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At Cuernavaca’s Grill, a Mexican restaurant in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles, owner Nayomie Mendoza is used to seeing customers line up for lunch.But the vibrant neighborhood filled with boutiques and shops has become a ghost town amid raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out President Donald Trump’s hard-line policy of sweeping up and deporting undocumented immigrants.Even in the early summer season when tourists flock to the southern California city, Mendoza is left staring at empty tables.”A lot of our neighbors are afraid to go out” because of the ICE presence in Los Angeles, Mendoza said, with the city boasting a significant Latino workforce.”Our sales… they’ve been down by 80 percent,” Mendoza told AFP.”It’s hurting more than ever.”The “saving grace” for the restaurant in this time has been delivery orders, she said.- ‘Worse than COVID’ -As a so-called “sanctuary city” with hundreds of thousands of undocumented people, Los Angeles has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration since the Republican returned to power in January.After ICE raids spurred unrest and protests last month, Trump dispatched the National Guard and US Marines to quell the disruption.Washington does not seem to be backing down anytime soon.”Better get used to us now, because this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles,” US Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino told broadcaster Fox News on Monday.”The federal government is not leaving LA,” he added.Local businesses dependent on foot traffic are the collateral damage of the raids, Mendoza said.”This is probably worse than COVID,” she said, referring to mandatory lockdowns during the pandemic.Manuel Suarez, a street vendor near Cuernavaca’s Grill, agreed.”Now is worse because during the pandemic, even though it was a pandemic, there were sales,” said the toy vendor, who has worked in the Fashion District for 35 years.”Now it’s completely in crisis,” he told AFP.Suarez said many merchants have closed their stores as a precaution as raids intensify in the city, or have otherwise cut the number of employees due to drops in sales.- ‘Cat and mouse’ -“Here in downtown and in LA, there’s been a lot of raids because of ICE, so it has brought fear into our Latin community,” said Jose Yern, manager of Anita’s Bridal Boutique, a Fashion District shop specializing in dresses for Latin American “quinceanera” coming-of-age ceremonies.”They are scared to come in (to the district). But if they’re coming in, they’re coming specifically to a specific store, doing what they need to do, and then heading back home,” he added.Shopkeepers communicate with one another via walkie-talkies, reporting any noise, helicopter or law enforcement presence to warn those who are undocumented.”It’s unfortunate that the government does not understand that when it attacks us, we all lose,” said a vendor who did not want to disclose his name for privacy reasons.”But we are not leaving. What’s going to happen here is that we are going to be playing cat and mouse. Let’s see who tires out first.”

As President Donald Trump ramps up tariff threats on US trading partners, his administration is taking aim at a tactic said to be used by Chinese companies to dodge the levies by moving goods through third countries.The issue is “transshipping,” or having products pass through a country to avoid harsher trade barriers elsewhere, a practice Washington has accused Chinese companies of.”Goods transshipped to evade a higher Tariff will be subject to that higher Tariff,” Trump warned in letters issued since Monday, days after unveiling a trade pact with Vietnam that promised steeper duties for such goods too.”The clause is less about Vietnam per se and more about signaling that rules-of-origin games across the broader Asian production network will attract a premium penalty,” said Barath Harithas, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.He told AFP the White House is likely making two points at once: closing a back door to China and putting the rest of Asia on notice.Noting that Vietnam was “the single biggest winner from Chinese supply-chain diversion since the first Trump tariffs in 2018,” Harithas said the US administration is keen to avoid a repeat of this situation.Ten of the 14 countries first to receive Trump’s tariff letters this week were in Asia and mostly Southeast Asia, which sits between Chinese component suppliers and western consumer markets.”Washington’s message seems to be: ‘Either help us police Chinese evasion or absorb higher duties yourselves,'” Harithas said.- ‘Whack-a-mole’ -“I think it is clear that transshipment of Chinese goods so far this year is massive,” said Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.While there has been a drop in direct exports from China to the United States, this is “more than offset by” trade shifts elsewhere, he told AFP. In a recent report, Brooks noted that Chinese exports to both Thailand and Vietnam started surging “anomalously” in early 2025 as Trump began threatening widespread tariffs.It is unclear if all of these goods end up in the United States.But he cast doubt on the likelihood that domestic demand in both these countries rocketed right around the time that Washington imposed fresh duties, saying tariffs tend to instead bog down global trade due to uncertainty.Similarly, Chinese exports to the European Union, he said, also rose markedly in early 2025.”It’s a little bit like whack-a-mole,” Brooks said, adding that as long as Washington maintains different tariff rates for different countries, business will try to take advantage of the lowest levels.This in turn could be a reason that US inflation remains muted despite wide-ranging duties including a 10 percent rate on almost all US trading partners, and levels of up to 50 percent on sector-specific imports like steel and aluminum.Transshipment is not a China-specific issue. Concerns also flared in recent years over goods bound for Russia — skirting European export controls — after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.- Complications -But it is difficult to draw a line defining product origins.While Washington may take issue with Chinese-headquartered companies moving production facilities to third countries, for example, many firms genuinely export components for value-added manufacturing to take place.In Vietnam, raw materials from the world’s second biggest economy are the lifeblood of manufacturing industries. There is massive uncertainty over how an incoming 40 percent US tariff on goods passing through the country — double the 20 percent rate applied to Vietnamese goods — might be applied.Emily Benson, head of strategy at Minerva Technology Futures, said the Trump administration appears to be trying to simplify an otherwise complex web of legal definitions.”But whether or not that will work for other trading partners remains to be seen,” she said.While products from China might be impacted, she believes the White House’s intentions stretch beyond Beijing.”They’re trying to load a bunch of negotiations on to this reciprocal (tariffs) vehicle,” she added. “And they want other countries to play by the rules.”

Canada will face a 35 percent tariff on exports to the United States starting August 1, President Donald Trump said Thursday in a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney.It was the latest of more than 20 such letters issued by Trump since Monday, as he continues to pursue his trade war threats against dozens of economies.Canada and the US are locked in trade negotiations in hopes to reach a deal by July 21 and the latest threat seemed to put that deadline in jeopardy.Canada and Mexico are both trying to find ways to satisfy Trump so that the free trade deal uniting the three countries – known as the USMCA – can be put back on track.The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement replaced the previous NAFTA accord in July 2020, after Trump successfully pushed for a renegotiation during his first term in office.It was due to be reviewed by July next year, but Trump accelerated the process by launching his trade wars after he took office in January.Canadian and Mexican products were initially hard hit by 25 percent US tariffs, with a lower rate for Canadian energy.Trump targeted both neighbors saying they did not do enough on illegal immigration and the flow of illicit drugs across borders.But he eventually announced exemptions for goods entering his country under the USMCA, covering large swaths of products. Potash, used as fertilizer, got a lower rate as well.The letter on Thursday came despite what had been warming relations between Trump and Carney.The Canadian leader came to the White House on May 6 and had a cordial meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. They met again at the G7 summit last month in Canada, where leaders pushed Trump to back away from his punishing trade war. 

Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent leaders of US pro-Palestinian campus protests, sued the Trump administration Thursday for $20 million over his arrest and detention by immigration agents.Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, had been in custody following his arrest in March.The 30-year-old was freed from a federal immigration detention center in Louisiana last month, hours after a judge ordered his release on bail.”The administration carried out its illegal plan to arrest, detain, and deport Mr. Khalil ‘in a manner calculated to terrorize him and his family,’ the claim says,” according to the Center for Constitutional Rights which is backing Khalil.Khalil suffered “severe emotional distress, economic hardship (and) damage to his reputation,” the claim adds.The Columbia University graduate was a figurehead of student protests against US ally Israel’s war in Gaza, and the Trump administration labeled him a national security threat.Khalil called the lawsuit a “first step towards accountability.””Nothing can restore the 104 days stolen from me. The trauma, the separation from my wife, the birth of my first child that I was forced to miss,” he said in the statement.”There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power.”Khalil has previously shared his “horrendous” experience in detention, where he “shared a dorm with over 70 men, absolutely no privacy, lights on all the time.”Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said “the Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property.”President Donald Trump’s government has justified pushing for Khalil’s deportation by saying his continued presence in the United States could carry “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”Khalil’s detention came amid Trump’s campaign against top US universities in recent months, with the president facing off against Columbia, Harvard and other schools over foreign student enrollment while cutting federal grants and threatening to strip accreditation. Beyond his legal case, Khalil’s team has expressed fear he could face threats out of detention.

US President Donald Trump says “mistakes were made” but he’s satisfied with the investigation into his near-assassination a year ago, as the Secret Service announced disciplinary actions Thursday against six staff members.In excerpts of an interview on Fox News’ “My View with Lara Trump” show, airing Saturday, Trump, 79, said the elite close-protection service “had a bad day.””There were mistakes made. And that shouldn’t have happened,” Trump said in the interview conducted by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who has her own show on the Trump-friendly news channel.The Republican — whose ear was nicked by a bullet while he addressed an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — noted that the would-be assassin had access to a “prime building” overlooking the rally.One bystander was killed and two other people in addition to Trump were wounded before a counter-sniper killed the gunman — 20-year-old Thomas Crooks.The sniper “was able to get him from a long distance with one shot. If he didn’t do that, you would have had an even worse situation,” Trump said. “His name is David and he did a fantastic job.”Speaking of the post-incident investigation and “the larger plot,” Trump said “I’m satisfied with it.””It was unforgettable,” he said, recalling the drama. “I didn’t know exactly what was going on. I got whacked. There’s no question about that. And fortunately, I got down quickly. People were screaming.”The Secret Service said in a statement that the July 13, 2024, attack was “nothing short of a tragedy” and “an operational failure that the Secret Service will carry as a reminder of the critical importance of its zero-fail mission.”The agency cited communication, technical and human errors and said reforms were underway, including on coordination between different law enforcement bodies and establishment of a division dedicated to aerial surveillance.Six unidentified staff have been disciplined, the Secret Service said. The punishments range from 10 to 42 days suspension without pay and all six were put into restricted or non-operational positions.Among measures beefing up security, is an expansion of the fleet of armored golf carts to carry the president. Trump spends frequent weekends at his golf courses and in September last year was allegedly the target of a failed assassination plot while playing in Florida.”The agency has taken many steps to ensure such an event can never be repeated in the future,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement.

A federal judge on Thursday halted President Donald Trump’s order restricting birthright citizenship, as opponents of the policy pursue a new legal avenue following the US Supreme Court’s overturning of a previous block.The high court’s conservative majority delivered a landmark decision in late June that limits the ability of individual judges to issue nationwide injunctions against presidents’ policies.Several such judges had in fact blocked Trump’s attempt to end the longstanding rule, guaranteed in the US Constitution, that anyone born on US soil is automatically an American citizen.However, the Supreme Court left open the possibility that orders could be blocked via broad class-action suits against the government.Trump’s opponents quickly filed new class-action suits seeking to block again the executive order.On Thursday, Judge Joseph Laplante of the US District of New Hampshire granted class-action status to any child who would potentially be denied citizenship under Trump’s order. The judge ordered a preliminary halt to it as legal proceedings carry on.The judge delayed his ruling for seven days to permit the Trump administration to appeal.Cody Wofsy, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who argued the case, called the ruling a “huge victory” that “will help protect the citizenship of all children born in the United States, as the Constitution intended.”Trump’s executive order decrees that children born to parents in the United States illegally or on temporary visas would not automatically become citizens — a radical reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.His administration has argued that the 14th Amendment, passed in the wake of the Civil War, addresses the rights of former slaves and not the children of undocumented migrants or temporary US visitors.The Supreme Court rejected such a narrow definition in a landmark 1898 case.The current high court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, avoided ruling last month on the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order and only addressed the issue of nationwide injunctions.It nonetheless permitted the order to go ahead but delayed its ruling from taking effect until late July to allow for new court challenges.Several lower courts, in issuing their previous injunctions, had ruled that the executive order violated the Constitution.

Shares of Delta Air Lines rocketed higher Thursday after the carrier reported better-than-expected profits and reinstated its full-year forecast based on a reassuring travel outlook.The big US airline, which had withdrawn its forecast in April amid a weakening outlook at the time, characterized travel demand as “stabilized” and the US economy as “solid,” according to Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian.”Our core consumer is in good shape and continues to prioritize travel and affinity for Delta’s brand has never been stronger,” he said on a conference call with analysts.For the quarter ending June 30, Delta reported profits of $2.1 billion, up 63 percent from the year-ago period. Revenues were flat at $16.6 billion.The company projected 2025 profits of between $5.25 and $6.25 a share. Delta had withdrawn its full-year earnings forecast on April 9, which was near the stock market’s nadir following President Donald Trump’s aggressive “Liberation Day” tariff announcement in early April.Trump in recent days has announces a slew of new tariff actions. But stock markets have lingered at or near records as investors bet the president won’t execute the most onerous levies. Bastian on Thursday pointed to “continued progress on trade negotiations, predicting consumer and corporate confidence would improve in the second half of 2025, “creating the environment for travel demand to accelerate.”Delta executives said the company enjoyed a five percent growth in revenues from premium seats, offsetting lackluster demand for lower-priced tickets. Executives described as “very weak” demand for travel on off-peak periods, leading the industry to slash flights at odd times on less-traveled days such as Tuesday and Wednesday.Shares of Delta soared 13.6 percent in afternoon trading.jmb /mlm

Texas authorities faced mounting scrutiny Thursday over the response to flash flooding that has left at least 120 people dead, as details surfaced about reported delays of early alerts that could have saved lives.The confirmed death toll from Fourth of July holiday floods that ravaged the central Texas Hill Country — including a river bank cluttered with children’s summer camps — stood at 120, after police lowered it by one from a day earlier.And the urgent search for more than 170 people still missing entered a seventh day.Hundreds of workers in Kerr County and other central Texas communities continue to comb through piles of muddy debris, but with no live rescues reported this week, worries have swelled that the death toll could still rise.With US President Donald Trump preparing to visit the disaster zone Friday with First Lady Melania Trump, new questions have emerged about when the first emergency alerts reached the hundreds of people in the path of nature’s fury.At a news conference Thursday Kerrville police Sergeant Jonathan Lamb deflected a question about police radios being unable to communicate with county and emergency officials, perhaps hampering rescue efforts as the flood raged.”I don’t have any information to that point,” he responded.Lamb said people from all over Texas were volunteering to help with the search effort, offering their own equipment such as boats and earth moving vehicles, and suggested there was a glut of good will.”I don’t want to say it’s been a problem, because we’re so grateful for the amount of people who want to come to this community to help,” Lamb said.”But it’s important that we have certified professional search teams out there right now.”- 90-minute alert delay? -Several local and state officials in recent days have deflected questions that sought to clarify Kerr County’s specific actions as the disaster rapidly unfolded.ABC News reported early Thursday that at 4:22 am on July 4, a firefighter in Ingram, upstream of Kerrville, had asked the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office to alert residents of nearby Hunt of the coming flood.The network said its affiliate KSAT obtained audio of the call, and that the first alert did not reach Kerr County’s CodeRED system for a full 90 minutes.In some cases, it said, the warning messages did not arrive until after 10:00 am, when hundreds of people had already been swept away by raging waters.”The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39,” the firefighter said in the dispatch audio published by ABC. “Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?””Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor,” a sheriff’s office dispatcher replied in the audio.Kerr County, the tragedy’s epicenter and part of an area nicknamed “Flash Flood Alley,” has confirmed 96 deaths including 36 children, with 161 people still missing.Kendall County, which has confirmed eight fatalities, reported no change to its toll Thursday.Reporters pressed area officials this week about whether the Trump government’s sweeping funding cuts had weakened warning systems, and why so many people did not receive timely flood alerts. “There’s going to be an after-action” review, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said Wednesday, adding “those questions need to be answered.”Leitha said “it was between 4:00 or 5:00 (am) when I got notified” of incoming emergency calls — but he declined to address specifics of the warning system and any possible delays.The flooding of the Guadalupe River was particularly devastating for summer camps on its banks, including Camp Mystic, where 27 girls and counselors died. Five other Mystic campers and a counselor remain missing.Governor Gregg Abbott has scheduled a special session of the Texas Legislature, beginning July 21. Sergeant Lamb said the session will be “a starting point” for reviewing ways to improve warning systems for weather events.

The Ferrero Group will acquire US cereal mainstay WK Kellogg for $3.1 billion as the Italian food giant expands further in North America, the companies announced Thursday.Ferrero, whose products include Nutella chocolate spread and Ferrero Rocher chocolate treats, will pay $23 per share in cash for WK Kellogg, which is known for Rice Krispies and Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, among other offerings.The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025, said a joint press release. On completion of the transaction, WK Kellogg will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Ferrero.The pricing of Kellogg represents a 31 percent premium to the company’s closing price on Wednesday.Ferrero Chief Executive Giovanni Ferrero described the merger as “the coming together of two companies” with “generations of loyal consumers.””Over recent years, Ferrero has expanded its presence in North America,” said Giovanni Ferrero. “Today’s news is a key milestone in that journey, giving us confidence in the opportunities ahead.”   Ferrero, whose origins stem from its founding in Alba, Italy in 1946, has struck a number of deals in recent years to expand in North America, including the 2018 purchase of Nestle’s US confectionary business for $2.8 billion in cash.Prior to the Kellogg deal, Ferrero had more than 14,000 employes across 22 plants and 11 offices in North America, according to the press release. Its US brands include Keebler, Famous Amos and Tic Tac.WK Kellogg is the cereal arm of Michigan-based Kellogg, which split itself up a couple of years ago, with its Kellanova snack brand being sold to Mars in August 2024 for around $36 billion.”We believe this proposed transaction maximizes value for our share owners and enables WK Kellogg Co to write the next chapter of our company’s storied legacy,” said Gary Pilnick, chief executive of WK Kellogg. “Joining Ferrero will provide WK Kellogg Co with greater resources and more flexibility to grow our iconic brands in this competitive and dynamic market.”Kellogg dates its origins to 1894 when founder WK Kellogg invented the Corn Flakes cereal, the first of a series of offerings that later expanded to Raisin Bran and Froot Loops.Shares of WK Kellogg surged 30.9 percent in mid-morning trading.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that Asian nations might get “better” tariff rates than the rest of the world, as he attended ASEAN talks focused on Washington’s trade war.Rubio’s visit to Malaysia came after US President Donald Trump threatened this week to impose punitive tariffs on more than 20 countries if they did not strike deals with Washington by August 1.”I would say that when all is said and done, many of the countries in Southeast Asia are going to have tariff rates that are actually better than countries in other parts of the world,” Rubio said on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Kuala Lumpur. “But these talks continue. There’ll be talks next week with Japan. There’s ongoing talks with virtually every country represented here.”Trump said Monday that duties he had suspended in April would snap back — even more steeply — by the new deadline. He has told more than 20 countries, many in Asia, they face tariffs ranging from 20 to 50 percent, and announced a 50 percent toll on copper imports and a possible 200 percent duty on pharmaceuticals.Among those targeted were top trade partners Japan and South Korea, which could each be hit with 25 percent.Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Myanmar — all members of ASEAN — face duties ranging from 20 percent to 40 percent.Vietnam, which is also an ASEAN member, is one of only two countries — Britain being the other — to have reached a tentative agreement with Trump. The levels were not too far from those originally threatened in April, although some were notably lower this time.  – ‘Not going to walk away’ -US officials said ahead of Rubio’s trip that Washington was “prioritising” its commitment to East and Southeast Asia. In Malaysia, Rubio said the United States has “no intention of abandoning” the region. “We’ve spent decades building these relationships,” Rubio told reporters. “Not only we’re not going to walk away from them, we seek to expand them and build upon them with a part of the world that is essential.”Rubio’s remarks followed a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov where the US diplomat expressed “disappointment and frustration” about the lack of progress on ending the war in Ukraine.  He also attended a post-ministerial conference, trilateral talks with the Philippines and Japan and met with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for talks on tariffs.”Malaysia believes that such unilateral actions undermine free trade flows and could have a negative impact on regional economic growth, especially for trading nations like Malaysia,” Anwar said in a statement.”I expressed my stance that the space for negotiations should remain open to ensure fair, equitable and non-oppressive trade outcomes for developing countries.”Rubio said he might also meet with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, who is attending the ASEAN meeting.The two largest economies remain locked in a range of disputes on issues from trade and fentanyl, to Taiwan and cutting-edge technology.Without mentioning the United States, Wang on Thursday called for a “fairer and more reasonable” international order.”At the same time, we are also confronted with challenges such as the impact of unilateral protectionism and the abuse of tariffs by a certain major country.”