Lawsuit challenges restrictions on Head Start for kids in the US illegally
Individual public benefits, such as food stamps and college financial aid, have been largely unavailable to people in the country without legal status, but the new rules and guidance from the administration curbed their access to community-level programs that receive federal money.
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Winnipeg Free Press
15 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump: the least bad outcome
Opinion I would rather eat worms than write about the current hullabaloo on the American right over the conspiracy theories about pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his various pals and accomplices. The temptation is just to sit back and enjoy watching the MAGA revolution devour its own children, but duty calls. It is not enough just to wish that both sides lose. (Well, all of the many sides, really.) It is becoming clear that this scandal will probably injure U.S. President Donald Trump personally and weaken him permanently. It doesn't matter whether he was really implicated in Epstein's crimes or not. As usual, it's the attempted cover-up that does the damage. Nobody outside the United States has any influence on how the political storm that is growing there comes out, but everybody has a stake in the outcome. Even an increasingly isolationist America that is descending into political chaos is still the world's greatest military power and a major economic player. What happens there matters, but what should we hope for? The first principle is that we should all work to ensure that Trump remains in office for the remaining 42 months of his four-year term. He would only leave voluntarily if his entanglement in the Epstein affair grows so damning that he has to resign in order to be pardoned by his successor, JD Vance, but that is not out of the question. The great virtue of Trump as candidate for the role of first American dictator is that he's not up to the job. The push towards a 'soft fascist''authoritarian system is real and quite rapid — the ever-growing ICE is emerging as his private army — but his instinctive preference for a state of chaos that maximizes his options is not a sound foundation for a lasting dictatorship. Another three-and-a-half-years of Trump freed from all the restraints that the 'grown-ups' put on him during his first term will probably do great damage to the U.S. economy. However, it would also make it unlikely that either a chosen successor (or Trump himself in defiance of the constitution) could win the presidency in 2028. Democracy in the United States can survive Trump, and not just as a Hungarian-style 'elective dictatorship.' The number of people who swallow all the lies is shocking and shaming, but they never exceed half the population. A democratic comeback is possible. On the other hand, democracy in the United States would probably not survive a 'President' Vance who took power long enough before the 2028 election — whether by succession to a physically incapacitated or criminally implicated Trump or simply by a putsch — to rig the vote. Just look at him. You know it's true. So put up with Trump. Within limits, of course. The limits would include any U.S. invasion of a near-neighbour (Greenland, Panama, Canada), but the rest of the world has tacitly accepted U.S. air-strikes on at least half-a-dozen distant countries in recent decades. Now is not the right time to get picky about it. And what about the impact on world trade of Trump's ceaseless tampering with tariffs? This is a self-healing wound, in the sense that a rapidly growing number of countries are concluding that the United States is not a reliable trading partner. The endless struggle to keep up with the changes is just not worth it. The likely outcome is that supply chains will increasingly go around the United States rather than to or through it. That's not a limitless disaster for the United States, just a handicap that can be repaired in time. The arrival of Trump 2.0 has been a shock to both the global trading system and the alliance structures that had prevailed since the 1950s, but they are adjusting fast and fairly well to the new realities. Or at least, it could have been a lot worse. It could still take a turn for the worse, of course, but that's always the case. The task when things are threatening to fall apart is always to decide what is really important to preserve, and make your other choices and goals serve that overriding objective. Right now, that means keeping Vance from the throne, even at the cost of putting up with Trump. Gwynne Dyer's new book is Intervention Earth: Life-Saving Ideas from the World's Climate Engineers.
Canada News.Net
2 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
Trump backs stablecoin bill as crypto pushes for broader adoption
WASHINGTON, D.C.: With the stroke of a pen, President Donald Trump has signed into law the United States' first regulatory framework for stablecoins, marking a significant shift in how the federal government oversees one of the fastest-growing corners of the cryptocurrency industry. The legislation — officially titled the GENIUS Act—creates clear rules for dollar-pegged digital tokens known as stablecoins. These tokens are designed to maintain a fixed value and are widely used to move funds between crypto assets. The bill passed the House 308–122 with bipartisan backing and had previously cleared the Senate. At a July 18 White House signing ceremony, Trump praised the move as a turning point for American leadership in digital finance. "This signing is a massive validation of your hard work and pioneering spirit," he told crypto executives, lawmakers, and officials in attendance. "It's good for the dollar and it's good for the country." The new law mandates that stablecoins be fully backed by highly liquid assets like U.S. dollars and short-term Treasury bills. It also requires issuers to publicly disclose their reserves each month — a bid to bolster transparency and trust among banks, retailers, and consumers. Supporters of the legislation say it provides long-sought legitimacy to the crypto space and paves the way for stablecoins to become a routine tool for everyday payments. "This technology will help maintain the dollar's role as the global reserve currency," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, adding that it could also expand global access to the dollar economy and fuel demand for U.S. government debt. The stablecoin market has grown rapidly in recent years and is currently valued at more than US$260 billion, according to CoinGecko. Standard Chartered has estimated that under the new law, that figure could rise to $2 trillion by 2028. The law is the product of an intense lobbying effort by the cryptocurrency industry, which, according to Federal Election Commission data, contributed over $245 million to the 2024 election cycle in support of pro-crypto candidates, including Trump. Trump, who launched his own meme coin and owns a crypto company, has made digital assets a key theme of his economic platform. "I pledged that we would bring back American liberty and leadership and make the United States the crypto capital of the world," he said. "And that's what we've done." Still, the bill has drawn criticism. Some Democrats and financial watchdogs argue that it should have gone further in curbing the power of big tech firms, closing money-laundering loopholes, and limiting the influence of foreign stablecoin issuers. "By failing to close known loopholes and protect America's digital dollar infrastructure, Congress has risked making the U.S. financial system a global haven for criminals and adversarial regimes to exploit," said Scott Greytak of Transparency International U.S. Some major crypto companies like Ripple and Circle are now pursuing banking licenses under the new rules, which could help them reduce costs and broaden adoption. The move also opens the door to more stablecoin issuers buying short-term Treasury bills, which could boost demand for U.S. government debt.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Asian markets are mixed and Japan's shares slip after election leaves Ishiba's future in doubt
BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday after U.S. stock indexes inched to more records at the start of a week of profit updates from big U.S. companies. Japan's benchmark surged and then fell back as it reopened from a holiday Monday following the ruling coalition's loss of its upper house majority in Sunday's election. The Nikkei 225 shed 0.3% to 39,694.89. Analysts said the market initially climbed as investors were relieved that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to stay in office despite the setback. But the election's outcome has added to political uncertainty and left his government without the heft needed to push through legislation. A breakthrough in trade talks with the U.S. might win Ishiba a reprieve, but so far there's been scant sign of progress in negotiating away the threat of higher tariffs on Japan's exports to the U.S. beginning Aug. 1. 'Relief may be fleeting. Ishiba's claim to leadership now rests on political duct tape, and history isn't on his side. The last three LDP leaders who lost the upper house didn't last two months,' Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.3% to 25,057.11, while the Shanghai Composite index also was up 0.3%, at 3,568.78. South Korea's Kospi sank 1.4% to 3,165.40, with investors concerned over the Aug. 1 deadline for making a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump or facing 25% tariffs on all the country's exports to the U.S. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed at 8,666.30. India's Sensex gained 0.3%, while the SET in Thailand was up less than 0.1%. Many of Trump's stiff proposed tariffs are paused after he extended the deadline for talks to allow more time to reach potential trade deals that could lower those rates. Aug. 1 is the next big deadline, at least for now. U.S. stock indexes inched their way to more records on Monday to kick off a week full of profit updates from big U.S. companies. General Motors will report its latest profit results later this week, along with such market heavyweights as Alphabet, Coca-Cola and Tesla. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% to 6,305.60 and squeaked past its prior all-time high set on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down less than 0.1% to 44,323.07. The Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to its own record, closing at 20,974.17. Verizon Communications helped lead the way and rose 4%. The telecom giant reported a stronger profit and higher revenue for the latest quarter than expected and raised its forecasts for the full year. That helped offset a 5.4% drop for Sarepta Therapeutics, which continued to fall after the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that it asked the company to voluntarily stop all shipments of Elevidys, its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, due to safety concerns. Block, Jack Dorsey's company behind Square, Cash App and other tech brands climbed 7.6% in its first trading after learning it will join the widely followed and imitated S&P 500 index. It will take the place of Hess, which Chevron bought, before trading begins on Wednesday. Cleveland-Cliffs rallied 12.4% after the steel producer reported a smaller loss for the spring than analysts expected. It shipped a record 4.3 million net tons of steel during the quarter, and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said the company has begun to see 'the positive impact that tariffs have on domestic manufacturing' and other things. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. It's a major supplier to the auto industry, and Trump's tariffs steer companies hoping to sell cars in the United States toward steel made in the country. In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 71 cents to $65.24 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 69 cents to $68.52 per barrel. The U.S. dollar rose to 147.62 Japanese yen from 147.38 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1691 from $1.1696. ___ AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Stan Choe contributed.
