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The Independent
18 minutes ago
- The Independent
Jess Phillips slams ‘idiot' councils for denying grooming gang threat
Jess Phillips has condemned 'idiot' councils that believe there is no grooming gangs problem, before asserting that Elon Musk did not influence the decision to hold a national inquiry. Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday (6 August), the safeguarding minister said that she 'doesn't care' whether local authorities support the inquiry, which was announced in June following a 'damning' audit into the scandal from Baroness Casey. When told by the broadcaster that she'd 'surprised' at how many areas believe they have no issue with gangs, she responded: 'Well, they [the councils] are idiots if they say that'. She added: "I don't follow Elon Musk's advice on anything', after the SpaceX founder called on the UK to host a new public inquiry amid a series of inflammatory posts against Phillips. 'Before anyone even knew Musk's name, I was working with the victims of these crimes.'
Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump says he will impose a 100% tariff on computer chips
President Donald Trump has said that he will impose a 100% tariff on computer chips, raising the prospect of higher prices for electronics, cars, household appliances and other essential products dependent on the processors powering the digital age. 'We'll be putting a tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors,' Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday. 'But if you're building in the United States of America, there's no charge.' The announcement came more than three months after Trump temporarily exempted most electronics from his administration's most onerous tariffs. The Republican president said companies that make computer chips in the US would be spared the import tax. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of cars and contributed to higher inflation. Investors seemed to interpret the potential tariff exemptions as a positive for Apple and other major tech companies that have been making huge financial commitments to manufacture more chips and other components in the US. Big Tech already has made collective commitments to invest about $1.5 trillion in the US since Trump moved back into the White House in January. That figure includes a $600 billion promise from Apple after the iPhone maker boosted its commitment by tacking another $100 billion on to a previous commitment made in February. Now the question is whether the deal brokered between Cook and Trump will be enough to insulate the millions of iPhones made in China and India from the tariffs that the administration has already imposed and reduce the pressure on the company to raise prices on the new models expected to be unveiled next month. Wall Street certainly seems to think so. Apple's stock price gained 5% in Wednesday regular trading sessions before rising another 3% in extended trading after Trump announced some tech companies won't be hit with the latest tariffs while Cook stood alongside him. The shares of AI chipmaker Nvidia, which also has recently made big commitments to the US, rose slightly in extended trading to add to the $1 trillion gain in market value the Silicon Valley company has made since the start of Trump's second term. The stock price of computer chip pioneer Intel, which has fallen on hard times, also climbed in extended trading. The chip industry's main trade group, the Semiconductor Industry Association, has so far declined to comment on Trump's latest tariffs. Demand for computer chips has been climbing worldwide, with sales increasing 19.6% in the year-ended in June, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization. It is not clear how many chips, or from which country, would be impacted by the new levy. Taiwanese chip contract manufacturer TSMC - which makes chips for most U.S. companies - has factories in the country, so its big customers such as Nvidia are not likely to face increased tariff costs. The AI chip giant has itself said it plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in US-made chips and electronics over the next four years. 'Large, cash-rich companies that can afford to build in America will be the ones to benefit the most. It´s survival of the biggest,' said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at investment advisory firm Annex Wealth Management. Trump's tariff threats mark a significant break from existing plans to revive computer chip production in the US that were drawn up during the Biden administration. Since taking over from Biden, Trump has been deploying tariffs to incentivize more domestic production. Essentially, the president is betting that the threat of dramatically higher chip costs would force most companies to open factories domestically, despite the risk that tariffs could squeeze corporate profits and push up prices for mobile phones, TVs and refrigerators. By contrast, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act that Biden signed into law in 2022 provided more than $50 billion to support new computer chip plants, fund research and train workers for the industry. The mix of funding support, tax credits and other financial incentives were meant to draw in private investment, a strategy that Trump has vocally opposed. The Commerce Department under Biden last year convinced all five leading-edge semiconductor firms to locate chip factories in the US as part of the program. The department said the US last year produced about 12% of semiconductor chips globally, down from 40% in 1990. Any chip tariffs would likely target China, with whom Washington is still negotiating a trade deal. 'There's so much serious investment in the United States in chip production that much of the sector will be exempt,' said Martin Chorzempa, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Since chips made in China won't be exempt, chips made by SMIC or Huawei would not be either, Chorzempa said, noting that chips from these companies entering the US market were mostly incorporated into devices assembled in China. 'If these tariffs were applied without a component tariff, it might not make much difference,' he said.
The Guardian
19 minutes ago
- The Guardian
From puppy murder to racist podcasts: South Park's anti-deportation episode is utterly ruthless TV
Two weeks ago, South Park kicked off its 27th season with one of its angriest, most politically daring episodes. The animated sitcom, long a magnet for controversy, incurred the wrath of the current US administration for its brutal and graphic send-up of Donald Trump as a petty, micro-penised dictator, as well as parent company Paramount's cowardly capitulations to him. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker received immediate backlash not only from online conservative fans (who make up a good portion of their audience) but the White House itself, which released a statement calling South Park hypocritical and irrelevant. That latter charge was especially poignant, given that Stone and Parker just inked a new deal with Paramount for five more seasons, plus streaming rights, to the tune of $1.5bn. Tensions have only risen in the two weeks since the premiere aired. During that time, the show released several stills from the follow-up episode, which widens its sights from Trump to his media mouthpieces and foot soldiers. Figures from both groups – rightwing activist Charlie Kirk and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – boastfully shared these images on X, with the latter sarcastically thanking South Park for helping them in their recruiting efforts. (The show responded on X by asking DHS 'Wait, so we ARE relevant? #eatabagofdicks'.) All of this is to say that the new episode, titled Got a Nut, is coming in hot. And for the most part, it lives up to the hype. The episode follows two different stories: in one, the show's resident bigot, Eric Cartman, is outraged to learn that fellow fourth grader Clyde has risen to prominence as a white nationalist podcaster who makes offensive claims about women, Jewish people, Black people and other minority groups to goad them into debating him in exploitative viral videos ('WOKE STUDENT TOTALLY PWNED'). Of course, Cartman isn't angry on behalf of any of those groups; he's mad that Clyde is ripping off his gimmick and reaping all the rewards. He decides to muscle in on the act, styling his hair after Kirk's signature coif ('the stupidest haircut I've ever seen,' says one character), trolling college girls on social media and proclaiming himself a 'master-debater'. The other storyline sees South Park Elementary's kindly counsellor Mr Mackey out of a job thanks to government budget cuts. Desperate to find a new way to 'make his nut', he reluctantly joins Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Alongside his fellow masked goons – a collection of inexperienced, illiterate miscreants – and under the leadership of DHS secretary Kristi Noem, Mackey ends up taking part in violent raids at Dora the Explorer concerts and the literal gates of heaven, where he helps round up every Hispanic in sight (per Noem: 'Only detain the brown ones! If it's brown, it goes down!'). Both stories eventually intersect, as Clyde and Mackey are rewarded for their work with a trip to Mar-a-Lago. The country club is depicted as a gross, white trash version of bizarre 70s/80s US wish fulfilment drama Fantasy Island, with President Trump and vice-president JD Vance standing in for Ricardo Montalban and dwarf actor Herve Villechaize's characters. Younger viewers may not get this reference, but they don't need to: the visual of an ice-cream-suited Trump kicking around a dwarf version of Vance (his already big face puffed up to resemble the popular meme of him) is hilarious all on its own. Trump gets off easy here compared with Vance, but the show saves its harshest vitriol for Noem, who spends all her time viciously gunning down cute puppies (including the beloved Krypto from the new Superman movie) and struggling to keep her overly Botoxed face from melting off her skull. It's a ruthless scouring of Noem, and you can feel Stone and Parker's disdain for her in every frame. As per South Park tradition, the central characters come to realise the errors of their ways, with Mr Mackey delivering the episode's moral straight down the lens: 'If you're doing something you don't really believe in just to make your nut, you're gonna find that you just get sadder and your nut just gets bigger, m'kay?' Herein lies the issue with the episode. Got a Nut posits that the individuals who serve as Trump's most gung-ho operatives are acting entirely cynically, doing and saying things they know are wrong for an easy pay cheque. Certainly, that's part of it (see the signing bonuses and sponsorship deals the episode highlights), but it is dangerous to underestimate how many of these people fully believe their own rhetoric. But of course, it would be silly to expect a half-hour episode of South Park to encapsulate every facet of Trump's dystopia. Luckily, we've got plenty of episodes left to look forward to (48, minimum). Just as exciting will be the surefire backlash coming from Trump and his base, who are utterly incapable of not taking the bait.
