader could play a mediation role. Macron dismissed the idea, arguing that Moscow could not be a negotiator because it had started an illegal war against Ukraine. A European diplomat said Trump's suggestion showed that Russia, despite being kicked out of the group in 2014 after annexing Crimea, was very much on U.S. minds. "In the eyes of the U.S., there's no condemnation for Ukraine; no peace without Russia; and now even credit for its mediation role with Iran. For Europeans, this will be a really tough G7," the diplomat said. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will attend the summit on Tuesday. European officials said they hoped to use the meeting, and next week's NATO summit, to convince Trump to toughen his stance on Putin. "The G7 should have the objective for us to converge again, for Ukraine to get a ceasefire to lead to a robust and lasting peace, and in my view it's a question of seeing whether President Trump is ready to put forward much tougher sanctions on Russia," Macron said.
