Economy

New York City, the US: Swinging around a tree mimicking the signature open-arm lean of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, Zohran Mamdani asks, “Hey! Have you ever voted before?” An enthusiastic group of Hindi/Urdu-speaking New Yorkers respond: “Yes!”

In the June 4 video posted on X, the 33-year-old Democratic Socialist member of the New York State Assembly then explains ranked choice voting using mango lassi, a yoghurt-based drink from the Punjab region of India, amid clips from popular Bollywood films and scores.

This is just one example of the kinds of videos populating Mamdani’s social media leading up to his 56 percent win in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary on July 1.

Mamdani was relatively unknown before the primary election, polling as low as one percent in an Emerson College survey in February 2025. But his grassroots campaign mobilised a multicultural coalition of voters, in part, by speaking directly to them — in their native tongue.

The government of New York state estimates that New Yorkers speak more than 800 languages, and as many as 2.5 million struggle with communicating in English. Experts, however, say Mamdani successfully used his skills in multiple languages to appeal to voters who often are not targeted by mainstream election campaigns, highlighting policy proposals targeting voters’ biggest concerns, like affordability.

Moments after ranked-choice voting totals were finalised, Mamdani’s team posted a campaign message garnering more than 5.7 million views on X alone, explaining a five-point breakdown of “What We Won on Election Day”: Trump voters, Adams voters, new voters, coalitions and turnout.

“Most campaigns focus on ‘triple primes’ – New Yorkers who voted in the last three primaries,” said Mamdani. “But this strategy ignored most of our city. We knew we could turn them out if they saw themselves in our policies.”

Speaking between clips of himself using Hindi, Urdu and Spanish, Mamdani explained, “We ran a campaign that tried to talk to every New Yorker, whether I could speak their language or simply tried. And the coalition that came out on Tuesday reflected the mosaic of these five boroughs.”

Among the areas Mamdani won by large margins were South Asian neighbourhoods such as City Line, Ozone Park and Jamaica Hills; Latino neighbourhoods including Corona, Washington Heights, Pelham Bay and Woodhaven; and Chinese communities in Flushing, Chinatown and Bensonhurst.

A Ugandan-born South Asian Muslim immigrant himself, Mamdani speaks both Hindi and Urdu – a fluency that allowed him to extend his reach to voters through social media videos.

Soniya Munshi, associate professor in urban studies and adviser to Asian-American community studies at Queens College, told Al Jazeera that these types of videos worked as conversation starters through Bollywood references that span the decades – from the 1970s onwards – recognisable to many South Asian diasporas of different ages and with different pathways to the US.

“I saw his Hindi/Urdu video move from Instagram to text chats among second-generation South Asians to WhatsApp family threads to discussions about Zohran’s platform for an affordable NYC,” said Munshi, who herself is a second-generation South Asian New Yorker. “These videos opened up a bigger conversation with friends, families and communities about our experiences, our conditions, our own hopes for the city we call home, and they also moved voters to come out for Mamdani.”

Cultural references and direct messaging

More than half of New York City’s South Asian population is of Indian descent, but Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities have seen the most growth over the past two decades. South Asians now make up 22.5 percent of the city’s Asian population, most of them immigrants. Mamdani’s campaign materials – in Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Bengali and other languages – spoke directly to immigrant New Yorkers about the material issues affecting their lives.

“It’s critical to note the significance of Mamdani’s videos in Hindi/Urdu and Bangla,” said Munshi. “These two communities are among those with the highest levels of limited English proficiency households, essential workers, and poverty rates of all immigrant groups in NYC … Ultimately, what made these South Asian language videos so powerful was the culturally relevant references combined with the direct message of his vision and platform.”

Chowdury Md Moshin, 68, a native of Bangladesh who now lives in Jackson Heights, sat in Travers Park on a warm late June day reading a newspaper, his stark white hair and shirt contrasting with the bright green of the swaying trees around him.

A speaker of Bengali or Bangla himself, Moshin appreciated hearing from a mayoral candidate speaking a language he understands.

“I think he will be a good mayor and will make New York City cleaner,” said Moshin. “I love him.”

In one of the videos posted during the final push before the Democratic primary election, Mamdani demonstrated ranked-choice voting with Council Member Shahana Hanif’s 39th New York City Council District, using a plate of mishti doi, a sweet yoghurt dessert from the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent.

“His Bangla-language video with Shahana Hanif, the first Bangladeshi Muslim woman to serve as city councilperson in NYC, was also significant,” said Munshi. “Bangla is not a South Asian language Mamdani is fluent in, and we see him making a good effort to speak with Hanif about the election.”

The digital agency behind this content, as well as Mamdani’s first viral video with over 3.5 million views on X, is called Melted Solids. The Brooklyn-based collective, founded in 2019 by Anthony DiMieri and Debbie Saslaw, has worked with Mamdani on various campaigns since as early as 2021.

In an interview with Adweek, Saslaw spoke to the 2025 primary, saying, “I’m [a] marketer and storyteller, and what I thought was necessary and needed in the political space was the ability to speak to regular New Yorkers, like using advertising … as a vessel to hear their concerns.”

Mara Einstein, digital marketing critic and author of Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults, told Al Jazeera that, “They [Melted Solids] know him, which is why they could produce content that conveyed his specific voice.”

“They are also not a traditional agency,” added Einstein. “What Melted Solids did that was different is get rid of the red, white, and blue colour scheme that has dominated political campaigns. Purple and yellow/gold [colours used by Mamdani’s campaign for flyers, signs and branding] is striking and unexpected. The typography harkens back to grocery store signs, giving it a neighbourhood-y, everyman feel.”

‘I like how he talks’

For a campaign run on affordability and reaching every New Yorker, this analysis bodes well. But ultimately, experts say that Mamdani’s social media engagement performed well because his vision and platform were at the core of all of his content.

“The social media content was delightful to watch, well-produced, and engaging, but what was most important was that it had substance,” said Munshi. “It gave us something to talk about that was bigger than Mamdani as an individual or even his campaign. It activated something at a collective level.”

Outside the polls in Woodside on election day, Munshi asked an older Spanish-speaking Latina woman whom she planned to vote for. The woman reached into her purse, pulled out a worn Working Families Party flyer, and pointed to Mamdani’s face. “Him,” she said. “I like how he talks.”

“To me, this indicated that Mamdani’s communication wasn’t just about the language he is speaking in,” said Munshi. “But how he used language – clear, simple, focused, relatable to New Yorkers who are concerned with their everyday needs in this city.”

With five months until the general election, Mamdani and Melted Solids still have work to do as they face off against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is backed by US President Donald Trump.

But if former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s failed 2025 mayoral bid – backed by $25m raised by the super PAC Fix the City – is any indication, Einstein said, “No marketing, no matter how good it is, can sell a bad product. Cuomo is evidence of that.”

Debt is holding back economic growth for many low income countries. When South Africa took over the Group of 20 presidency last year, it promised it would take on that challenge, improve food security and represent African nations from the head of the table.

As the G20’s finance ministers meet in Durban without the United States Treasury secretary and with just four months left in its term, has South Africa lived up to those promises?

Can organisations like the G20 ever really bring about change?

And in a transactional global economy, has South Africa’s leadership role come just as organisations like this matter less?

Current and former Facebook leadership reached the agreement with shareholders only one day into the trial.

Mark Zuckerberg and current and former directors and officers of Meta Platforms have agreed to settle claims seeking $8bn for the damage they allegedly caused the company by allowing repeated violations of Facebook users’ privacy.

Zuckerberg and his counterparts reached the agreement on Thursday with shareholders who brought the lawsuit.

The parties did not disclose details of the settlement, and defence lawyers did not address the judge, Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery. McCormick adjourned the trial just as it was to enter its second day, and she congratulated the parties.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Sam Closic, said the agreement just came together quickly.

Billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who is a defendant in the trial and a Meta director, was scheduled to testify on Thursday.

Shareholders of Meta sued Zuckerberg, Andreessen and other former company officials, including former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, in hopes of holding them liable for billions of dollars in fines and legal costs the company paid in recent years.

The Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5bn in 2019 after finding that it failed to comply with a 2012 agreement with the regulator to protect users’ data.

The shareholders wanted the 11 defendants to use their personal wealth to reimburse the company. The defendants denied the allegations, which they called “extreme claims”. Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021. The company was not a defendant.

The company declined to comment. A lawyer for the defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This settlement may bring relief to the parties involved, but it’s a missed opportunity for public accountability,” said Jason Kint, the head of Digital Content Next, a trade group for content providers.

Zuckerberg was expected to take the stand on Monday and Sandberg on Wednesday. The trial was scheduled to run through the end of next week.

The case was also expected to include testimony from former Facebook board members Peter Thiel, Palantir Technologies co-founder, and Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix.

Longstanding concerns

Meta investors alleged in the lawsuit that former and current board members completely failed to oversee the company’s compliance with the 2012 FTC agreement and claim that Zuckerberg and Sandberg knowingly ran Facebook as an illegal data harvesting operation.

The case followed revelations that data from millions of Facebook users was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump’s successful US presidential campaign in 2016. Those revelations led to the FTC fine, which was a record at the time.

On Wednesday, an expert witness for the plaintiffs testified about what he called “gaps and weaknesses” in Facebook’s privacy policies, but would not say if the company violated the 2012 agreement that Facebook reached with the FTC.

Jeffrey Zients, a former board member, testified on Wednesday that the company did not agree to the FTC fine to spare Zuckerberg legal liability, as shareholders allege.

On its website, the company has said it has invested billions of dollars into protecting user privacy since 2019.

The trial would have been a rare opportunity for Meta investors to see Zuckerberg answer probing questions under oath. In 2017, Zuckerberg was expected to testify at a trial involving a lawsuit by company investors opposed to his plan to issue a special class of Facebook stock that would have extended his control over that company. That case also settled before he took the stand.

“Facebook has successfully remade the ‘Cambridge Analytica’ scandal about a few bad actors rather than an unraveling of its entire business model of surveillance capitalism and the reciprocal, unbridled sharing of personal data,” Kint said. “That reckoning is now left unresolved.”

Meta stock was down 0.4 percent for the day as of 11am in New York (15:00 GMT) and 3.1 percent over the last five days.

US president blasts long-delayed project to link Los Angeles and San Francisco as a ‘boondoggle’ and a ‘train to nowhere’.

United States President Donald Trump has pulled the plug on $4bn in funding for a long-delayed high-speed rail line in California, blasting the project as a “boondoggle” and a “train to nowhere”.

Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday that he had “freed” taxpayers from the “disastrously overpriced” proposed railway linking Los Angeles and San Francisco, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.

“This boondoggle, led by the incompetent Governor of California, Gavin Newscum, has cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we have received NOTHING in return except Cost Overruns,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, using a nickname he commonly deploys to mock the state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

“The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will.”

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy accused Democrats of wasting taxpayers’ money and said federal money was not a “blank cheque”.

“It’s time for this boondoggle to die,” Duffy said in a statement.

Newsom slammed the Trump administration’s move as illegal and said the state would put “all options on the table” to oppose the funding cut.

“Trump wants to hand China the future and abandon the Central Valley. We won’t let him,” Newsom said in a statement.

The 1,249km (776-mile) rail line, which was approved by California voters in a 2008 plebiscite, was initially envisaged for completion in 2020 at a cost of $33bn.

The project’s estimated cost has since ballooned to $89bn to $128bn, with services not expected to begin until 2033 at the earliest.

The US currently does not have a high-speed rail service, but a 354km (220-mile) high-speed link between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.

Beverage giant declines to either confirm or deny change to ingredients in its signature soft drink.

United States President Donald Trump has announced that Coca-Cola will start using cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup in its US-made soft drink at his urging.

“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.

“I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola.”

Trump said the switch would be a “very good move”, adding: “You’ll see. It’s just better!”

Coca-Cola neither confirmed nor denied Trump’s announcement, but said it appreciated the president’s “enthusiasm for our iconic Coca-Cola brand.”

“More details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon,” the Atlanta, Georgia-based company said in a brief statement.

“I have been speaking to @CocaCola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” –President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/9L27oxlYUj

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 16, 2025

Trump, who is known for his love of Diet Coke, did not explain his push to change the soft drink’s ingredients, but his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has harshly criticised the prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup in the American diet.

Kennedy, who has pledged to wage war on ultra-processed foods containing ingredients rarely found in kitchen cabinets, has called the sweetener “just a formula for making you obese and diabetic.”

High-fructose corn syrup, which is derived from corn starch, is favoured by many US manufacturers because it is cheaper than sugar, in part due to government subsidies for corn and tariffs on sugar imports.

Coca-Cola began using high-fructose corn syrup in its US production in the 1980s, but still uses cane sugar in many versions of its signature beverage made overseas, including Mexico, whose version of the drink has developed a cult-like following for its supposedly superior taste.

While Americans’ high sugar intake is a major contributor to nearly three-quarters of the population being overweight or obese, there is currently no scientific consensus to suggest high-fructose corn syrup is less healthy than cane sugar or other sweeteners.

In a 2018 fact sheet, the US Food and Drug Administration said it was “not aware of any evidence” of a “difference in safety” between foods containing high-fructose corn syrup and those with other sweeteners such as sugar and honey.

Already, miners have successfully protested a proposal by the Trump administration to close more than 30 field offices run by the Mining Safety and Health Administration, a branch of the Labor Department that enforces safety standards.

Another government bureau, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), faced staffing cuts of nearly 90 percent under Trump. Miners pushed back, arguing that NIOSH’s research is necessary for their protection.

“For generations, the United Mine Workers of America has fought to protect the health and safety of coal miners and all working people,” union president Cecil Roberts said in a statement announcing a lawsuit against the cuts in May.

“The dismantling of NIOSH and the elimination of its critical programs — like black lung screenings — puts miners’ lives at risk and turns back decades of progress.”

Some of NIOSH’s workers were reinstated. Others were not. The upheaval left some investigations in states like Wyoming in limbo.

Marshal Cummings, a United Steelworkers union representative in southwest Wyoming, was among those seeking NIOSH’s help. He had grown concerned about the potential for trona miners like himself to be exposed to high levels of silica dust, a known carcinogen.

“We know what silica does to people,” Cummings told Al Jazeera. “We know that it causes people to get their lungs cut up by jagged edges of a silica particle, and then they slowly die. They lose that same quality of life that people who work on the surface have.”

Cummings believes there is too little research to fully understand the toll silica exposure is taking on trona miners.

Already, trona miners work in extreme conditions. Their mines cut deep into the earth. One of Wyoming’s biggest trona pits plunges to a depth of 1,600 feet or 488 metres: deep enough to swallow three full-sized copies of the Great Pyramid of Giza, stacked on top of each other.

Cummings was also dismayed to learn that a new rule slated to take effect in April had been pushed back until at least mid-August.

The rule would have lowered the acceptable levels of silica dust in mines. Heavy exposure has been tied to respiratory diseases. Black lung — a potentially fatal condition caused by dust scarring the lungs — has been on the rise in Wyoming, as it is throughout the US.

To Cummings, blame rests squarely on the shoulders of mining executives whom he sees as more interested in their wallets than their employees’ health. He believes the silica rule’s delay is part of their political manoeuvring.

“The pause is not just the pause,” Cummings said. “It’s giving people who care more about a favourable quarterly report than they do their employees an opportunity to get this rule completely thrown out. And that’s unacceptable.”

Travis Deti, the executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, represents some of the industry leaders who opposed the new rule. They felt the silica rule was “a little bit of overreach”, he explained.

“I know that a lot of our folks have a little heartburn over it, that it might go a little too far,” Deti said.

He pointed out that coal mining, for instance, is different in Wyoming than it is in the Appalachia region. While Appalachian miners have to tunnel to harvest the fossil fuel, Wyoming has surface mines that require less digging.

“My guys feel they mitigate their silica issues appropriately,” Deti said.

Prime Minister Mark Carney also introduced a fund to invest in domestic steel projects.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that Canada will introduce a tariff rate quota on countries it has free trade agreements with, excluding the United States, in order to protect its domestic steel industry.

Carney announced the new measures on Wednesday.

The plan includes a 50 percent tariff that will apply to imports from relevant countries that surpass the 2024 volumes, though Canada will honour existing arrangements with its United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade partners, Carney said.

Canada will implement additional tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports from all countries containing steel melted and poured in China before the end of July.

Carney is responding to complaints from the domestic industry, which had said that other countries are diverting steel to Canada and making the domestic industry uncompetitive due to US tariffs. The Canadian steel industry had asked the government to introduce tougher anti-dumping measures to protect the domestic industry.

US President Donald Trump increased import duties on steel and aluminium to 50 percent from 25 percent earlier this month. Canada is the top seller of steel to the US.

Carney also said domestic steel companies would be prioritised in government procurement, and he introduced a fund of one billion Canadian dollars ($730m) to help steel companies advance projects in industries such as defence.

“These measures will ensure Canadian steel producers are more competitive by protecting them against trade diversion resulting from a fast-changing global environment for steel,” Carney said on Wednesday.

For countries without free trade agreements with Canada, the government lowered the tariff-free quota to 50 percent of 2024 volumes from 100 percent previously. Above the quota, imports will also face a 50 percent tariff.

Catherine Cobden, president and CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, in an interview with broadcaster CBC, said the timing wasn’t sufficient for domestic steelmakers confronting a crisis.

“This is something we should have been doing all along, but it’s fantastic to see that we are making progress,” Cobden said.

In a separate statement, Canadian steel maker Evraz said it has filed a complaint against steel imports from Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkiye and the US, against unfairly priced imports of oil country tubular goods.

An $8bn trial, pitting Meta Platforms shareholders against Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former company leaders, over claims they illegally harvested the data of Facebook users in violation of a 2012 agreement with the United States Federal Trade Commission, is under way.

The trial kicked off on Wednesday with a privacy expert for the plaintiffs, Neil Richards of Washington University Law School, who testified about Facebook’s data policies.

“Facebook’s privacy disclosures were misleading,” he told the court.

Jeffrey Zients, White House chief of staff under former President Joe Biden and a Meta director for two years starting in May 2018, is expected to take the stand later on Wednesday in the non-jury trial before Kathaleen McCormick, chief judge of the Delaware Chancery Court.

The case will feature testimony from Zuckerberg and other billionaire defendants, including former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, venture capitalist and board member Marc Andreessen, as well as former board members Peter Thiel, Palantir Technologies cofounder, and Reed Hastings, cofounder of Netflix.

A lawyer for the defendants, who have denied the allegations, declined to comment.

McCormick, the judge who rescinded Elon Musk’s $56bn Tesla pay package last year, is expected to rule on liability and damages months after the trial concludes.

Cambridge Analytica scandal

The case began in 2018, following revelations that data from millions of Facebook users was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump’s successful US presidential campaign in 2016.

The FTC fined Facebook $5bn in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, saying the company had violated a 2012 agreement with the FTC to protect user data.

Shareholders want the defendants to reimburse Meta for the FTC fine and other legal costs, which the plaintiffs estimate total more than $8bn.

In court filings, the defendants described the allegations as “extreme” and said the evidence at trial will show Facebook hired an outside consulting firm to ensure compliance with the FTC agreement and that Facebook was a victim of Cambridge Analytica’s deceit.

Meta, which is not a defendant, declined to comment. On its website, the company has said it has invested billions of dollars into protecting user privacy since 2019.

The lawsuit is considered the first of its kind to go to trial that alleges that board members consciously failed to oversee their company. Known as a Caremark claim, such lawsuits are often described as the hardest to prove in Delaware corporate law. However, in recent years, Delaware courts have allowed a growing number of these claims to proceed.

Boeing’s current and former board members settled a case with similar claims in 2021 for $237.5m, the largest ever in an alleged breach of oversight lawsuit. The Boeing directors did not admit to wrongdoing.

The Meta trial comes four months after Delaware lawmakers overhauled the state’s corporate law to make it harder for shareholders to challenge deals struck with controlling shareholders like Zuckerberg. The bill, which did not address Caremark claims, was drafted after the state’s governor met with representatives of Meta.

Most publicly traded companies are incorporated in the state, which generates more than a quarter of the state’s budget revenue. Meta, which was reportedly considering leaving Delaware earlier this year, is still incorporated in the state.

Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital fund co-founded by Andreessen, said earlier this month that it was reincorporating in Nevada from Delaware and encouraged other companies to do the same. The company cited the uncertainty of the state’s courts and referenced the Musk pay ruling.

Andreessen is expected to testify on Thursday.

In addition to privacy claims at the heart of the Meta case, plaintiffs allege that Zuckerberg anticipated that the Cambridge Analytica scandal would send the company’s stock lower and sold his Facebook shares as a result, pocketing at least $1bn.

Defendants said evidence will show that Zuckerberg did not trade on inside information and that he used a stock-trading plan that removes his control over sales and is designed to guard against insider trading.

July 15 (UPI) — Pennsylvanians and the nation will benefit from $100 billion in energy- and artificial intelligence-related investments announced on Tuesday to energize the nation’s growing AI economy.

The investments should create tens of thousands of new jobs for Pennsylvanians in the energy and AI sectors while helping the United States improve its economy and global AI standing, President Donald Trump said during Tuesday’s inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh.

“We’re here today because we believe America’s destiny is to dominate every industry and be the first in every technology,” Trump told attendees.

“That includes being the world’s No. 1 superpower in artificial intelligence,” he added.

The president said the United States is “way ahead of China” in AI development and has many plants under construction.

“China and other countries are racing to catch up to America having to do with AI,” Trump said.

“We’re not going to let them do it,” he said. “We have the great chips [and] the great everything.”

Trump said the United States is “going to be fighting them in a very friendly fashion,” adding that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping have a “great relationship.”

“Remaining the world’s leader in AI will require an enormous increase in energy production,” Trump told the audience.

He said “clean, beautiful coal” and oil production will be a key element in producing more electrical power to support AI endeavors in the United States and to stay ahead of China in AI development.

More than $56 billion in new energy infrastructure and $36 billion in new data projects were announced on Tuesday, the president said.

A $15 billion investment by Knighthead Capital Management will create the largest natural gas-fired power generation plant in North America in Homer City, Pa.

Google also is investing “billions and billions” to revitalize two hydropower facilities in the commonwealth, Trump added.

Westinghouse officials also have announced that the company will build several nuclear power plants throughout the nation to ensure the AI economy has ample energy available.

“A lot more than that will be announced in the coming weeks and months,” Trump added.

The president said 20 “leading technology and energy companies” are poised to invest in Pennsylvania to develop an AI economy that utilizes the commonwealth’s energy and technology assets, CBS News reported.

Many firms are investing elsewhere in the country, too, in order to support the nation’s AI economy, according to the New York Post.

Trump spoke for about 30 minutes during the hour-long Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, which was organized by Sen Dave McCormick, R-Pa., and held on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and others joined Trump and McCormick to discuss energy matters and the growth of AI in the United States.

The new deal comes as the Southeast Asian country plans to buy 50 Boeing jets, according to US President Donald Trump.

The United States has struck a trade deal with Indonesia resulting in significant purchase commitments from the Southeast Asian country, following negotiations to avoid steeper US tariffs.

US President Donald Trump announced the new deal on Tuesday.

The agreement imposes a 19 percent tariff on Indonesian goods entering the US, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Under the deal, which was finalised after Trump spoke with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, goods that have been transshipped to avoid higher duties will face steeper levies.

“As part of the Agreement, Indonesia has committed to purchasing $15 Billion Dollars in US Energy, $4.5 Billion Dollars in American Agricultural Products, and 50 Boeing Jets, many of them 777’s,” Trump wrote.

In a separate post earlier on Tuesday, Trump touted the finalised pact as a “great deal, for everybody”.

Boeing stock remained relatively flat on the announcement.

Last week, Trump renewed his threat of a 32 percent levy on Indonesian goods, saying in a letter to the country’s leadership that this level would take effect August 1.

It remains unclear when the lower tariff level announced Tuesday will take effect for Indonesia. The period over which its various purchases will take place was also not specified.

Lagging on trade agreements

The Trump administration has been under pressure to wrap up trade pacts after promising a flurry of deals recently, as countries sought talks with Washington, DC to avoid Trump’s tariff plans.

When Trump first postponed tariffs on April 2, the White House said it would have 90 deals in 90 days. But the US president has so far only unveiled other deals with Britain and Vietnam, alongside an agreement to temporarily lower tit-for-tat levies with China.

He separately told reporters that other deals are in the works including with India, while talks with the European Union are continuing.

Indonesia’s former Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Dino Patti Djalal told a Foreign Policy magazine event on Tuesday that government insiders had indicated they were happy with the new deal.

Trump in April imposed a 10 percent tariff on almost all trading partners, while announcing plans to eventually hike this level for dozens of economies, including the EU and Indonesia.

Last week, days before the steeper duties were due to take effect, he pushed the deadline back from July 9 to August 1. This marked his second postponement of the elevated levies.

Instead, since early last week, Trump has been sending letters to partners, setting out the tariff levels they would face come August.

So far, he has sent more than 20 such letters, including to the EU, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia. Canada and Mexico, both countries that were not originally targeted in Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff push in April, also received similar documents outlining updated tariffs for their products.

The EV maker also opened its first showroom in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Tesla has launched its Model Y in India for about $70,000, a significant markup relative to its other major markets, reflecting the country’s high tariffs on electric vehicle imports, which CEO Elon Musk has long criticised.

The electric carmaker announced the price on Tuesday.

Deliveries are estimated to start from the third quarter, the US automaker is targeting a niche electric vehicle segment in India that accounts for just 4 percent of overall sales in the world’s third-largest car market.

It will compete mainly with German luxury giants such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and South Korea’s Kia rather than domestic mass-market EV players such as Tata Motors and Mahindra Auto.

On Tuesday, Tesla opened its first showroom in Mumbai and began taking Model Y orders on its website, marking its long-awaited entry into the market where Musk once had plans to open a factory.

For now, Tesla will import cars into a country where tariffs and related duties can exceed 100 percent, driving up the price for consumers.

Tesla’s Model Y rear-wheel drive is priced at about $70,000 (6 million rupees), while its Model Y long-range rear-wheel drive costs roughly $79,000 (6.8 million rupees), according to the website.

Tariff pressures

The prices include the tariff and additional levies imposed by the state. There was no breakdown of the price on the website and Reuters could not immediately ascertain the listing price.

They compare with a starting price from $44,990 in the US, $36,700 (263,500 yuan) in China, and $53,700 (45,970 euros) in Germany.

At the media-only event at the showroom, Tesla displayed two Model Y cars made in China and its supercharger, which it will install at eight different locations in Mumbai and in and around New Delhi, where it is also expected to open its next showroom.

“We are here to create the ecosystem, to invest in the necessary infrastructure, including the charging infrastructure,” Isabel Fan, a regional director at Tesla, said at the launch event.

“We are building from 0 to 100. It will take time to cover the whole country.”

Grappling with excess capacity in global factories and declining sales, Tesla has adopted a strategy of selling imported vehicles in India, despite the duties and levies.

The US EV maker has long lobbied India for lower import tariffs on cars, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s officials remain in talks with US President Donald Trump’s administration to lower the levies under a bilateral trade deal.

Tesla’s US factories also do not currently make the right-hand drive vehicles that are used in India.

Although India’s road infrastructure has improved, traffic discipline – like lane driving – is still rudimentary, EV chargers are far and few and stray animals, including cattle, and potholes on the road are a big hurdle, even in cities.

“In the future, we wish to see R&D and manufacturing done in India, and I am sure at an appropriate stage, Tesla will think about it,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told reporters outside the new Tesla outlet.

United States inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the cost of a range of goods, including furniture, clothing, and large appliances.

Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said on Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4 percent in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3 percent from May to June, after rising just 0.1 percent the previous month.

Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for Trump, who promised during last year’s presidential campaign to immediately lower costs. The sharp inflation spike after the pandemic was the worst in four decades and soured most Americans on former President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy. Higher inflation will also likely heighten the US Federal Reserve’s reluctance to cut its short-term interest rate, as Trump is loudly demanding.

The central bank is expected to leave its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent range at a policy meeting later this month.

Trump has insisted repeatedly that there is “no inflation”, and because of that, the central bank should swiftly reduce its key interest rate from its current level. Yet Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that he wants to see how the economy reacts to Trump’s duties before reducing borrowing costs. Minutes of the central bank’s June 17-18 meeting, which were published last week, showed only “a couple” of officials said they felt rates could fall as soon as the July 29-30 meeting.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation increased 2.9 percent in June from a year earlier, up from 2.8 percent in May. On a monthly basis, it picked up 0.2 percent from May to June. Economists closely watch core prices because they typically provide a better sense of where inflation is headed.

The uptick in inflation was driven by a range of higher prices. The cost of gasoline rose 1 percent just from May to June, while grocery prices increased 0.3 percent. Appliance prices jumped for the third straight month. Toys, clothes, audio equipment, shoes, and sporting goods all got more expensive, and are all heavily imported.

“You are starting to see scattered bits of the tariff inflation regime filter in,” said Eric Winograd, chief economist at asset management firm AllianceBernstein, who added that the cost of long-lasting goods rose last month, compared with a year ago, for the first time in about three years.

Winograd also noted that housing costs, one of the biggest drivers of inflation since the pandemic, have continued to cool, which is holding down broader inflation. The cost of rent rose 3.8 percent in June compared with a year ago, the smallest yearly increase since late 2021.

“Were it not for the tariff uncertainty, the Fed would already be cutting rates,” Winograd said. “The question is whether there is more to come, and the Fed clearly thinks there is,” along with most economists.

Trump has imposed sweeping duties of 10 percent on all imports, plus 50-percent levies on steel and aluminium, 30 percent on goods from China, and 25 percent on imported cars. Just last week, the president threatened to hit the European Union with a new 30 percent tariff starting August 1.

He has also threatened to slap 50 percent duties on Brazil, which would push up the cost of orange juice and coffee. Orange prices leapt 3.5 percent just from May to June, and are 3.4 percent higher than a year ago.

Overall, grocery prices rose 0.3 percent last month and are up 2.4 percent from a year earlier. While that is a much smaller annual increase than before the pandemic, it is slightly bigger than the pre-pandemic pace of food price increases. The Trump administration has also placed a 17-percent duty on Mexican tomatoes.

Powell under fire

The acceleration in inflation could provide a respite of sorts for Powell, who has come under increasingly heavy fire from the White House for not cutting the benchmark interest rate.

The Fed chair has said that the duties could both push up prices and slow the economy, a tricky combination for the central bank since higher costs would typically lead the Fed to hike rates while a weaker economy often spurs it to reduce them.

Trump on Monday said that Powell has been “terrible” and “doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.” The president added that the economy was doing well despite Powell’s refusal to reduce rates, but it would be “nice” if there were rate cuts, because people would be able to buy housing a lot easier.”

Last week, White House officials also attacked Powell for cost overruns on the years-long renovation of two Fed buildings, which are now slated to cost $2.5bn, roughly one-third more than originally budgeted. While Trump legally cannot fire Powell just because he disagrees with his interest rate decisions, the Supreme Court has signalled, he may be able to do so “for cause,” such as misconduct or mismanagement.

Some companies have said they have or plan to raise prices as a result of the tariffs, including Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. Carmaker Mitsubishi said last month that it was lifting prices by an average of 2.1 percent in response to the duties, and Nike has said it would implement “surgical” price hikes to offset tariff costs.

But many companies have been able to postpone or avoid price increases, after building up their stockpiles of goods this spring to get ahead of the duties. Other companies may have refrained from lifting prices while they wait to see whether the US is able to reach trade deals with other countries that lower the duties.

Jensen Huang says Trump administration has assured his company it will be granted licences to export advanced chips.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the technology giant has won approval from United States President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 computer chips, used to develop artificial intelligence, to China.

The news came in a company blog post late on Monday, and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run CGTN television network in remarks shown on X.

“The US government has assured Nvidia that licences will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said.

“Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us filing licences to start shipping H20s,” Huang told reporters in Beijing.

He noted that half of the world’s AI researchers are in China.

“It’s so innovative and dynamic here in China that it’s really important that American companies are able to compete and serve the market here in China,” he said.

Huang recently met with Trump and other US policymakers, and this week, he is in Beijing to attend a supply chain conference and speak with Chinese officials.

The broadcast showed Huang meeting with Ren Hongbin, the head of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade, which is hosting the China International Supply Chain Expo, which Huang was attending.

Nvidia is an exhibitor.

Nvidia has profited enormously from rapid adoption of AI and last week became the first company to have its market value surpass $4 trillion.

However, the trade rivalry between the US and China has been weighing heavily on the industry.

Washington has been tightening controls on exports of advanced technology to China for years, citing concerns that know-how meant for civilian use could be deployed for military purposes.

The emergence of China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot in January renewed concerns over how China might use the advanced chips to help develop its own AI capabilities.

In January before Trump began his second term in office, the administration of US President Joe Biden launched a new framework for exporting advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries.

The White House announced in April that it would restrict sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips and AMD’s MI308 chips to China.

Nvidia had said the tighter export controls would cost the company an extra $5.5bn, and Huang and other technology leaders have been lobbying Trump to reverse the restrictions.

They have argued that such limits hinder US competition in a leading edge sector in one of the world’s largest markets for technology.

They have also warned that US export controls could end up pushing other countries towards China’s AI technology.

Nvidia’s US-traded shares slipped 0.5 percent in after-hours trading on Monday, but its shares traded in Frankfurt, Germany, jumped 3.2 percent early on Tuesday.

China’s GDP grew 1.1 percent from April to June despite US tariffs, official data shows.

China’s economy grew by more than 5 percent in the second quarter, according to official data, staying on track to meet Beijing’s annual growth target despite United States President Donald Trump’s trade war.

China’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 1.1 percent from April to June, data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed on Tuesday.

On an annualised basis, China’s economy grew 5.3 percent in the first half of the year, keeping it in line with Beijing’s full-year target of about 5 percent growth.

“Generally speaking, with the more proactive and effective macro policies taking effects in the first half year, the national economy maintained steady growth with good momentum, showcasing strong resilience and vitality,” the statistics agency said in a statement.

Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING, said China’s economic performance was “certainly encouraging” compared with the “very downbeat expectations at the start of the year”.

“Trade data benefited from frontloading in the first quarter, but generally held up better than expected in the first half as a whole,” Song said in a note.

“As a result, industrial production has outperformed.”

Still, Song cautioned that the second half of the year could “prove to be more challenging”.

“The tariff uncertainty will remain an overhang, with the next key deadlines coming up soon in August. Though we don’t expect a return to the April peak tariffs, we wouldn’t rule out further escalations,” he said.

Despite Trump’s tariffs, exports rose by 5.8 percent year-on-year in June, customs data released on Monday showed, as shipments to non-US markets and a reprieve from the highest duties boosted trade.

After US tariffs on Chinese goods soared as high as 145 percent earlier this year, the Trump administration in May reached a deal with Beijing to scale back taxes on each other’s exports for at least 90 days.

Under the truce, Chinese imports to the US are subject to a minimum duty of 30 percent, while US exports are subject to a 10 percent rate.

The two sides have until August 12 to renew their deal or forge a new agreement to avoid the tariffs reverting to their higher rates.

The president’s frequent attacks against Jerome Powell have sparked concerns about the independence of the central bank.

United States President Donald Trump has again attacked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, stepping up criticism that has sparked concerns over efforts to undermine the independence of the country’s central bank.

In remarks before religious figures at the White House on Monday, Trump called Powell a “knucklehead” and insisted that he should lower interest rates.

“He’s a knucklehead. Stupid guy. He really is,” Trump said, insisting that inflation is not currently a serious concern for the economy and that interest rates should be brought down to one percent.

The US president’s frequent barbs and threats to replace Powell have previously spooked markets, wary of what some investors see as an effort to bring the central bank and the crafting of monetary policy under greater political control.

The central bank chief has thus far refused to budge on the question of interest rates, saying that it is still too early to bring them down given sources of potential disruption such as changing tariff policy.

Trump said over the weekend that he is planning to place important US trading partners such as the European Union and Mexico under a 30 percent tariff starting on August 1, and has warned other countries they could face similar rates or worse if they do not swiftly come to individual agreements with the US.

Kevin Hassett, an economic adviser to Trump, also stated over the weekend that the president might be able to fire Powell for cause, citing higher-than-expected expenses for the renovation of the bank’s headquarters.

The Fed has been in the process of renovating two buildings for its offices in Washington, DC for several years, with a current cost estimate of $2.5bn, about $700m more than originally anticipated.

Such cost overruns are far from atypical in Washington, but officials in the Trump administration have pounced on them as a potential door to firing Powell, whom Trump has long criticised.

Trump’s top budget adviser Russell Vought said last week that the White House is “extremely troubled” by the expense of the project, which critics saw as an effort to pile additional pressure on the central bank. Vought played an important role in the controversial conservative blueprint for a second Trump term known as Project 2025, which envisions a radical restructuring of government and consolidation of greater power in the executive branch.

A spokesperson for the US Inspector General, a nonpartisan government watchdog, says that Powell has requested a review of the cost overruns.

The 27-member bloc says Washington’s latest threats against its exports are ‘absolutely unacceptable’.

The European Union has promised to take countermeasures against the United States if the administration of US President Donald Trump introduces 30 percent tariffs on imports from the bloc next month.

After ministers met in Brussels on Monday to discuss the tariff threat Trump issued over the weekend, the EU’s trade representative Maros Sefcovic said such a move by Washington would be “absolutely unacceptable”.

Sefcovic said the 27-nation bloc, which is the US’s largest business partner, wanted to reach an agreement through negotiations.

“I’m absolutely 100 percent sure that a negotiated solution is much better than the tension which we might have after August 1,” he told reporters in Belgium, adding that “we must be prepared for all outcomes”.

Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the foreign minister of Denmark, which currently holds the presidency of the EU, reinforced the same message.

“The EU remains ready to react and that includes robust and proportionate countermeasures if required and there was a strong feeling in the room of unity,” he said.

As part of its preparations, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed that the EU had drawn up plans to target US goods worth $24.5bn.

Trump’s latest trade war escalation has alarmed European politicians and businesses operating in Europe.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said such high US duties would “hit the German export industry to the core”.

Meanwhile, the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union, a group that represents major US companies in the EU, said Trump’s plan could “generate damaging ripple effects across all sectors of the EU and US economies”.

Amid the uncertainty, European stocks fell on Monday, with car and alcohol stocks among those worst affected.

Speaking from the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, Trump said he was still willing to talk with trade partners, including the EU, as he looked to boost the US economy and revitalise domestic manufacturing.

After targeting dozens of countries with so-called “reciprocal tariffs” in April, the US president paused them for 90 days to negotiate individual agreements.

As well as targeting the EU last week, Trump also threatened to bring 25 percent tariffs against Japan and South Korea, 30 percent tariffs against Mexico, and 35 percent tariffs against Canada.

Bitcoin has scaled $120,000 for the first time, a major milestone for the world’s largest cryptocurrency in the run-up to what could be a landmark week.

Starting July 14, “Crypto Week” will see the US House of Representatives debate three industry-friendly bills that are likely to provide cryptocurrencies with the US regulatory framework that crypto insiders have long demanded.

US President Donald Trump has urged policymakers to revamp their rules, away from the plethora of lawsuits brought against crypto firms by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under former President Joe Biden (2021-2025), in favour of the industry.

Expectations of further tailwinds helped propel Bitcoin, up 29 percent so far this year, to a record high of $122,055 on Monday. Bitcoin, the very first cryptocurrency, began trading in January 2009, when it was valued at just $0.004.

The surge has sparked a broader rally across other cryptocurrencies as Ether, the world’s second-most popular token, reached a five-month high of $3,048.2 on Monday.

More generally, the sector’s total market value has swelled to roughly $3.8 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Cryptocurrencies are a form of monetary exchange that allows people to bypass central banks and traditional payment methods.

What is at stake?

US lawmakers will discuss three key pieces of legislation during “Crypto Week”:

• The GENIUS Act aims to clarify when digital assets like crypto tokens are considered securities or commodities, helping startups avoid legal uncertainty by providing clear regulatory rules. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act has already passed the Senate.
• The Clarity Act would block federal agencies from using court rulings to overextend regulatory power, ensuring that Congress – and not courts – defines how crypto assets are classified and governed.
• The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), arguing it could enable government surveillance of Americans’ financial activity and threaten individual privacy.

This marks a sharp reversal for a sector that once threatened to do its business outside the US, citing a hostile environment and heavy-handed enforcement.

Crypto companies have long accused US financial regulators (like the SEC) of enacting confusing or conflicting rules.

“We expect capital that was previously sidelined due to regulatory uncertainty to re-enter … even if final passage stalls,” Jag Kooner, head of derivatives at Bitfinex crypto exchange, told Reuters.

This week’s decisions could make it easier for companies to launch new digital asset products and to trade in crypto.

Does the proposed legislation have critics?

Democrats are expected to offer amendments to the GENIUS and Clarity Acts.

Critics have argued that the Trump administration is conceding too much ground to the crypto industry.

“I’m concerned that what my Republican colleagues are aiming for is another industry handout,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on July 9 at a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing.

She urged Congress to bar public officials, including Trump, from issuing, backing or profiting from crypto tokens.

Warren also argued that new crypto rules should not “open a back door to destroy” longtime securities laws, or allow volatility in the crypto market to spill over into the traditional financial system.

Finally, she underscored that anti-money laundering rules should apply to the industry. Crypto users are identified by alphanumeric wallet addresses, not their names, allowing bad actors to obscure the source of their illicit funds.

The Biden administration adopted a tough regulatory stance towards cryptocurrencies, aiming to oversee the digital assets as securities subject to the same regulations as stocks and bonds.

What’s Trump’s interest in crypto?

Trump, once a crypto sceptic, became a major promoter during his presidential campaign last year, even becoming the first major-party presidential candidate to accept campaign donations via crypto.

During the 2024 campaign, crypto insiders spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, according to Federal Election Commission data, in support of crypto allies – and to try and weed out antagonists.

In March, Trump said he would create a crypto reserve that would include five cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin), adding he would make the US “the crypto capital of the world”.

Meanwhile, Trump’s family business has launched several cryptocurrency meme coins, flash-in-the-pan assets inspired by internet jokes or cultural references, such as $Trump and $Melania.

Trump has faced criticism over conflicts of interest regarding his family’s ventures. For instance, World Liberty Financial – a crypto group backed by Trump and his sons in 2024 – has earned the president $57m.

Elsewhere, Trump Media & Technology Group filed paperwork with the SEC in July seeking approval to launch its own “Crypto Blue-Chip ETF”, an exchange-traded fund holding Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

How has Bitcoin performed since Trump was re-elected?

If Bitcoin were a country, it would rank in the top 10 by gross domestic product, roughly on par with countries like Brazil ($2.17 trillion) and Canada ($2.14 trillion).

Since Donald Trump’s re-election in November 2024, Bitcoin has surged by 75 percent, rising from about $69,539 at close on Election Day to its current record level. It rallied to above $100,000 for the first time last December.

The cryptocurrency briefly dropped below $90,000 on February 25, amid market jitters triggered by Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on multiple countries and industries worldwide, before recovering after Trump’s “crypto reserve” announcement.

Bitcoin’s rise also arrives amid a wider backdrop of economic uncertainty, notably the global turmoil from Trump’s steep – and on-again, off-again – tariffs imposed on key trading partners worldwide, in addition to ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“Bitcoin has shown resilience this year, rebounding in line with its macro exposures following tariff announcements,” Citibank analysts wrote in a research paper last week.

Even as Californians protest the crude and often brutal deportation tactics employed by President Trump’s ICE and Homeland Security agents, we’re giving too little thought to how our state, and the nation, is failing the very immigrant community we want to protect.

In the past, particularly in the last century, when the U.S. economy, and California’s, was growing at a fast rate, loosely controlled immigration filled critical needs and, over time, moved many immigrants into an increasingly diverse middle class. But now newcomers are getting stuck. According to new findings from USC and University of California researchers, immigrants account for nearly a quarter of the U.S. population living in poverty, up from 14% three decades ago.

The immigrant poverty rate fluctuates, but it has been rising in recent years, especially since the pandemic. In 2024, 22.4% of all immigrants and 28.4% of non-citizen immigrants, including the undocumented, were poor, the highest rates since 2008.

As well, welfare dependency is more pronounced among immigrants than the native born. A 2023 analysis of census data showed that 54% of households headed by naturalized citizens, legal residents and the undocumented use one or more welfare programs versus 39% of U.S.-born households.

In California, the overall situation is only slightly better. A 2023 report from the Public Policy Institute of California put the poverty rate for all foreign-born residents at 17.6%, compared to 11.5% for those born here. For unauthorized immigrants, however, the rate was even higher than the national figure: 29.6%. Undocumented households, notes a separate USC study, have consistently had the lowest median household income in L.A. — $46,500, compared to $75,000 among all Angelenos in 2024.

The grim statistics reflect a decline starting in the 1980s in blue–collar industries in California, which traditionally offered upward mobility to immigrants. Unionization in the immigrant-heavy hospitality industry has helped lift some families, but those gains may lead to fewer jobs as employers look to rein in costs, potentially by automating some services. And immigration itself, especially mass immigration, puts downward pressure on many of the jobs newcomers fill — in agriculture, for example, or construction.

The dearth of jobs that support families has pushed California toward a model that Michael Lind, a Texas-based historian and author, describes as the “low wage/high welfare model.”

The fiscal implications are severe. The president has signed executive orders denying federal funds to sanctuary cities, funds that would shore up city and state budgets for policing, education and many other services affected by immigration. Those orders have been stymied in the courts, although Trump is sure to try again. At the same time, the budget the president signed into law on July 4 boosts funds for border enforcement but cuts back such things as medical services for non-citizens, even for those who are here legally.

This will cause particular distress in deep blue states. California’s current budget shortfall has forced Trump “resistance” leader Gov. Gavin Newsom to scale back healthcare for the undocumented, which is also occurring in other progressive hotbeds such as Washington state, Illinois and Minnesota.

The simple truth is that the low wage/high welfare economy dependent on illegal immigration isn’t sustainable. Economic reality suggests we need a commonsense policy to restrict new migration and to focus on policies that can allow current immigrants — especially those deeply embedded in our communities and those with useful skills — to enjoy the success of previous generations.

What would a commonsense policy look like? It would secure the border, which the Trump administration is already doing, and shift immigration priorities away from family reunion and more toward attracting those who can contribute to an increasingly complex economy. Deportations should prioritize convicted criminals and members of criminal gangs, whose presence is hardly welcomed by most immigrants.

Law-abiding immigrants who are here without authorization should be offered a ticket home or a chance to register for legal status based on a clean record, paying taxes and steady employment. In addition we need to consider a new Bracero Program, which allowed guest workers to come to the U.S. legally without their families in the mid-20th century. Even President Trump has been forced to acknowledge that low-wage immigrant labor is difficult to replace in some sectors.

This kind of immigration reform has eluded Congress for decades, but a clear-eyed assessment shows that merely welcoming newcomers willy-nilly won’t pay off for most migrants or for California. A large pool of undocumented labor is the exact opposite of what is needed to nurture a strong and sustainable economy. If you are protesting against ICE raids and immigrant bashing, you should also be protesting for remaking U.S. immigration according to economic fundamentals. The prospect of a better life should be available to us all.

Joel Kotkin is a contributing writer to Opinion, the presidential fellow for urban futures at Chapman University and senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas, Austin.

Ursula von der Leyen says bloc hopes to see negotiated solution to trade tensions.

The European Union has delayed retaliatory tariffs on exports from the United States as officials scramble to reach a trade deal with Washington ahead of US President Donald Trump’s August 1 deadline.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on Sunday that the bloc would extend its suspension of countermeasures as it continued negotiations with the Trump administration.

“At the same time, we will continue to prepare for the countermeasures, so we’re fully prepared,” von der Leyen said during a news conference in Brussels.

“We have always been very clear that we prefer a negotiated solution,” she added.

“This remains the case, and we will use the time that we have now until the 1st of August.”

The EU’s announcement comes after Trump on Saturday unveiled plans to slap a 30 percent tariff on European and Mexican exports from August 1.

The EU in March announced retaliatory tariffs on 26 billion euros ($30bn) of US exports in response to Trump’s duties on steel and aluminium.

The bloc paused the measures for 90 days the following month after Trump announced he would delay the implementation of his so-called “reciprocal tariffs”.

The EU’s pause had been due to expire at midnight on Monday.

EU trade ministers are scheduled to convene in Brussels on Monday to discuss options for responding to Trump’s latest tariff threats.

On Sunday, White House Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett said that Trump was not happy with the “sketches of deals” presented by US trade partners so far and that their offers would “need to be better”.

“These tariffs are real if the president doesn’t get a deal that he thinks is good enough, but, you know, conversations are ongoing, and we’ll see where the dust settles,” Hassett told ABC News’s This Week.

Taken together, EU member countries are the US’s largest trading partner.

US-EU trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.

‘Syria possesses valuable assets,’ says DP World’s CEO, highlighting the country’s economic potential.

Syria has finalised an $800m agreement with Dubai-based DP World to redevelop its Tartous port in a bid to speed up post-war reconstruction.

State news agency SANA said the deal was signed in Damascus on Sunday between DP World and the General Authority for Land and Sea Ports, in the presence of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Syrian officials described the deal as a key step towards modernising the country’s logistics infrastructure.

“This strategic move will bolster our port operations and logistics services,” SANA quoted an unnamed official as saying.

Since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad in December, Syria’s new leadership has been pushing to re-establish economic ties with international companies and bring the war-torn country back into the global market.

Speaking after the signing, DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said Syria’s economic potential remained strong, noting the Tartous port could play a central role in reviving local industry.

“Syria possesses valuable assets,” he said, “and Tartous is an essential hub for trade and exports. We aim to transform it into one of the world’s leading ports.”

‘Laying the groundwork’

DP World manages dozens of port facilities across Europe, Africa and Asia and has been expanding its reach in the Middle East.

Qutaiba Badawi, who heads Syria’s port authority, said the agreement marked more than just a commercial venture.

“We are laying the groundwork for a new era of maritime development, positioning Syria again on the international economic stage,” he said.

The Tartous deal follows several high-profile contracts signed in recent months.

In May, Damascus entered a 30-year agreement with French shipping company CMA CGM to operate Latakia port. That same month, Syria inked a $7bn energy deal with a coalition of Qatari, Turkish, and US firms to revive the country’s power sector.

Earlier this month, the United States said it will revoke its designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as a “foreign terrorist organization” as Washington softens its approach to post-war Syria.

Last month, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order lifting several longstanding sanctions on Syria, which Washington said would support the country’s reconstruction. The US Treasury noted the decision would ease restrictions on companies considered vital to Syria’s rebuilding and governance.

Western sanctions had hampered reconstruction efforts for years, further crippling an economy already shattered by more than a decade of civil war and human rights abuses under al-Assad’s rule.