Trump Ready to Use Full Extent of US Power to Stop Drug Traffickers in Latin America: White House
A reporter asked whether the United States is 'looking at, possibly, boots on the ground there,' in light of reports on U.S. warships operating near Venezuela and around 4,000 U.S. Marines on board.
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Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Dollar drifts as investors ponder Fed independence ahead of Powell speech
By Ankur Banerjee SINGAPORE (Reuters) -The U.S. dollar drifted on Thursday as investors fretted about the Federal Reserve's independence after yet another attack from President Donald Trump ahead of remarks from Chair Jerome Powell later this week that could influence the outlook for rates. Trump called on Fed Governor Lisa Cook to resign on the basis of allegations made by one of his political allies about mortgages she holds in Michigan and Georgia, intensifying his effort to gain influence over the U.S. central bank. Cook said she had "no intention of being bullied to step down" from her position at the central bank. Trump has also told aides he is considering trying to fire Cook, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. "It has the potential to raise questions around the Fed's oversight and regulatory functions but it has little to no near-term monetary policy implications," said Prashant Newnaha, senior Asia-Pacific rates strategist at TD Securities. That explained the relatively muted reaction in the currency markets to the news as the dollar initially dipped on the news but was mostly calm into the Asian session. The Japanese yen held onto gains made in previous sessions and was little changed at 147.41 per dollar, while the euro was steady at $1.1642. Sterling last fetched $1.34535. That left the dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six other peers, steady at 98.301. Trump has repeatedly criticised Powell for being too slow to cut rates, stoking investor worries about the central bank's independence and its credibility. Investors expect Trump will replace Powell with a more dovish appointment when his term ends in May. Trump earlier this month said he would nominate Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miran to serve out the final few months of a vacant Fed seat after Adriana Kugler unexpectedly resigned. Kristina Clifton, a senior economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, said if Cook resigns it would create another opening for Trump to appoint a Fed Governor who will vote to lower interest rates. "Perceived political interference in the Federal Reserve can undermine its independence, steepening the yield curve and denting the USD's safe haven status." POWELL SPEECH The main focus this week has been on whether Powell will push back against market expectations for a rate cut at the Fed's September 16-17 meeting when he speaks on Friday at the Jackson Hole meeting, following a weak jobs report for July. "Markets are adamant that recent labour market data necessitates some policy calibration and are expecting Chair Powell to tip his hat in that direction," TD's Newnaha said. Traders are pricing in an 82% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut next month, CME FedWatch tool showed. While the odds have lowered from last week after hotter than expected producer price inflation tempered expectations, investors are still pricing in over 50 bps of easing this year. Some analysts cautioned that markets could end up being disappointed by Powell's speech, noting that the impact of Trump's tariffs on inflation remains uncertain. "It is not clear that Powell will deliver strong guidance," said Benoit Anne, managing director in the investment solutions group at MFS Investment Management. If the dovish signals elude us, there will be significant pricing out of the odds for a September cut." In other currencies, the New Zealand dollar was nursing steep overnight losses at $0.58205 after diving 1.2% to its lowest level since April. New Zealand's central bank cut interest rates on Wednesday as expected but left the door wide open to yet more easing if needed. The Australian dollar eased 0.13% to $0.64245, hovering near a two-week low. [AUD/] Sign in to access your portfolio
Chicago Tribune
5 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Texas House approves redrawn maps sought by Trump ahead of 2026 elections
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas House on Wednesday approved redrawn congressional maps that would give Republicans a bigger edge in 2026, muscling through a partisan gerrymander that launched weeks of protests by Democrats and a widening national battle over redistricting. The approval 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 U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The maps, which would give Republicans five more winnable seats, 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 vote had 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. Texas lawmakers return home after walking out of legislature and spending two weeks in Illinois to prevent GOP remapThe 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. 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 U.S. 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 politicians 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.' Why dozens of Democrats left Texas and how Republicans want to punish themThe 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 majority-minority 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. As the day dragged on, a handful hit back against Democratic complaints. 'You call my voters racist, you call my party racist and yet we're expected to follow the rules,' said State Rep. Katrina Pierson, a former Trump spokesperson. 'There are Black and Hispanic and Asian Republicans in this chamber who were elected just like you.' House Republicans' frustration at the Democrats' flight and ability to delay the vote was palpable. The GOP used a parliamentary maneuver to take a second and final vote on the map so it wouldn't have to reconvene for one more vote after Senate approval. 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. The doors were only unlocked after final passage more than eight hours later. 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.
CNN
6 minutes ago
- CNN
Judge Blasts Trump Team's Bid To Unseal Epstein Docs: 'Diversion' - Erin Burnett OutFront - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
Judge Blasts Trump Team's Bid To Unseal Epstein Docs: 'Diversion' Erin Burnett OutFront 45 mins A federal judge is calling out Trump, saying his administration's push to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts wouldn't lead to new information, calling the request a diversion. This as we learn the surprisingly few documents the Trump team was trying to release to the public.
