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Wall Street Journal
27 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Podcast: Renewed Trade Tensions Drive Down U.S. Stocks
Stocks' decline accelerates after President Trump announces 25% tariffs on goods from Japan and South Korea and threatens additional tariffs on countries building closer ties with Brics economies. Plus: Tesla shares fall after Elon Musk says he is forming a new political party. 🎧 Listen: Danny Lewis hosts the Minute Briefing podcast.
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Travel + Leisure
31 minutes ago
- Travel + Leisure
The Latest National Park Executive Order Is Going to Make Park Fees More Expensive for Some Tourists—What to Know
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on July 3, that will change entry fees, reservation systems, and funding models for the national park system. The new changes will primarily affect international visitors, but there could be implications for all future guests. 'It is the policy of my Administration to preserve these opportunities for American families in future generations by increasing entry fees for foreign tourists, improving affordability for United States residents, and expanding opportunities to enjoy America's splendid national treasures,' the first section of the executive order states. This latest development comes after the Trump administration has already made major changes to the National Parks Service (NPS), including cutting 1,000 employees from the agency in February 2025. The National Parks Conservation Association reports that the parks have lost about 24 percent of its permanent staff, and is about 8,000 employees short for seasonal hiring. With other proposals to cut funding for the agency in 2026 recently considered, the latest executive order suggests major shakeups are still to come. Here's what we know so far. The executive order does not state the exact increase in fees for international tourists or how those entry fee rules will be enforced. Entry fees to national parks vary for each location, according to the NPS database. 'The Secretary of the Interior shall develop a strategy to increase revenue and improve the recreational experience at national parks by appropriately increasing entrance fees and recreation pass fees for nonresidents in areas of the National Park System that charge entrance fees or recreation pass fees,' the executive order states. The executive order also said the price of the America the Beautiful Pass and 'any site-specific or regional multi-entity passes' will be increased for international travelers. The stated goal of these price hikes is to increase revenue for the parks system to assist in conservation, preservation, and infrastructure investments in the park. There is not a clear timeline for when the price increase will become effective or how it will be enforced. Some national parks do not have any entry fee at all. Right now, the executive order can be understood as an official set of directions for Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. International travelers can interpret the executive order as future change to anticipate instead of an immediate price to account for. The order also directs Burgum to review access to national parks, including to 'take steps to rescind any that unnecessarily restrict recreation in national parks,' and to 'grant American residents preferential treatment with respect to any remaining recreational access rules, including permitting or lottery rules.' The exact implementation of this component remains to be seen, but it can be interpreted as a move towards removing some reservation systems that popular and busy parks require. For national parks that keep a reservation system in place after this proposed overhaul, American residents will receive priority. In just a single line in the executive order, President Trump revoked the President Memorandum of 2017, called Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Our National Parks, National Forests, and Other Public Lands and Waters. This means the DEI efforts at the parks will no longer be prioritized (and possibly funded) by the Secretary of Interior and, thus, the NPS. When asked for clarification about timelines and potential increases, the National Parks Service directed Travel + Leisure to Secretary Burgum's tweet about the executive order.
CNN
33 minutes ago
- CNN
VA walks back plans for mass layoffs but will still lose tens of thousands of jobs
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Monday it is walking back plans for mass layoffs at the agency but says it will still shed tens of thousands of jobs by the end of fiscal year 2025. VA Secretary Doug Collins previously said the agency had the goal of laying off roughly 80,000 employees from a total staff of about 470,000 that was in place this summer, which would have amounted to about 15% of its workforce. The VA is scrapping those plans for now, but it is on pace to reduce the total number of staffers by nearly 30,000, 'through the federal hiring freeze, deferred resignations, retirements and normal attrition,' the agency said in a news release, adding that those cuts will eliminate 'the need for a large-scale reduction-in-force.' Some employees have already departed through those channels. The VA says it had roughly 484,000 total employees on January 1 and 467,000 employees as of June 1 – a reduction of nearly 17,000 workers. It says between now and September 30, 'the department expects nearly 12,000 additional VA employees to exit through normal attrition, voluntary early retirement authority, or the deferred resignation program.' Sources at the agency and on Capitol Hill previously told CNN the first significant round of layoffs was planned to begin this month, with a second round planned to begin in September. On Monday, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz told CNN there is no longer a target of 80,000 cuts. As for next year, Kasperowicz said, 'VA is not planning to make any other major changes to staffing levels beyond those outlined in the release.' The release insists the reductions 'do not impact Veteran care or benefits.' 'All mission-critical positions are exempt' from the deferred resignations and voluntary early retirements, the agency said. CNN has previously reported that some staff who handle administration, billing, and running facilities have already left, leaving doctors and nurses to do those jobs on top of practicing medicine, contributing to sagging morale at some VA facilities, a problem that spans multiple administrations. 'A department-wide RIF is off the table, but that doesn't mean we're done improving VA. Our review has resulted in a host of new ideas for better serving Veterans that we will continue to pursue,' Collins said in the statement. A reduction of 30,000 employees constitutes about 6.2% of the VA's workforce, based on 484,000 total VA employees as of January 1, 2025. Some of the harshest Democratic critics in Congress of the previously planned VA layoffs responded to the latest announcement with scorn. 'This announcement makes clear VA is bleeding employees across the board at an unsustainable rate because of the toxic work environment created by this Administration and DOGE's slash and trash policies,' Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement. 'Make no mistake, this is still a reduction in force—except VA has been able to do it without accountability and transparency to veterans and Congress.' House Veterans Affairs Committee ranking member Mark Takano warned that the new staffing reduction plan would still have major impacts. 'The loss of 30,000 VA employees will be catastrophic, and veterans will suffer,' he said in a statement. 'I hope the Secretary is ready to respond to this inevitable disaster.' Across the aisle, one prominent Senate Republican praised Collins' announcement Monday. Sen. Jerry Moran, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement that he had spoken to Collins on Monday morning. Moran said he appreciated the secretary's efforts 'to make certain veterans are at the center of any changes at the VA and ensure the department is focused on providing high-quality health care and benefits to those who have served and their families. This decision provides greater certainty to VA employees and the veterans they serve.'
