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The Hill
22-04-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Trump tariffs will throttle US, global econmies: IMF
Century-high tariff levels imposed by President Trump. are expected to take a bite out of global economic growth this year, International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists said Tuesday. The IMF downgraded its projection for global gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 2.8 percent growth in 2025, down from a forecast of 3.3 percent in January. U.S. growth projections were marked down to 1.8-percent growth from 2.7-percent growth, and expectations for the output of advanced economies were pulled down to 1.4 percent from 1.9 percent. The markdown reflects 'tariff rates to levels not seen in a century and a highly unpredictable environment,' IMF economists said. Following the announcement of Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs on April 2, additional China-specific tariffs on April 9, and various other trade taxes that have gone into effect since January, the U.S. effective tariff rate is now at about 25 percent. The IMF said that global economic conditions had nearly normalized following the pandemic disruptions starting in 2020 that led to a wave of global inflation and political unrest, but that trade policies were ushering in a new era of uncertainty. 'Major policy shifts are resetting the global trade system and giving rise to uncertainty that is once again testing the resilience of the global economy,' IMF economists said. Other economic organizations have made similar observations in recent weeks, including the Federal Reserve, which has made predictions of slower growth and faster price increases as a result of U.S. tariff policies. In its latest summary of economic projections, the Fed downgraded the 2025 U.S. growth outlook to 1.7 percent from 2.1 percent. It raised its inflation expectation to 2.7 percent from 2.5 percent, while raising the unemployment forecast to 4.4 percent from 4.3 percent. 'The level of the tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated. The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth,' Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week. Economists for the United Nations have also noted the hit to growth, observing that increased protectionism reflects public dissatisfaction with globalization. 'Trade tensions, home-shoring, and supply chain securitization reflect economic power competition and public discontent with globalization,' the wrote in a trade a development report earlier this year. While 'losses to global GDP from economic fragmentation are substantial,' they said, '[it's] important not to overstress the extent of deglobalization.'
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Potential cuts to Medicaid aren't an option for these metro Detroiters
About 100 people turned up at a park in Milford on Tuesday afternoon to rally against potential cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance for low income and disabled people that provides health care for about one-fourth of Michigan's population. It was the first in a series of sparsely attended afternoon and evening meetings scheduled around metro Detroit on Tuesday to focus on the passage of a U.S. House Republican-led congressional budget resolution calling for the Committee on Energy and Commerce to cut $880 billion from its budget over the next 10 years. More: House passes GOP funding bill backed by Trump. Now a showdown looms in Senate. The committee oversees Medicaid. And while the resolution doesn't specifically single out Medicaid for cuts, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the Republicans can't finance their budget cuts unless they cut from Medicaid. The energy and commerce committee's reductions are among trillions of dollars in cuts in the budget plan that are to be used to fund an extension of President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts. The U.S. Senate has yet to take up the resolution. About 72 million people across the nation, or roughly 1 in 4, rely on Medicaid, according to government statistics. Around 2.6 million, or 26%, of Michigan residents rely on Medicaid. Also the budget resolution calls on the House Committee on Agriculture to cut billions in spending, leaving many concerned the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ― which feeds almost 42 million people — will be part of the cuts if House Republicans get their way. "You may be here because you're angry. Maybe you're a little frustrated ... and perhaps, even afraid. But you're also here because you care," Sherri Masson, an organizer from Indivisible Huron Valley, which hosted the Milford rally, told people gathered there. "You care about the sick, the elderly and the children who currently rely on Medicaid and SNAP food programs for survival. We're here because President Trump, Elon Musk and his MAGA followers ... want to cut the federal budget by trillions to give billionaires a tax cut. " Another speaker, Mindy Denton, who is 56 and lives in Milford, told the group that a cut in Medicaid would be catastrophic for people like her 25-year-old son, Jared Denton, who is intellectually disabled and will rely on Medicaid for insurance next year. 'Although he has worked for years and will continue to do so, it is unlikely he will earn enough to receive private insurance benefits through his employment,' she said. 'Medicaid and SNAP not only advanced greater opportunity and the empowerment to succeed, they offer an investment in the health of our community, promoting broader social and economic goals — that's a win for us all," she said. Later that evening, at a town hall meeting at the Faith Redemption Center Church of God in Christ in Detroit, about 40 people gathered to learn what might be next. How is it possible Medicaid wouldn't be touched, some wondered. Among those in attendance: Michelle Tucker, a 57-year-old Detroit resident, who is concerned about a number of topics regarding the Trump administration and the empowerment of Musk. They include: threats to the Department of Education, an immigration crackdown, and potential cuts to Medicaid. "It doesn't take a blind person to see this is white supremacy," she said. Still, these actions will have a ripple effect and white people will be affected, too, she added. Said Nick Clarke, 67, of Wixom: "In a country like America, nobody ... should go hungry and nobody should go without health care." Organizers of the event encouraged people to contact their congressional representatives and U.S. senators. They even put a QR code on a screen and images of legislators to contact. "In every single historical point of oppression there was a point of resistance," said DuJuan Bland, a lead organizer with the community group MOSES and a minister at Faith Redemption. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Angry, betrayed: metro Detroiters rally against possible Medicaid cuts
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Potential cuts to Medicaid aren't an option for these metro Detroiters
About 100 people turned up at a park in Milford on Tuesday afternoon to rally against potential cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance for low income and disabled people that provides health care for about one-fourth of Michigan's population. It was the first in a series of sparsely attended afternoon and evening meetings scheduled around metro Detroit on Tuesday to focus on the passage of a U.S. House Republican-led congressional budget resolution calling for the Committee on Energy and Commerce to cut $880 billion from its budget over the next 10 years. More: House passes GOP funding bill backed by Trump. Now a showdown looms in Senate. The committee oversees Medicaid. And while the resolution doesn't specifically single out Medicaid for cuts, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the Republicans can't finance their budget cuts unless they cut from Medicaid. The energy and commerce committee's reductions are among trillions of dollars in cuts in the budget plan that are to be used to fund an extension of President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts. The U.S. Senate has yet to take up the resolution. About 72 million people across the nation, or roughly 1 in 4, rely on Medicaid, according to government statistics. Around 2.6 million, or 26%, of Michigan residents rely on Medicaid. Also the budget resolution calls on the House Committee on Agriculture to cut billions in spending, leaving many concerned the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ― which feeds almost 42 million people — will be part of the cuts if House Republicans get their way. "You may be here because you're angry. Maybe you're a little frustrated ... and perhaps, even afraid. But you're also here because you care," Sherri Masson, an organizer from Indivisible Huron Valley, which hosted the Milford rally, told people gathered there. "You care about the sick, the elderly and the children who currently rely on Medicaid and SNAP food programs for survival. We're here because President Trump, Elon Musk and his MAGA followers ... want to cut the federal budget by trillions to give billionaires a tax cut. " Another speaker, Mindy Denton, who is 56 and lives in Milford, told the group that a cut in Medicaid would be catastrophic for people like her 25-year-old son, Jared Denton, who is intellectually disabled and will rely on Medicaid for insurance next year. 'Although he has worked for years and will continue to do so, it is unlikely he will earn enough to receive private insurance benefits through his employment,' she said. 'Medicaid and SNAP not only advanced greater opportunity and the empowerment to succeed, they offer an investment in the health of our community, promoting broader social and economic goals — that's a win for us all," she said. Later that evening, at a town hall meeting at the Faith Redemption Center Church of God in Christ in Detroit, about 40 people gathered to learn what might be next. How is it possible Medicaid wouldn't be touched, some wondered. Among those in attendance: Michelle Tucker, a 57-year-old Detroit resident, who is concerned about a number of topics regarding the Trump administration and the empowerment of Musk. They include: threats to the Department of Education, an immigration crackdown, and potential cuts to Medicaid. "It doesn't take a blind person to see this is white supremacy," she said. Still, these actions will have a ripple effect and white people will be affected, too, she added. Said Nick Clarke, 67, of Wixom: "In a country like America, nobody ... should go hungry and nobody should go without health care." Organizers of the event encouraged people to contact their congressional representatives and U.S. senators. They even put a QR code on a screen and images of legislators to contact. "In every single historical point of oppression there was a point of resistance," said DuJuan Bland, a lead organizer with the community group MOSES and a minister at Faith Redemption. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Angry, betrayed: metro Detroiters rally against possible Medicaid cuts
BBC News
26-02-2025
- BBC News
Apple AI tool transcribed the word 'racist' as 'Trump'
Apple says it is working to fix its speech-to-text tool after some social media users found that when they spoke the word "racist" into their iPhones it typed it out as "Trump."The tech giant has suggested the issue with its Dictation service has been caused by a problem it has distinguishing between words with an "r" in them."We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers Dictation and we are rolling out a fix today," an Apple spokesperson said. However an expert in speech recognition told the BBC this explanation was "just not plausible." Peter Bell, professor of speech technology at the University of Edinburgh, said it was more likely that someone had altered the underlying software that the tool used. Videos shared online show people speaking the word "racist" into the Dictation it is transcribed correctly - but on other occasions it is turned into "Trump", before being quickly restored to the correct BBC has not been able to replicate the mistake, suggesting Apple's fix is already taking Bell said Apple's explanation of phonetic overlap did not make sense because the two words were not similar enough to confuse an artificial intelligence (AI) recognition models are trained by inputting clips of real people speaking alongside an accurate transcript of what they are also taught to understand words in context - for example, they could distinguish the word "cup" from "cut" if it was within the phrase "a cup of tea".Prof Bell says the situation with Apple is unlikely to be a genuine mistake with its data because its English language model would be trained on hundreds of thousands of hours of speech, which should give it a high level of accuracy. For "less well-resourced languages" he said it could be an AI training he said in this case: "it probably points to somebody that's got access to the process."A former Apple employee who worked on its AI assistant Siri told the New York Times: "This smells like a serious prank." Apple had to row back on another AI-powered feature last month after complaints from the BBC and other news organisations. It suspended its AI summaries of news headlines after it displayed false notifications on stories - including one where it said tennis player Rafael Nadal had come out as company announced yesterday it would be investing $500bn (£395bn) in the US over the next four year, including on a large data centre in Texas to power Apple company's chief executive Tim Cook also said it may have to change its policies on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) after President Donald Trump has called for an end to DEI programmes.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘We're your neighbors, friends and family': Oklahoma City FAA workers axed in federal layoffs feel betrayed, concerned by rhetoric
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Former FAA employees in Oklahoma City, now among those laid off as part of the federal government's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) job cuts, say they feel betrayed and abandoned, and that they are not faceless bureaucrats, but everyday people—your friends, your neighbors—who are now without a federal government laid off more than 300 employees from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over the weekend as part of its ongoing efforts to increase efficiency under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. LOCAL NEWS: Lawmakers wants Oklahoma absentee voters to explain their absence Many of those affected work in Oklahoma City at the FAA's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, a hub for the agency's training operations. The layoffs come amid rhetoric about streamlining federal government functions. But one employee who lost their job, speaking to News 4 anonymously, says the focus from Washington and supporters of the initiative has failed to account for the real-life consequences for the people affected.'We're all just too, I think, in shock and just taking it in,' the former Oklahoma City-based FAA employee told News was 10:35 p.m. on Friday when the employee got a message.'I got an email sent to my personal email letting me know that my employment was terminated,' the former employee were one of hundreds of FAA workers—still under their probationary employment period—who the federal government decided last week, were no longer needed.'Effective immediately,' the former employee came just as the employee was preparing to return to in-person work following an executive order from President Trump.'I was actually just shopping for clothes to go back into the office,' they said. 'I had childcare set up for that reason. And then it was actually, 'you don't need to go in the office, because you no longer have a job.''Beyond the shock of being fired over email late on a Friday, something the termination email said in particular stood out to the former employee.'It was due to performance, which was the most shocking part about it,' the former employee employee, who worked as a contractor with the FAA for nearly a decade before joining the agency as an employee last fall, told News 4 they hadn't been with the FAA long enough to have any performance evaluation done. The former employee said, as far as they and their manager knew, they were doing an excellent job.'I had gotten nothing but positive feedback,' they said. 'The practice of using the probationary period as a tool for quick termination, and without proper evaluation or due process, it really undermines both like the principles of good governance and basic workplace fairness.'David Spero, national president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union, spoke with NBC News on Monday, calling the firings a 'hastily made decision' that would put more work on an already stretched workforce.'You have to do it in a thoughtful way, you can't introduce risk into the national airspace system,' Spero told NBC news. 'There's no way you can ever just take a shot at and go.'The federal layoffs were ordered by President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is helmed by billionaire Elon Musk.'We do need to delete entire agencies,' Musk said of the DOGE initiative in a previous interview with NBC Trump applauded the layoffs while speaking with NBC News reporters after the Daytona 500 over the weekend.'This country has made more progress in the last three weeks than it's made in the last four years,' Trump former FAA employee News for spoke with said, Trump wasn't the only person they saw celebrating. 'I see family and friends that are sharing, you know, basically applauding what's going on and they're happy about this,' the former employee the former employee, that may be the hardest part—'Many of us took these positions accepting lower salaries than we probably could have if we had gone into the private sector,' they said.—The divisive rhetoric, the armchair quarterbacking. LOCAL NEWS: Protesters take on President Trump's policies 'This narrative—that federal employees are just wasteful or crazy—it couldn't be further from the truth,' they said. 'My colleagues and I work very hard to serve our communities and uphold our agency's missions.'The feeling was hard to put into words.'I never knew that there was this outlook on federal employees, that we're these evil, you know, lazy people that don't work hard or care about what we do,' they feeling—the former employee says—that comes when your own neighbors take glee in seeing you down.'I would just ask that you would, you know, look at us as regular people,' the former employee said. 'We're not faceless bureaucrats. We're your neighbors, friends and family members who—we chose public service because we believe in the mission.'With President's Day being a federal holiday, News 4 was unable to get in touch with the FAA for any comment on NBC News has been attempting to reach out to the FAA for the past few days. They have also not heard back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
