Raids, arrests and deportations: The economic toll of closed borders
From the show
This week, we focus on the unprecedented immigration crackdown currently taking place in the United States under President Donald Trump. We head to Los Angeles, where our team meets local business owners whose shops are on the brink of bankruptcy, as workers and customers are staying home to avoid ICE raids. Plus, Charles Pellegrin talks to Tara Watson, director of the Center for Economic Security and Opportunity at the Brookings Institution.
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France 24
27 minutes ago
- France 24
Asian markets creep up as investors await key speech
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who has resisted public demands by President Donald Trump to cut rates, is scheduled to deliver remarks Friday at the annual central bankers conference in Wyoming. Data last week provided a mixed picture of US inflation, making it uncertain if the Fed will lower rates as many investors expect in September -- which could bolster growth in the world's largest economy. In a sign of further uncertainty, recent days have seen a sell-off of major technology stocks as investors grow wary of a sustained rally in the industry despite a range of global economic hurdles. Wall Street closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq falling again as shares in AI chip-maker Nvidia ticked down. Despite the building unease, shares in Seoul were up Thursday morning, bolstered by a rise in Samsung's price. Shanghai, Sydney, Taipei and Bangkok also charted moderate rises. Tokyo's Nikkei index continued its fall from the previous day, while shares in Hong Kong were flat. Japan reported Wednesday that the country's July exports plunged at the steepest rate in over four years, straining under hefty US tariffs. Wednesday also saw Hong Kong's stock exchange operator post record half-year revenue, riding a renewed surge in listings and trading activity in the Chinese finance hub. Global markets have fluctuated recently on the prospects of a peace deal in Ukraine, following days of high-stakes diplomacy in the aftermath of Trump's Friday meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. But hopes for an imminent end to the war -- started by Moscow's invasion over three years ago -- were tempered Wednesday after Russia said it must be included in any discussions on security guarantees for Ukraine. The diplomatic whirlwind has sparked volatility in oil markets as traders speculate over the possible lifting of sanctions on Russia, a major producer. Oil prices continued to rise Thursday on the heels of a report the previous day showing a sharp decline in crude stockpiles. Key figures at around 0215 GMT Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 42,706.39 Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: FLAT at 25,162.78 Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,773.56 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1647 from $1.1648 on Wednesday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3455 from $1.3452 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.31 yen from 147.44 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.56 pence from 86.59 pence Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $67.09 per barrel London - FTSE 100: UP 1.1 percent at 9,288.14 (close) © 2025 AFP
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
Meme-lord Newsom riles Republicans with Trump-trolling posts
Newsom -- hotly-tipped for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination -- has been parodying Trump with a series of posts written in the Republican leader's distinct style that he hopes will show his party how to beat the social media master at his own game. In recent weeks the governor has posted all manner of manipulated images depicting him in the kind of over-the-top vignettes popular among Trump's "MAGA" movement -- superimposing his face on Mount Rushmore and appearing to pray with MAGA favorites Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan. When Trump's one-word weekend post -- saying simply "Bela" -- left the president's supporters scratching their heads, Newsom posted a screenshot alongside his own caption: "DONALD (TINY HANDS), HAS WRITTEN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY THIS MORNING — UNFORTUNATELY (LOW IQ) HE SPELLED IT WRONG — 'BETA.'" The 57-year-old Democrat mocked Trump's salesman-like rhetorical style in a post about redistricting plans that he said had led "MANY" people to call him "GAVIN CHRISTOPHER 'COLUMBUS' NEWSOM (BECAUSE OF THE MAPS!)." And he has taken to ending his posts with the much-mocked sign-off that Trump, 79, made famous: "THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!" The tweets have quickly gained currency among Newsom's supporters, who have shared their own "Trumpian" memes of a shirtless Newsom with bulging muscles, brandishing pistols or riding into battle on a velociraptor. 'Newsom Derangement Syndrome' The governor called Trump's late-night social media tirades "pathetic," telling historian and podcast host Heather Cox Richardson that people who normally "can't stand" politicians had been reaching out to compliment his new approach. "And they're maybe paying attention to the childishness that is Donald Trump, that we've allowed him to normalize -- the way he communicates, talking down to us, looking past us," Newsom said. "I've got kids, and I've got a whole generation of people who thinks this is normal. It is not, and it can't be normalized, and that's big part of what we're also pushing back against." The posts are garnering the attention of X's algorithm while sparking the ire of Republicans, conservative-leaning political commentators and the right-wing media. Dana Perino, an anchor on Fox News, slammed Newsom's new strategy, telling viewers: "If I were his wife, I would say you are making a fool of yourself, stop it." "NDS - Newsom Derangement Syndrome is a real thing," Republican political consultant Mike Madrid posted on X, retooling the Republican accusation of "Trump Derangement Syndrome" levied to dismiss criticism of the president. 'Inside joke' The snark appears to be working. The number of followers of Newsom's official press office account on X -- where the cheeky announcement are being posted -- has soared by 450 percent since mid-June, according to CNN, with huge strides also seen on Instagram and TikTok. Daily Google searches for Newsom are up 500 percent since August 1, the network reported. Newsom says the MAGA-coded posts are not only annoying Republicans, but redefining how Democrats can provide an effective opposition to one of the most media-savvy leaders ever to occupy the White House. Asked for comment, the White House shared with AFP an image it had initially sent US publication Politico repurposing a scene from the show "Mad Men" to demonstrate that Trump is not just unfazed, but doesn't think about Newsom at all. Politico had called it the first official White House press statement delivered exclusively in meme form. Jeff Le, a deputy cabinet secretary for previous California governor Jerry Brown, said Newsom was responding to widespread discontent at the Democratic Party's perceived lack of fight when it comes to Trump -- and the yawning leadership vacuum. "His messaging has helped introduce him in a tongue-and-cheek manner that reflects the inside joke that many digital native Democrats understand," Le told AFP. But he added that the strategy was "not without risk." "If there is a terrible natural disaster -- a catastrophic fire or mudslide -- it's fair to say that the White House keeps score," he said, "and the president may be less inclined to provide timely federal government support and funding for the response." © 2025 AFP
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Texas lawmakers approve congressional maps favoring Republicans
Texas Republicans on Wednesday took the first step toward approving new congressional maps that would give their party as many as five new seats in the House of Representatives, spurring what's likely to be a national battle over redistricting. The approval by the Texas House of Representatives came at the urging of President Donald Trump, who pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade revision of congressional maps to give his party a better chance at holding onto the US House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The maps need to be approved by the GOP-controlled state Senate and signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott before they become official. But the Texas House presented the best chance for Democrats to derail the redraw. Democratic legislators delayed the vote by two weeks by fleeing Texas earlier this month in protest, and they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesday's session. The approval of the Texas maps on an 88-52 party-line vote is likely to prompt California's Democratic-controlled state Legislature this week to approve of a new House map creating five new Democratic-leaning districts. But the California map would require voter approval in November. Democrats have also vowed to challenge the new Texas map in court and complained that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month. 01:56 Texas Republicans openly said they were acting in their party's interest. State Rep. Todd Hunter, who wrote the legislation formally creating the new map, noted that the US Supreme Court has allowed politicians to redraw districts for nakedly partisan purposes. 'The underlying goal of this plan is straight forward: improve Republican political performance,' Hunter, a Republican, said on the floor. After nearly eight hours of debate, Hunter took the floor again to sum up the entire dispute as nothing more than a partisan fight. 'What's the difference, to the whole world listening? Republicans like it, and Democrats do not.' Democrats said the disagreement was about more than partisanship. 'In a democracy, people choose their representatives,' State Rep. Chris Turner said. 'This bill flips that on its head and lets pols in Washington, D.C., choose their voters.' State Rep. John H. Bucy blamed the president. 'This is Donald Trump's map,' Bucy said. 'It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows that the voters are rejecting his agenda.' The Republican power play has already triggered a national tit-for-tat battle as Democratic state lawmakers prepared to gather in California on Thursday to revise that state's map to create five new Democratic seats. 'This is a new Democratic Party, this is a new day, this is new energy out there all across this country,' California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said on a call with reporters on Wednesday. 'And we're going to fight fire with fire.' A new California map would need to be approved by voters in a special election in November because that state normally operates with a nonpartisan commission drawing the map to avoid the very sort of political brawl that is playing out. Newsom himself backed the 2008 ballot measure to create that process, as did former President Barack Obama. But in a sign of Democrats' stiffening resolve, Obama Tuesday night backed Newsom's bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP's Texas move. 'I think that approach is a smart, measured approach,' Obama said during a fundraiser for the Democratic Party's main redistricting arm. The incumbent president's party usually loses seats in the midterm election, and the GOP currently controls the House of Representatives by a mere three votes. Trump is going beyond Texas in his push to remake the map. He's pushed Republican leaders in conservative states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to create new Republican seats. Ohio Republicans were already revising their map before Texas moved. Democrats, meanwhile, are mulling reopening Maryland's and New York's maps as well. However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California's or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, can't draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval. In Texas, there was little that outnumbered Democrats could do other than fume and threaten a lawsuit to block the map. Because the Supreme Court has blessed purely partisan gerrymandering, the only way opponents can stop the new Texas map would be by arguing it violates the Voting Rights Act requirement to keep minority communities together so they can select representatives of their choice. Democrats noted that, in every decade since the 1970s, courts have found that Texas' legislature did violate the Voting Rights Act in redistricting, and that civil rights groups had an active lawsuit making similar allegations against the 2021 map that Republicans drew up. Republicans contend the new map creates more new minority-majority seats than the previous one. Democrats and some civil rights groups have countered that the GOP does that through mainly a numbers game that leads to halving the number of the state's House seats that will be represented by a Black representative. State Rep. Ron Reynolds noted the country just marked the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act's passage and warned GOP members about how they'd be remembered if they voted for what he called 'this racial gerrymander.' 'Just like the people who were on the wrong side of history in 1965, history will be looking at the people who made the decisions in the body this day,' Reynolds, a Democrat, said. Republicans spent far less time talking on Wednesday, content to let their numbers do the talking in the lopsided vote. Still, House Republicans' frustration at the Democrats' flight and ability to delay the vote was palpable. House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced as debate started that doors to the chamber were locked and any member leaving was required to have a permission slip. One Democrat who refused the 24-hour police monitoring, State Rep. Nicole Collier, had been confined to the House floor since Monday night. Some Democratic state lawmakers joined Collier Tuesday night for what Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez dubbed 'a sleepover for democracy.' Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust several Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.
