Security beefing up in Atlanta over potential protests
Georgia's Attorney Chris Carr said Americans have the right to protest peacefully, but those who destroy property, loot businesses or attack police officers will be prosecuted.
Carr says protesters use words, while rioters use violence. If you engage in violence, Carr says you could face domestic terrorism charges which is up to 35 years behind bars.
The ACLU of Georgia says this Saturday, up to 5,000 Georgians are expected to protest at liberty plaza outside the state capitol for No Kings Day — for what they say is an abuse of the Trump administration's power to first amendment rights.
'People who are out on the streets, who have signs, who have megaphones, are not rioters and are using their first amendment rights. We are seeing this happen to portray protesters as criminals is very problematic and we have concerns about that,' said Sarah Hunt-Blackwell, ACLU of Georgia.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp says he is monitoring the situation and working with law enforcement agencies like the GBI and FBI to ensure public safety is protected.
'The freedom to dissent without fear of government retribution is a vital part of any well-functioning democracy. Protesters in Georgia have every right to call attention to the injustices by the Trump administration including its trampling of immigrant rights, drastic cuts to Medicaid, attacks on transgender people, and general disregard of democratic norms' said Christopher Bruce, Policy & Advocacy Director of the ACLU of Georgia.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Countries push for last-minute deals as Thursday tariff deadline looms
An array of trade crosscurrents continued in Tuesday afternoon. There has been a push for last-minute deals, continued fuzziness on previously announced trade commitments—and an indication from President Trump that a deal to delay tariffs on China is "close." It all comes as global importers brace for the Thursday morning deadline. That's when President Trump promises to implement a central plank of his trade agenda: a tiered approach to "reciprocal" tariffs from 10% to 50%. Meanwhile, talks continued on varied fronts. For example, the Swiss president announced she would fly to Washington to try to win last-minute concessions. She added Tuesday that "the aim is to present a more attractive offer to the United States" to avert a 39% tariff on goods from her nation. Meanwhile India faces a divergent situation, with Trump telling CNBC Tuesday morning "we settled on 25% [tariffs], but I think I am going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours." India has slammed Trump's threats as unjustified and has seen its chances of a deal dwindle with top aides for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also reportedly traveling this week — but not to the US but instead to Moscow. It's part of flurry of last minute moves and a message from Trump that he's full-speed ahead with no plans to delay a tariff increase starting Thursday. For rolling updates on tariffs, check out our liveblog > He even teased during the CNBC appearance that he probably won't run for president again, but that he'd like to, in part because, in his view, "people love the tariffs." (Trump is, of course, barred by the Constitution from running for a third term, but he's often floated the idea.) Switzerland and India are two countries currently on the outside looking in but even nations that recently struck a trade deal continued to try and prepare for the tariff piece to take effect. 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Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet New details for some nations — and a focus on India and Switzerland There is also some new clarity on some technical details around how the new tariff landscape will likely work beginning at 12:01 a.m. ET on Thursday. US customs officials this week offered additional technical guidance in a new document about how it'll handle some tariff exemptions. The news there may give some select importers a short-term breather. But with a full tally, according to Bloomberg Economics, the average US tariff rate is now expected to rise to 15.2% if duties go forward as planned. That's a jump from current rates of 13.3% and another jump from the 2.3% duties seen in 2024 before Trump took office. That overall landscape set to be in effect Thursday will cover nearly every country on the globe. 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But on Tuesday morning, Trump suggested that it would be an uphill climb and that a recent call with the country didn't go well because "they essentially pay no tariffs," even as talks are clearly set to continue there. As for India, any immediate offramp appears unlikely because of that nation's connections with Russia and Russian oil. A note Tuesday from Capital Economics suggested that India could, in theory, offer concessions to diversify its energy sources, "but we doubt that India would make a wholehearted effort to wean itself off Russian oil [as it could upset relations and] it would not play well to be seen caving to Trump's demands." At the same time, reports from Bloomberg and the Times of India revealed that two top aides to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are traveling not to the US but to Russia in the coming days and weeks— even amid Trump's ever-escalating threats. Trump on Tuesday morning suggested talks are on ice for now and will be complicated when they resume, adding that "the sticking point with India is that tariffs are too high." This story has been updated with additional developments. Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices Sign in to access your portfolio
Boston Globe
17 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Trump's politically motivated sanctions against Brazil strain relations among old allies
Advertisement The message was clear earlier, when Trump described Bolsonaro's prosecution by Brazil's Supreme Court as a 'witch hunt' — using the same phrase he has employed for the numerous investigations he has faced since his first term. Bolsonaro faces charges of orchestrating a coup attempt to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A conviction could come in the next few months. The U.S. has a long history of meddling with the affairs of Latin American governments, but Trump's latest moves are unprecedented, said Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University. 'This is a personalistic government that is adopting policies according to Trump's whims,' Levitsky said. Bolsonaro's sons, he noted, have close connections to Trump's inner circle. The argument has been bolstered by parallels between Bolsonaro's prosecution and the attempted prosecution of Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, which ended when he won his second term last November. Advertisement 'He's been convinced Bolsonaro is a kindred spirit suffering a similar witch hunt,' Levitsky said. Brazil's institutions hold firm against political pressure After Bolsonaro's defeat in 2022, Trump and his supporters echoed his baseless election fraud claims, treating him as a conservative icon and hosting him at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser, recently told Brazil's news website UOL that the U.S. would lift tariffs if Bolsonaro's prosecution were dropped. Meeting that demand, however, is impossible for several reasons. Brazilian officials have consistently emphasized that the judiciary is independent. The executive branch, which manages foreign relations, has no control over Supreme Court justices, who in turn have stated they won't yield to political pressure. On Monday, the court ordered that Bolsonaro be placed under house arrest for violating court orders by spreading messages on social media through his sons' accounts. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the case against Bolsonaro, was sanctioned under the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which is supposed to target serious human rights offenders. De Moraes has argued that defendants were granted full due process and said he would ignore the sanctions and continue his work. 'The ask for Lula was undoable,' said Bruna Santos of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C., about dropping the charges against Bolsonaro. 'In the long run, you are leaving a scar on the relationship between the two largest democracies in the hemisphere.' 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'They make things up to protect someone who says nice things about Donald Trump,' McGovern told The Associated Press. Bolsonaro's son helps connect far right in US and Brazil Eduardo Bolsonaro's international campaign began immediately after his father's 2022 loss. Just days after the elections, he met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. As investigations against Bolsonaro and his allies deepened, the Brazilian far right adopted a narrative of judicial persecution and censorship, an echo of Trump and his allies who have claimed the U.S. justice system was weaponized against him. Brazil's Supreme Court and Electoral Court are among the world's strictest regulators of online discourse: they can order social media takedowns and arrests for spreading misinformation or other content it rules 'anti-democratic.' But until recently, few believed Eduardo's efforts to punish Brazil's justices would succeed. That began to change last year when billionaire Elon Musk clashed with de Moraes over censorship on X and threatened to defy court orders by pulling its legal representative from Brazil. In response, de Moraes suspended the social media platform from operating in the country for a month and threatened operations of another Musk company, Starlink. In the end, Musk blinked. Advertisement Fábio de Sá e Silva, a professor of international and Brazilian studies at the University of Oklahoma, said Eduardo's influence became evident in May 2024, when he and other right-wing allies secured a hearing before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. 'It revealed clear coordination between Bolsonaro supporters and sectors of the U.S. Republican Party,' he said. 'It's a strategy to pressure Brazilian democracy from the outside.' A last-minute tariff push yields some wins Brazil has a diplomatic tradition of maintaining a low-key presence in Washington, Stuenkel said. That vacuum created an opportunity for Eduardo Bolsonaro to promote a distorted narrative about Brazil among Republicans and those closest to Trump. 'Now Brazil is paying the price,' he said. After Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April, Brazil began negotiations. President Lula and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin — Brazil's lead trade negotiator — said they have held numerous meetings with U.S. trade officials since then. Lula and Trump have never spoken, and the Brazilian president has repeatedly said Washington ignored Brazil's efforts to negotiate ahead of the tariffs' implementation. Privately, diplomats say they felt the decisions were made inside the White House, within Trump's inner circle — a group they had no access to. A delegation of Brazilian senators traveled to Washington in the final week of July in a last-ditch effort to defuse tensions. The group, led by Senator Nelsinho Trad, met with business leaders with ties to Brazil and nine U.S. senators — only one of them Republican, Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Advertisement 'We found views on Brazil were ideologically charged,' Trad told The AP. 'But we made an effort to present economic arguments.' While the delegation was in Washington, Trump signed the order imposing the 50% tariff. But there was relief: not all Brazilian imports would be hit. Exemptions included civil aircraft and parts, aluminum, tin, wood pulp, energy products and fertilizers. Trad believes Brazil's outreach may have helped soften the final terms. 'I think the path has to remain one of dialogue and reason so we can make progress on other fronts,' he said. Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.
The Hill
17 minutes ago
- The Hill
Toppled Confederate statue returning to DC
A toppled statue dedicated to the memory of Confederate officer Albert Pike will soon be reinstalled in Washington, D.C., according to the Department of Interior. The statue will be back in Judiciary Square by October, according to The Washington Post, who first reported the move. It comes a year ahead of the nation's 250th founding anniversary, a milestone President Trump has pledged to mark with tributes to American history in Washington through his ' Making the District of Columbia Beautiful ' executive order. In the order, Trump says 'monuments, museums, and buildings should reflect and inspire awe and appreciation for our Nation's strength, greatness, and heritage.' Pike's contributions to the country's history fit the mold. 'This project reflects our commitment to the responsible stewardship of public lands and the preservation of our nation's cultural resources,' a spokesperson for the Department said in a Tuesday statement to The Hill. But in 2020, demonstrators removed the sculpture by hand in following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers. Pike's 27-foot-tall bronze and marble statue was erected more than a century ago, in 1901. The measure was aimed at paying homage to his history as a brigadier general in the Confederate army and prominent figure in Scottish Rite Freemasonry. He was also a member of the Know Nothing Party, known for its strong anti-immigration stance. As the Trump administration lauds the statue's reinstallment, local leaders remain in favor of keeping Pike out of street view. 'I've long believed Confederate statues should be placed in museums as historical artifacts, not remain in locations that imply honor. A statue honoring a racist and a traitor has no place on the streets of D.C.,' Congresswoman Eleanor Norton Holmes (D-D.C.) said in a statement to The Post. The D.C. Scottish Rite also said in 2017 the statue had become 'the subject of contention and escalating controversy' and that the group would agree to its removal, per the outlet.
