Trump Amps Up Tariff Pressure, and EU
Scrambles to Secure a Deal
Posted By: sunset, 7/4/2025 10:17:24 PM
President Trump said he was preparing to set unilateral tariff rates of up to 70% that would kick in Aug. 1, delaying the levies while putting pressure on global trade negotiations. The European Union will hold crunch talks with the U.S. over the weekend in an effort to secure a tentative trade agreement that avoids the higher levies. Officials from the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, told the EU’s member states on Friday that they are nearing the outline of a potential deal with the U.S. that would leave the current 10% tariffs on most European imports in place, people familiar with the matter said.
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Carnage breaks out at Portland ICE detention
center as woke crowd tries to storm holding cells 5 replies
center as woke crowd tries to storm holding cells 5 replies
Chaos erupted at an ICE detention facility in Portland, Oregon after hundreds of protesters attempted to storm holding cells. Demonstrators were seen being tackled to the ground as officers deployed smoke bombs and tear gas to try and control the crowd yesterday.
Dramatic footage posted on X by independent journalist Katie Daviscourt shows flares lighting up the night sky, as protesters clash with officers in riot gear who appeared to fire rubber bullets into the crowd. The demonstration occurred on the 28th day that protesters have been occupying the ICE facility. The mayhem Friday broke out just hours after the President signed his so-called 'big, beautiful bill' into law
US military’s attempt to retain strategic
land for training runs into Native Hawaiian opposition 5 replies
land for training runs into Native Hawaiian opposition 5 replies
A high-altitude plateau on the Big Island is the only place in Hawaii where thousands of ground forces can practice firing live munitions. It’s also a place many Native Hawaiians consider the spiritual heart of the island.
The U.S. military wants to keep training at this spot, called Pohakuloa, so it’s ready to quickly send troops to Asia and the Pacific. Its importance to the U.S. is only growing as China becomes more assertive, particularly regarding Taiwan. But the Army’s lease for state lands beneath a key part of the training range expires in 2029.
In a matter of days, an isolated training airport in the Everglades where endangered Florida panthers roam became a sprawling immigration detention center christened "Alligator Alcatraz,” modeled after the state’s frequent responses to hurricanes and built in part by companies whose owners have donated generously to Republicans.
It’s been less than two weeks since the state seized the property from Miami-Dade County. Massive tents have been erected and a steady stream of trucks carrying portable toilets, asphalt and construction materials have been driving through the site inside the Big Cypress National Preserve around the clock...
A flight carrying eight men who had been held for weeks on a U.S. military base in Djibouti landed in South Sudan just before midnight Friday, officials said, bringing an end to a six-week legal battle that was resolved by an emergency intervention by the Supreme Court.
The U.S. military plane took off around 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, according to Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokeswoman. A picture shared by Homeland Security showed the men apparently aboard the airplane, handcuffed and shackled at their ankles, surrounded by uniformed personnel.
Tech CEO axes incredible progressive perk
after accusing his laziest employees of
abusing it 25 replies
after accusing his laziest employees of
abusing it 25 replies
A California tech CEO changed his company's paid time off (PTO) policy after he said his laziest employees were abusing it. Ryan Breslow, the founder of Bolt, announced on Tuesday that his San Francisco-based payment technology company would be axing unlimited PTO - a common perk in the industry.
But Breslow said the incentive wasn't working and that his top performers were more burnt out than ever, while his laziest were enjoying too much time on the beach. 'It sounds progressive, but it's totally broken,' he said of the policy in a LinkedIn post. 'This leads to A-performer burnout. B-performer luxuries. And feelings of unfairness across the board.
A local activist who handed out protective face shields to protesters last month during demonstrations against the Trump administration’s chaotic immigration raids was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday.
Alejandro Orellana, a 29-year-old member of the Boyle Heights-based community organization Centro CSO, faces charges of conspiracy and aiding and abetting civil disorder, court records show.
According to the indictment, Orellana and at least two others drove around downtown L.A. in a pickup truck distributing Uvex Bionic face shields and other items to a crowd engaged in a protest near the federal building
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has released a video highlight reel showing Kilmar Abrego Garcia apparently thriving during his imprisonment, in an attempt to refute the migrant’s claims that he was tortured while in custody.
Abrego Garcia, who a judge ruled was erroneously deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador and then returned after a court order, is seen in the video gardening, playing soccer, fishing and enjoying other leisurely activities while imprisoned in his home country.
The video appears at odds with Abrego Garcia's claims in legal filings that he was severely beaten, deprived of sleep and psychologically tortured while detained.
President Trump said he was preparing to set unilateral tariff rates of up to 70% that would kick in Aug. 1, delaying the levies while putting pressure on global trade negotiations.
The European Union will hold crunch talks with the U.S. over the weekend in an effort to secure a tentative trade agreement that avoids the higher levies.
Officials from the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, told the EU’s member states on Friday that they are nearing the outline of a potential deal with the U.S. that would leave the current 10% tariffs on most European imports in place, people familiar with the matter said.
Multiple fatalities have been confirmed and frantic water rescues and searches were underway Friday as a "catastrophic" flooding emergency unfolded in Texas on the Fourth of July, caused by heavy rains that overwhelmed the Guadalupe River.
Authorities haven't said how many people were killed and were still trying to identify the dead in Kerr County. Dozens of swift-water rescues had already been performed by late morning, and rescue operations were still underway in the afternoon in Kerrville, a city of 25,000 people about 60 miles northwest of San Antonio.
Local news outlets reported that widespread searches were launched to find missing people, including children at a summer camp along the river.
A federal appeals court cleared the way on Thursday for President Trump to remove a Democratic member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, sidelining her while the White House fights a ruling by a lower court that had reinstated her to the position.
The ruling, affecting Susan Tsui Grundmann, echoed those of several other cases in which courts have supported the president in clearing out individuals appointed by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. from institutions that conduct oversight of the government and represent the interests of federal workers.
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued an unsigned order stating that a handful of illegal immigrant criminals whom the Trump administration sought to deport to South Sudan—and who have been waiting in Djibouti to find out their court-ordered fate—can be deported to South Sudan. "The May 21 remedial order cannot now be used to enforce an injunction that our stay rendered unenforceable," the Court said, referencing the back and forth that has gone on with this case and the federal judge in Boston.
Seven people were unaccounted for Wednesday after a Northern California warehouse storing fireworks exploded in a huge fireball Tuesday and sent pyrotechnics bursting above the scene, officials said.
Firefighters responded to the warehouse in the Esparto area, northwest of Sacramento, around 5:50 p.m. Tuesday and found explosions and numerous buildings on fire, Esparto Fire Protection District Chief Curtis Lawrence said.
The warehouse then detonated. Helicopter video showed white smoke pouring from the roof before the warehouse erupted in a fireball.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Black New York isn’t buying it. A slew of black Big Apple residents fumed Friday over mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani’s claim on an Ivy League college application that he is African American — with them raging the socialist pol is a “fraud” and “trickster.”[snip] Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, had checked off the “black or African American” and “Asian” boxes on his 2009 Columbia University application regarding his race, the New York Times reported last week.
Joe Biden has always been a fabulist. Since he first stepped onto the national stage, he has woven myths about his life. Joe needed the gravitas of good grades and a solid academic background to move up the ladder of national politics, so he invented a student who never existed.
Joe threatened to fight a man who asked about his academic chops and claimed he went to law school on “a full academic scholarship.” Except, he didn’t. He claimed he had three degrees from college. Except, he doesn't. He claimed he was in the “top half” of his law school class. Nope. He was in the “steerage” section
Just one day after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrapped up his self-indulgent “magic minute” marathon, the truth is starting to surface: Even many Democrats weren’t impressed. His hours-long fauxibuster—meant to stall the inevitable passage of the GOP’s One Big, Beautiful Bill—ended up accomplishing absolutely nothing for the Democrats’ cause. The only minds that were changed were Republicans who flipped from “no” to “yes.”
Let’s not kid ourselves. This wasn’t some bold act of resistance or savvy legislative tactic. It was performative grandstanding, plain and simple—a desperate attempt to look like he’s fighting while doing absolutely nothing to stop the bill. [Video]
The bill passed 218-214
Tech CEO axes incredible progressive perk
after accusing his laziest employees of
abusing it 25 replies
after accusing his laziest employees of
abusing it 25 replies
A California tech CEO changed his company's paid time off (PTO) policy after he said his laziest employees were abusing it. Ryan Breslow, the founder of Bolt, announced on Tuesday that his San Francisco-based payment technology company would be axing unlimited PTO - a common perk in the industry.
But Breslow said the incentive wasn't working and that his top performers were more burnt out than ever, while his laziest were enjoying too much time on the beach. 'It sounds progressive, but it's totally broken,' he said of the policy in a LinkedIn post. 'This leads to A-performer burnout. B-performer luxuries. And feelings of unfairness across the board.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), demanding an immediate halt to what it describes as “unlawful immigration raids” across the Los Angeles area.
The left-leaning nonprofit accuses the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of carrying out unconstitutional raids and targeting “migrants with brown skin.” The plaintiffs allege that DHS and ICE have carried out unconstitutional arrests in order to meet arrest quotas allegedly set out on June 6 by the Trump administration. The suit specifically claims that officials have based arrests and detentions on race and ethnicity with no articulable reasonable suspicion.
The first six months of the Trump administration have not been kind to the experts and the degree-holding classes.Almost daily during the tariff hysterias of March, we were told by university economists and most of the PhDs employed in investment and finance that the U.S. was headed toward a downward, if not recessionary, spiral.[snip] Instead, recent data show increases in tariff revenue. Personal real income and savings were up. Job creation exceeded prognoses. There was no surge in inflation. The supposedly "crashed" stock market reached historic highs.
One year from now, you will not be able to turn around without receiving notice of America’s semiquincentennial jubilee. The jollity of the occasion will not change the fact that it will be seven years premature.
The historical significance assigned to July 4, 1776, the date the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress, is befuddling. Without victory in the Revolutionary War, which began over a year earlier, any declarations regarding American independence made during the summer of 1776 would have the same significance today as the “declarations of independence” made by the 11 Confederate States in 1860-61.
A local activist who handed out protective face shields to protesters last month during demonstrations against the Trump administration’s chaotic immigration raids was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday.
Alejandro Orellana, a 29-year-old member of the Boyle Heights-based community organization Centro CSO, faces charges of conspiracy and aiding and abetting civil disorder, court records show.
According to the indictment, Orellana and at least two others drove around downtown L.A. in a pickup truck distributing Uvex Bionic face shields and other items to a crowd engaged in a protest near the federal building
Donald Trump has never been one to shy away from a fight, but this time, he’s done more than just rattle the Democrats—he’s practically handed Republicans the keys to a midterm landslide in 2026. The playbook was simple, the execution flawless, and the results devastating for the opposition.
Here’s what happened.
When Zohran Mamdani, the antisemitic socialist, won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, many Democrats were less than thrilled. Last month, the Associated Press reported that his victory “exposed anew the fiery divisions plaguing the Democratic Party as it struggles to repair its brand nearly half a year into Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Many progressives cheered
"Kilmar Abrego Garcia suffered psychological and physical torture in El Salvador prison, attorneys say" reads the headline from NBC.
"Abrego Garcia says he was severely beaten in Salvadoran prison," says NPR's headline.
"Kilmar Abrego Garcia says he was beaten and subjected to psychological torture in El Salvador jail," reports the Associated Press.
You get the idea.
This all stems from the fact that attorneys for "Maryland Dad" — and alleged MS-13 member, human smuggler, and domestic abuser — Kilmar Abrego Garcia claim that he was "subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival" at El Salvador's Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, aka CECOT, "including but not limited to severe beatings,
WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa — It is big and it is beautiful, President Donald Trump says. But for many Democratic leaders, the tax break and spending cut package passed by Trump’s Republican allies in Congress on Thursday represents the key to the Democratic Party’s resurgence. Even before the final vote, Democratic officials were finalizing ambitious plans for rallies, voter registration drives, attack ads, bus tours and even a multiday vigil, all intended to highlight the most controversial elements of Trump’s “big beautiful” bill: deep cuts to the nation’s safety net that will leave nearly 12 million more people without health coverage
A flight carrying eight men who had been held for weeks on a U.S. military base in Djibouti landed in South Sudan just before midnight Friday, officials said, bringing an end to a six-week legal battle that was resolved by an emergency intervention by the Supreme Court.
The U.S. military plane took off around 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, according to Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokeswoman. A picture shared by Homeland Security showed the men apparently aboard the airplane, handcuffed and shackled at their ankles, surrounded by uniformed personnel.
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