Latest news with #TrumpEffect
Skift
5 days ago
- Business
- Skift
April 2025 Highlights
While Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa showed growth and Europe remained stable, North America witnessed a 5% slowdown, mainly due to the 'Trump Effect' bringing policy changes, travel bans, and tariffs, leading to shifts in travel sentiment. Report Overview This report highlights the latest insights from the Skift Travel Health Index. The index covers travel's performance since January 2020, up to and including April 2025. The Skift Travel Health Index is a real-time measure of the performance of the travel industry at large, and the core verticals within it. The Index provides the travel industry with a powerful tool for strategic planning, which is of utmost importance as times remain uncertain. Skift Research launched the Index in May 2020 as the Skift Recovery Index. At the start of 2022 we rebranded the Index as the Skift Travel Health Index, to reflect some far-ranging changes: the addition of many more indicators, additional data partners, and most importantly, our continued effort to track the industry health beyond the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 2024 brings new data partners into the fold. Cloudbeds has started to provide us with ADR and Occupancy data for hotel stays, and The Data Appeal Company is providing us with data on travel sentiment, flight searches and flight bookings, strengthening the index. We are thankful for the continued support of our other data partners: Amadeus, Aviasales, Beyond, CarTrawler, Cendyn, Cloudbeds, Collinson, Criteo, Duetto, Hotelbeds, Key Data Dashboard, Lighthouse, Nium, OAG, Onyx CenterSource, Shiji Group, Skyscanner, Sojern, The Data Appeal Company, TravelgateX, and TrustYou. Their data allows us to provide you with a monthly assessment of travel's performance.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Compared to the last Memorial Day, gas prices are lower, but who deserves credit?
Gas prices — the subject of considerable political spin and even a doughnut promotion as millions of Americans hit the roadways and went shopping during the long holiday weekend — averaged $3.18 a gallon nationally and $3.20 in Michigan, according to AAA. Petroleum analysts and news outlets have attempted to explain the fluctuations in prices in a global economy disrupted by tariffs and a shifting U.S. energy policy that encourages increased fossil fuel use and environmental deregulation. The national gas price average, derived from a survey of about 120,000 gas stations, was 41 cents less on Monday than it was a year ago, but the same as a week ago. Michigan's average was down 46 cents from a year ago, but up three cents from last week. Throughout the state, the highest gas price averages by community were in Benton Harbor, $3.27 a gallon; Lansing, $3.26 and Grand Rapids, $3.25, and the lowest were in Traverse City, $3.04; Marquette, $3.08 and metro Detroit, $3.16. Amid the Memorial Day sales for everything from coffee makers, Apple watches, giant-screen TVs, refrigerators, headphones, swimsuits and "perfect vintage jeans," Krispy Kreme crafted a quirky campaign around gas prices. The doughnut company advertised: "Long weekend plans = snacks on deck," urging folks to buy a box of a dozen original glazed doughnuts to "fuel up" for $3.17, the national average before rounding up, when you "buy any dozen!" And the Trump administration touted low gas prices and "the Trump Effect in action," saying fuel was "the cheapest since 2021" and "if you adjust for inflation and rising wages," and excluded the pandemic years, Americans were spending "the least amount filling up this Memorial Day since 2003." The White House, which attributed its claims to GasBuddy, went on to declare "Biden's war on American energy is over" and trumpeted Trump's "relentless action to revive the nation's energy capabilities and undo the Biden-era stranglehold on American energy production." Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy's senior petroleum analyst, confirmed on X that "speaking seasonally, all 50 states are lower than last Memorial Day" and noted that gas prices were at their lowest seasonal (Memorial Day) level since 2021." DeHaan said gas prices are at their lowest inflation-adjusted level since 2003, excluding 2020, meaning Americans are putting "less of their paycheck into their tanks," although prices are higher than they were in December." In the last six months, DeHaan said, gas prices "climbed in 39 of the nation's 50 states, declined in 11." Politicians, he added, will "lie/incorrectly lead you to believe they've done something," adding "the bulk of this has been recent economic turmoil, as well as OPEC production changes, and continued re-balancing of the global economy" since the pandemic. West Texas Intermediate crude oil has been trading at less than $62 a barrel and could fall. At its May 31 meeting, Bloomberg News reported, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to discuss whether to increase oil output. The price of oil is a key factor in the price of gasoline. More oil production could be good for consumers, but bad for oil companies, which also affects the economy. When prices fall, oil companies tend to profit less. Fact-checkers also have suggested that previous claims by President Donald Trump that gas has been selling for less than $2 a gallon, and by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that prices have 'collapsed under President Trump,' were misleading. DeHaan also warned that hurricane season, if turbulent, could cause spikes in gas prices, and forecasted last week that "due to a large jump in wholesale prices," the retail price could go up. Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Memorial Day gas prices pop up in ads and national political posturing
Axios
18-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
Trump's Gulf gamble: Helping UAE and Saudi become AI powers
The enduring legacy of President Trump's trip to the Gulf may be the transformation of the Middle East into a global artificial intelligence powerhouse, despite massive risks to the U.S. Why it matters: The Biden administration saw the Gulf as a backdoor for China to gain access to the computing power needed to advance AI. President Trump and the tech CEOs who joined him in the Middle East see a chance for multibillion-dollar deals. Driving the news: In deal after deal announced over the week, Trump opened the door for the Gulf to obtain the world's most advanced AI chips. In Saudi Arabia, Trump and tech leaders from AMD, Amazon and other companies announced AI-related partnerships worth billions of dollars with a new Saudi-state-backed AI infrastructure startup called Humain. Nvidia said it will ship 18,000 of its cutting-edge AI chips for a 500-megawatt data center being built by Humain. In the UAE, Trump and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed said the two countries will partner to build the largest AI data center outside the U.S., in Abu Dhabi. What they're saying: Trump's AI czar, David Sacks, called the deals a "game-changer in the global AI race" that will "help to cement American technology as the global standard — before our competitors can catch up." "The alternative to this framework was to exclude critical geo-strategic, resource-rich friends and allies from our AI ecosystem. This was the Biden policy, and it was foolish in the extreme," Sacks added. The White House says last week's announcement by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE are part of a "Trump Effect" bringing the U.S. "a surge of private and foreign investment." The big picture: The UAE and Saudi Arabia have leaders desperate to make their kingdoms high-tech powers, and deep pockets and abundant energy needed to develop AI. Now, with Trump's help, they'll also have the chips. Some experts working on AI heard Trump's pronouncements and envisioned the world's biggest AI data centers sprouting not in the U.S., but in the Gulf. Perhaps more pressingly, current and former U.S. officials worry China's biggest AI players — or even its military — will be able to access advanced AI chips they can't legally import into China by deepening partnerships in Gulf states, where Beijing enjoys extensive economic and security ties. The other side: A group of Democratic lawmakers argued on Friday that Trump announced the deals "to export very large volumes of advanced AI chips to the UAE and Saudi Arabia without credible security assurances to prevent U.S. adversaries from accessing those chips." "These deals pose a significant threat to U.S. national security and fundamentally undermine bipartisan efforts to ensure the United States remains the global leader in AI. Rather than putting America first, this deal puts the Gulf first," the statement adds. The bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party introduced new legislation"to stop advanced U.S. AI chips from falling into the hands of adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party." The flipside: The White House insists it can safeguard U.S. tech while pursuing these multibillion-dollar deals. In announcing the U.S.-UAE partnership, the Department of Commerce — which will have to approve some of the deals — said the tech cooperation will meet "robust U.S. security standards and other efforts to responsibly deploy AI infrastructure, both in the UAE and globally." The administration is also working on a policy to replace the Biden-era chip export caps it withdrew ahead of Trump's trip. Between the lines: Some policymakers and firms like Nvidia and Microsoft have argued overly arduous restrictions risk ceding the field to China, undercutting U.S. AI preeminence rather than bolstering it.
Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Times
US homebuyers seek UK haven to escape ‘Trump effect'
The number of Americans seeking homes in Britain is at an eight-year high, in what analysts believe is at least in part due to the Trump effect. The number of inquiries from the United States about UK homes advertised on the property website Rightmove is 19 per cent higher than in the first four months of 2024 and makes up the largest number since 2017. Scotland has overtaken London as the most popular single region of inquiry by Americans, at 28 per cent, compared with 26 per cent in the Greater London area. Edinburgh is the most popular destination for all American inquiries about the UK, at 8 per cent, followed by various London locations. • Fancy a very big house in the country? It's
Irish Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on Romania's election: a skew to the right
Romania's ultranationalist leading candidate for the presidency, George Simion, who has vowed to 'Make Romania Great Again', has nailed his colours explicitly to the Trump mast. If elected in the second round of voting on Sunday, he has made clear, for example, that on Ukraine he will join the EU's awkward squad led by Hungary in hobbling military support for the embattled country. In a TV debate Simion promised he will not vote to send 'military aid to Ukraine because I will consult in defence matters with the American side', and follow any decisions of the US president. Romania's vote marks yet another recent international election in which the heavy hand of the US president has played what is often a deciding role. In Canada, Greenland, and Australia, he substantially boosted centre-left, anti-Trump majorities. In Germany, and arguably in the UK's local elections, he played into the success of the populist right. Polling by a European think tank, the EPC, suggests, however, that the Trump effect has been to change the nature of European far-right campaign politics, rather than boosting them significantly. A YouGov poll also showed that since Trump's re-election, favourable views of the US have sharply declined across western Europe, dropping from 48 to just 20 per cent in Denmark, 52 to 32 per cent in Germany, and 50 to 34 per cent in France READ MORE Simion won 41 per cent of the ballots cast in the re-run first round on May 4th, double his rival Nicusor Dan, the pro-EU centrist mayor of Bucharest. Polls show Simion heading for an outright win, backed by Calin Georgescu, the controversial figure at the centre of November's election annulment after accusations he had benefited from Russian interference. The controversial annulment of the first round appears to have had little effect on the rise of the far right, which will move to consolidate its likely victory with parliamentary elections to put in place a sympathetic government. European capitals will watch on nervously.
