
Senators seek to upgrade US airport security, reduce checkpoint lines
Senator Jerry Moran, a Republican who chairs a subcommittee on aviation, along with Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen and Michael Bennet and Republican John Boozman, said since 2014 more than $13 billion in security ticket fees have been diverted to non-security uses. The bill would tap those funds for enhanced security efforts as air travel set a record last year and is expected to set a new one this year.
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Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
IMF: Bank of England must cut rates twice more this year
The Bank of England should cut interest rates two more times this year to boost Britain's economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The Fund urged Threadneedle Street to keep lowering borrowing costs from the current level of 4.25pc against the backdrop of an economy that is still reeling from Rachel Reeves's record tax raid. It also warned that mounting debts and uncertainty about Donald Trump's trade policies risked triggering renewed turmoil in financial markets, even as it upgraded its global growth forecasts. While tariffs are lower than those Mr Trump threatened on 'liberation day' on April 2, the IMF said huge uncertainty remained about the future of global trade policy. 'Risks are tilted to the downside,' it said in an update of its world economic outlook. 'Larger fiscal deficits or increased risk aversion could raise long-term interest rates and tighten global financial conditions. 'Combined with fragmentation concerns, this could reignite volatility in financial markets.' Fears about higher tariffs drove a growth spurt at the start of the year, as companies rushed to send goods to the world's biggest economy to avoid higher levies. As a result, UK growth is expected to be slightly higher than previously forecast in 2025, at 1.2pc, while its UK growth forecast for 2026 remains unchanged at 1.4pc. Ms Reeves, the Chancellor, said the IMF forecasts 'show that the UK remains the fastest growing European economy in the G7 despite the global economic challenges we are facing'. The global economy is expected to grow 3pc this year and 3.1pc in 2026, helped by easing trade tensions. The IMF said it expected the pace of rate cuts globally to be slower than it did just three months ago, with the Bank of England expected to cut 'around twice more this year after pausing to assess incoming data'. The Bank has already cut rates twice this year to 4.25pc. Investors are only fully pricing in one more reduction to 4pc in August. However, concerns about the health of the economy could prompt more action. Andrew Bailey warned this month that the tax changes announced by Ms Reeves in her October Budget were damaging hiring and hitting pay packets. Mr Bailey warned that companies were 'adjusting employment and hours, and also having pay rises that are possibly less than they would have been if the NICs change hadn't happened'. It comes just days after the IMF warned that richer Britons may be forced to subsidise the NHS as the Chancellor struggles to balance the books. The Washington-based institution said Ms Reeves would be forced to raise taxes on working people, scrap the pension triple lock or start charging for the NHS. Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, said growth was 'going nowhere' under Labour, with Ms Reeves expected to raise taxes again by as much as £20bn in the Autumn. Mr Stride added: 'Business confidence has collapsed all because of the Chancellor's reckless economic choices. 'You can't tax your way to growth – we need to back British businesses and workers.' Elsewhere, the IMF suggested that the US Federal Reserve had more limited scope to reduce borrowing costs, in a move that puts chairman Jerome Powell on a collision course with Mr Trump. The US president has suggested that Mr Powell should be fired for refusing to cut rates. The IMF said it expects price rises to pick up towards the end of the year. It added: 'Monetary policy rates in the United Kingdom and the United States are expected to decline in the second half of 2025, though at varying speeds. 'Inflation will remain above [the 2pc] target in the US and be more subdued in other large economies.'


The Guardian
42 minutes ago
- The Guardian
IMF upgrades global growth forecast as Trump tariffs ease, but warns on risks
Global growth will be stronger than previously expected this year after Donald Trump scaled back his most extreme tariff threats, the International Monetary Fund said as it upgraded the economic outlook for 2025. The Washington-based organisation said a 'de-escalation in tariffs' by the White House spurred a recovery in global trade and a broader economic expansion, though US policies remain 'highly uncertain' and risks to growth remain 'firmly on the downside'. The IMF chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, upgraded a forecast for global growth in 2025 to 3% from an estimate in April of 2.8%. The outlook for 2026 was upgraded from 3% to 3.1%. The global economy grew by 3.3% in 2024. Most regions benefited from the more benign economic outlook, including the UK, which is expected to grow by 1.2% this year – 0.1 percentage points higher than in the IMF's April outlook. In April, Donald Trump threatened to impose severe import tariffs on the world's biggest exporters of goods, including the UK, EU, China and South Korea, to combat what the US president believed was unfair competition. Stock markets dived and the US dollar fell as investors, spooked by the potential hit to world trade, bought safe havenassets. The US later delayed or reduced tariffs in return for commitments to buy US-made goods, reversing market falls as investors concluded 'Trump always chickens out' – or Taco for short. At the weekend Trump agreed to end months of speculation over whether he would impose 30% tariffs on EU goods imports, saying he would limit the rise to 15% in exchange for concessions from the EU, including the purchase of almost £600bn worth of US oil and gas. The French prime minister described the US-EU trade deal as a 'dark day' for Europe. Japan recently agreed to buy Boeing planes as part of a deal to limit tariffs on its exports to the US to 15%. And Trump has also scaled back tariffs on Chinese goods, though only after Beijing retaliated by imposing punitive tariffs on rare earth metals needed by defence industry manufacturers. Gourinchas said the US had 'partly reversed course', reducing the US effective tariff rate from 24% to about 17%. But he added: 'Despite these welcome developments, tariffs remain historically high, and global policy remains highly uncertain, with only a few countries having reached fully fleshed-out trade agreements.' The White House has set a deadline of 1 August for several countries, including Vietnam and South Korea, to sign deals with the US. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion 'Without comprehensive agreements, the ongoing trade uncertainty could increasingly weigh on investment and activity,' Gourinchas said. He said the situation could also worsen should attacks on central banks intensify, undermining their authority. Trump has repeatedly called on Jerome Powell, the chair of the US Federal Reserve, to cut interest rates, calling him a 'numbskull' for failing to do so. 'It is important to reaffirm and preserve the principle of central bank independence. The evidence is overwhelming that independent central banks, with a narrow mandate to pursue price and economic stability, are essential to anchoring inflation expectations,' he added. 'That central banks around the world achieved a successful 'soft landing' despite the recent surge in inflation owes a great deal to their independence and hard-earned credibility.' Trade data released on Tuesday showed that imports of goods into the US fell by $11.5bn (£8.6bn) in June, to $264.2bn, after a rise in imports earlier this year as companies tried to beat Donald Trump's tariffs. This narrowed the US trade deficit to $86.0bn in June, down from $96.4bn in May.


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Animal shelters across US seeing rise in 'owner surrenders'
Another troubling sign of economic strain: more Americans are giving up their pets. Animal shelters across the US are seeing a rise in 'owner surrenders,' as families hand over dogs and cats they can no longer afford to keep. Volunteers say it's often an early warning sign of deeper financial distress. 'There are times when the economy has taken a dip or we've had a lot of job layoffs,' Melissa Knicely, a staffer at North Carolina shelter, told CNN . When that happens, '100 percent' there will be a jump in pets given up. Knicely's shelter has seen a 43 percent spike in surrenders this year — with most families saying they simply couldn't afford to keep their pets. They're not alone. Several rescues across the country have reported similar issues. Risa Weinstock, president of the Animal Care Centers of New York City, said her organization has stopped accepting new animals because they're over capacity. 'We're in the business to care for animals that come to us, and we want to help people with their pets,' she told NBC News . 'But when we have 1,000 animals to care for and a capacity to house them that doesn't meet that need, we're in a bit of a difficult situation.' Dog and cat ownership has become significantly more expensive in recent years, with the price of food and veterinary care climbing steeply. Porter County Animal Shelter, an adoption center in Indiana, estimates that dog owners spend between $20 and $60 a month on food alone. Annual costs — including beds, collars, medical treatments, grooming, and other basics — can total any additional $925 to $2,900, depending on the dog's breed and size, they estimate. The increasing pet prices are also coming while Americans continue to struggle with their own day-to-day bills. Food prices have soared since 2020 as restaurants, grocery stores, and suppliers scrambled to rebuild supply chains after pandemic shutdowns. Now, with tariff campaigns, heightened interest rates , growing geopolitical uncertainty, and new price rises, consumers are starting to feel their wallets getting stretched further. Last month, the Labor Department said that prices rose 2.7 percent — the largest increase since February — breaking a months-long streak of slowing inflation. And Americans are increasingly taking out consumer debt to pay for those higher prices. Still, a majority of economic indicators point to a robust economy. Unemployment claims fell again last week, and the latest jobs report showed that Americans are working and earning more than before. Those figures have helped reassure Wall Street investors, who continue to pour money into the economy on hopes that US consumers will keep spending. But for many households, the gap between those promising macroeconomic signals and the realities of rising costs feels impossible to ignore.