US Green Party Has “Hands On” Indigenous Rights

by Mumtahanah Williams-Ansari / April 22nd, 2025

Following the massive “Hands Off” demonstration on April 5, the Green Party asked its leaders to describe what the Green Party had its “Hands On.”

During the 2024 presidential election, I, like thousands of committed voters, decided to take a stand. When I was much younger, I believed that the American government was not for the people. I was confused by politics, but I knew what I saw in my community — poverty, police brutality, public schools with inadequate supplies, and markets offering unhealthy products that contributed to the chronic diseases plaguing neighborhood children and elders. I was convinced that the people in charge did not care about us, so I opted out of participating in the voting process.

Eventually, my associates convinced me that no politician would ever truly put our needs first, but that I was obligated to vote regardless. After all, many people had fought and died for the privilege so that I would have the opportunity to do what our ancestors had been denied. The trick, I was told, was to vote for the lesser evil and to then pray to God that the smaller demon would do something, even if just a little. Where I am from, the more trusted option was always a Democrat, so for twenty-five years I dutifully darkened the bubbles next to every Democrat running, without ever having heard of them or the principles upon which they were running. I wanted to know, but quite frankly, it all seemed too overwhelming to comprehend.

Then, on October 7, 2023, Palestinians decided to fight back. I watched in real time with millions of others worldwide as the impending slaughter fell upon them. Video after video forced us to witness infants with detached limbs, shell-shocked children surviving collapsed buildings, and parents on the brink of insanity carrying salvaged body parts of their children in bags. We also witnessed how our politicians — Democrats included — dug in their heels in support of the perpetrators.

I was appalled and distressed. There was absolutely no way that I was going to vote in an election where there was no “lesser evil.” As the campaigns surged on, I became more and more convinced that I needed to sit this one out. It did not matter whether a Republican or a Democrat won. As far as I could tell, both candidates were boastful, condescending, and committed to their billionaire base above all else.

I told my young daughters, who I noticed were becoming increasingly politically involved, what I was planning. They were supportive yet suggested, “You should check out third party candidates though. There are some who you may like.” It turned out that they both were leaning towards the Green Party.

I had heard of the Green Party in passing and even briefly considered voting Green during the 2016 presidential election, but it was too little, too late. This go-around, I had time and a little more confidence to learn so I could make a much more informed decision. I read the Jill Stein/Butch Ware Campaign platform and was immediately on board.

What hooked me were a few things: their stance on the genocide in Gaza and all proxy wars that America is involved in; cash reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans who were imprisoned here for centuries; and most of all, allyship with Indigenous people who continue to be regarded as subhuman by this government.

My family is Afro-Indigenous. My son, Muriyd “Two Clouds” Williams, was an extremely successful water protector and land defender, instrumental in halting a 150-plus-mile oil pipeline which threatened water sources and the environment, and in winning back dozens of acres of stolen land for his people through litigation. Due to his superb leadership, he was targeted, kidnapped, and murdered, and I immediately started two organizations to continue and expand his work.

The Green Party’s platform on honoring Native American lives, rights, and treaties pulled me in. Frankly, Jill and Butch had me at “sovereignty.” I was fighting tooth and nail to convince as many people as possible that this was the party to roll with, because they were promising to act for all citizens and immigrants, too.

Unfortunately, the 2024 election went to a usual suspect, and as we all know, it has all been downhill from there. One would hope that we would learn from this as a nation and finally try another route which would benefit all the people, not just some. Yet sadly we have not. It is politics as usual, with millionaire Democrats ramping up fear tactics through anti-Trump verbiage and a bogus “hands off” campaign.

In the interim, we all are suffering, and none as much as Indigenous people. Therefore, we proclaim: Hands ON regarding all Indigenous people and Nations as sovereign entities! Hands ON honoring all treaty rights and the return of stolen Indigenous lands! Hands ON establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States! Hands ON working toward an absolute end to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons crisis! Hands ON expanding funding for health/mental health clinics and Tribal Compact Schools! Hands ON ensuring assistance, safety, and justice to all Indigenous people regardless of government recognition status!

If the United States has a chance of turning itself on its heels to become the “Great” society most of us claim we want it to be, it must fully honor First Nations people, from the inside out. I believe the Green Party is the only political party ready and willing to do so.

The Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA), is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity.

For More Information Please See:

Stein/Ware 2024 Platform, Social Justice, Tribal/Indigenous Sovereignty.

Green Party of the United States Platform, II. Social Justice, 4. Indigenous Peoples.

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Mumtahanah Williams-Ansari, Dauphin County, is a delegate to Green Party of Pennsylvania State Committee. Read other articles by Mumtahanah.

China to retaliate with sanctions on U.S. officials, NGO leaders over Hong Kong issues

By The Associated Press
April 21, 2025 

The American and Chinese flags wave at Genting Snow Park ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 2, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

HONG KONG — China will sanction United States officials, lawmakers and leaders of non-governmental organizations who it says have “performed poorly” on Hong Kong issues, the foreign ministry announced.

The U.S. in March sanctioned six Chinese and Hong Kong officials who it alleged were involved in “transnational repression” and acts threatening to further erode the city’s autonomy. The officials included Justice Secretary Paul Lam, security office director Dong Jingwei and former police commissioner Raymond Siu.

In a retaliatory move against Washington, D.C., on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun in Beijing said China strongly condemned the acts, calling them “despicable.” The U.S. has seriously interfered in the affairs of Hong Kong and violated international law principles, he said

“China has decided to impose sanctions on U.S. congressmen, officials, and NGO leaders who have performed poorly on Hong Kong-related issues,” Guo said, adding the response was made according to the anti-foreign sanctions law.

He did not provide more details about who is being targeted.


Guo also issued a warning about Hong Kong, saying the southern Chinese city’s affairs are not subject to U.S. interference. Any actions considered wrong by the Chinese government that are taken on Hong Kong-related issues will be met with firm countermeasures and reciprocal retaliation, he said.

The tit-for-tat sanctions over Hong Kong’s human rights issues are the latest sign of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington, which are already locked in a trade war that has rattled businesses on both sides.

Beijing separately warned other countries on Monday against making trade deals with the U.S. to China’s detriment.

The U.S. sanctions on officials in March were not the first related to the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997. During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, his government imposed sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy.

In 2021, former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration slapped more sanctions on officials over Beijing’s crackdown on political freedoms in the semi-autonomous city.

Since China imposed a national security law in 2020 to quell the 2019 massive anti-government protests, Hong Kong authorities have prosecuted many of the city’s leading activists. Media outlets known for their critical reports of the government shut down following arrests of their top management. Dozens of civil society groups disbanded.

Over the past two years, Hong Kong authorities have issued arrest warrants for 19 activists based overseas, with bounties of $1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,536) for information leading to each of their arrests. Some of them resided in the U.S.

The years-long crackdown has drawn criticism from foreign governments, especially because the city was promised its Western-style civil liberties and semi-autonomy would be kept intact for at least 50 years during the 1997 handover.

The Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist the law is necessary for the city’s stability.

Kanis Leung, The Associated Press

Tian Macleod Ji contributed to this report from Bangkok.

Trump warns U.S. economy may slow if Fed doesn’t cut rates

PREPARING THE SCAPEGOATING OF POWELL

By Bloomberg News
April 21, 2025 

U.S. President Donald Trump warned the economy may slow if the U.S. Federal Reserve does not move to immediately reduce interest rates, in his latest broadside against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

Trump asserted in a social media post Monday that “there can be almost no inflation” because of falling energy and grocery prices.

“But there can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW,” Trump said, referring to Powell.

While oil prices are down, Consumer Price Index data from March shows that average grocery prices are more than 2% higher than they were a year before, and up nearly half a percentage point from the previous month.

Trump has rattled Wall Street by repeatedly criticizing Powell and suggesting he had the ability to remove the Fed Chair before the end of his term. U.S. equities sunk on Monday as traders weighed the chances Powell gets axed, with the S&P 500 Index falling 1.5%.


The U.S. president unleashed a tirade against Powell last week right before the European Central Bank lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter point to 2.25%. The U.S. president repeatedly complained that the Fed was not cutting interest rates quickly enough.

The U.S. president’s comments come as central bankers and economic policymakers from across the world are set to meet in Washington this week for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.

“I’m not happy with him. I let him know it. And oh, if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs on foreign imports has raised concerns that inflation could grow as consumers and businesses begin feeling the impact of the additional levies.

In a speech last week at the Economic Club of Chicago, Powell said that the Fed must ensure tariffs don’t trigger a more persistent rise in inflation, and indicated the central bank would “wait for greater clarity before considering any adjustments to our policy stance.”

Powell also noted the central bank’s independence “is a matter of law,” and that “we’re not removable except for cause.”

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Friday told reporters that the president was studying the question of whether he’s able to fire Powell.

Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg News

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Costs, chaos rising as metal tariffs pile up with no end in sight

By The Canadian Press
April 21, 2025 

Aluminum in a smelter is seen at the Alouette aluminum plant in Sept-Iles, Que., Tuesday, May 21, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

The costs and chaos being caused by metal tariffs are starting to build up after a month in effect, and there’s little hope they’ll be removed in the foreseeable future.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum on March 12, raising significant concerns for a sector that exported around $35 billion of metal to the U.S. last year.

It’s still not clear how much higher the tariffs will push consumer prices and translate into reduced demand, but industry insiders say the risks are building.

The aluminum tariffs alone add about $3,000 to the cost of an F150 truck, Aluminum Association of Canada CEO Jean Simard said. Add in the steel tariffs, and auto tariffs, and it means about $12,000 more in input costs.

“That’s destructive,” he said.

While Canadian aluminum producers have been able to pass on their higher costs, the tariffs now in place could mean reduced demand in the automotive and construction sectors that are the two biggest customers, Simard said.

“So there’s just that whole domino effect that comes into play, and we’re at the end of this.”

And while somewhat insulated so far, companies are taking a financial hit already.

Alcoa Corp. reported last week that its last quarter saw a US$20-million hit from tariffs, and that they could lead to a further US$90 million in additional costs in its second quarter.

The Pittsburgh-based company, which is also one of Canada’s largest aluminum producers, says its customers paying more should offset some, but not all of those costs.

Canadian steel producers don’t have the same ability to pass on higher costs to U.S. customers, said Catherine Cobden, head of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, leading to a more immediate hit.

“We’re starting to see layoffs already, and we’re starting to see investment deferrals and we’re seeing production curtailments.”

The economics of steel shipping also makes it so diversifying trading partners isn’t such an option, and there’s also a global glut in the metal to compound the pressures, so companies are struggling with the uncertainty.

“There is a significant amount of chaotic activity as people are pivoting around supply chains,” said Cobden.

“The market signals are not great.”

Cobden and the association are pushing the Canadian government to put in border protections to help buffer Canadian producers from cheap imports, so they can better weather the tariffs that don’t look to be short-term.

“How far layoffs go will directly depend on how much effort the government chooses to put into a new border measure to manage that situation.

While Trump has wavered on numerous categories of tariffs, such as auto duties that analysts say are unsustainable and the global reciprocal tariffs that he paused for 90 days shortly after announcing them on April 2, the metal ones could be a longer-term reality.

Stifel analyst Ian Gillies said in a note that if the tariffs “last a number of years” that a company like Algoma Steel Group Inc. could face liquidity risk. When the tariffs came in, he cut his price target for Algoma from $21 to $15.25.

However if tariffs were to be temporary, it could mean a significant rebound ahead, he said.

“We will be quick to reverse course on our target multiple if and when geopolitical risks subside.”

Andrew Pappas, head of asset-based lending for metals at BMO, said in an April 3 note that he doesn’t see a quick end to the metal tariffs.

“Our view is that the newly imposed metal tariffs on Canada and Mexico will remain in place and will expedite the reworking of the USMCA treaty.”

While Trump’s claimed aim with the tariffs is to boost domestic production, and has the support of U.S. metal industry groups, Alcoa chief executive William Oplinger raised doubts about the strategy on the company’s earnings call last Wednesday.

“It takes many years to build a new smelter, and at least five to six smelters would be required to address the U.S. demand for primary aluminum.”

Those smelters would also require the energy equivalent of almost seven new nuclear reactors, he said.

“Until additional smelting capacity is built in the U.S., the most efficient aluminum supply chain is Canadian aluminum going into the U.S.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2025

World’s economic chiefs to face Trump’s trade war in Washington

April 21, 2025 
 BNN Bloomberg 

World economic and finance chiefs want an off-ramp from the worst global trade crisis in a century. This week they’re heading toward its epicenter.

Washington makes a turbulent backdrop to the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, headquartered in the U.S. capital as anchors of America’s economic and financial clout. U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war hasn’t just roiled markets and raised recession fears: It’s also called into question U.S. economic and security leadership — a pillar of the post-World War II global order — like never before.

The stage is set for “one of the most stark and dramatic meetings I can think of in recent history,” says Josh Lipsky, senior director of the GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council and former IMF adviser. “You have at this moment a deep challenge to the multilateral rules-based system which the U.S. helped build.”

Trade will be top of mind during the meetings, which start Monday, and many countries may use the opportunity to pursue talks with the U.S. Trump, who’s already dialed back some tariffs he imposed this month, has displayed a preference for one-to-one deals while his administration aims to rally countries against China.

But finance ministers and central bankers from outside the U.S. will also have the chance to consult among themselves – and start figuring out how to maintain a global financial system without the U.S.


“All those traveling to Washington are interested in the survival of the existing world order,” says Karsten Junius, chief economist at Bank J Safra Sarasin in Zurich. “We have to find out how to do this without provoking Trump.”
China overtures

China is the closest U.S. competitor, as well as Trump’s main target as he’s convinced it unfairly benefited from globalization and freer trade at America’s expense. Beijing only joined the IMF’s elite club of reserve currency-issuers less than a decade ago, and has an opportunity to further build its soft power and influence.

“China is now positioning itself as the leader of the rules-based global trade system, and painting the U.S. as a dangerous rogue nation determined to blow up orderly trade relations,” says Stephen Olson, a former U.S. trade negotiator now with the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

Trump aides say they want other countries to join its China trade crackdown. But as tariff threats ramped up, advanced economies that have been close U.S. allies since WW II – and were largely on board with the Biden administration’s pressure on Beijing – have made overtures to China.

The European Union, which is sending top officials to Beijing in the coming months, has a two-pronged approach to the trade war: respond jointly and decisively, while keeping the door open for deals. The U.K. has sought to position itself as a potential broker between the U.S. and the EU – and perhaps even China, where three ministers have visited this year.

Meanwhile, China’s leader Xi Jinping has sought to firm up relations in Southeast Asia, where many countries rely on exports to the U.S. but are facing some of Trump’s steepest tariffs.

Major economies like the U.K., Germany and Japan have already held discussions with Trump’s team since the trade war escalated. British officials, for instance, are headed to Washington seeking lower duties on cars and an exemption from higher anticipated levies on pharmaceuticals, which together make up one-quarter of exports to the U.S., in return for cutting tariffs on American food and taxes on tech giants.

For smaller countries, the opportunities afforded by the IMF-World Bank meetings are arguably even more valuable – because they likely don’t have other channels.

“There’s going to be a lot of door-knocking” during the Washington meetings, says Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong. Small countries, he says, often “don’t know exactly how to go about negotiating. What does the U.S. want? Establishing that contact will be very important.”

Trump’s pivot toward unilateral action and bilateral deals will further undermine the utility of the Group of 20, whose finance ministers and central bank bosses will also gather this week, and raises questions about Washington’s commitment to global post-financial crisis banking reforms, which it’s yet to implement.


“We’re no longer in a world where we can sync policy responses,” says Clemence Landers, vice president and senior policy fellow at Center for Global Development.

Already hobbled by divisions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. has further distanced itself from the G-20, which represents about 85% of the global economy. “The cost of not having the G-20 is that you won’t have a level of economic policy coordination, and that should be terrifying people,” she says.
Bretton Woods

As for the IMF and World Bank themselves, they’re in the crosshairs – and they know it. Trump has ordered a review of U.S. membership in multilateral bodies by August.

The two lenders have been highlighting ways they can be useful to America. The biggest recipient of IMF funds is Argentina, currently governed by close Trump ally Javier Milei. It was already by far the fund’s top debtor, and has a long history of failed loans — but just got greenlighted for another US$20 billion anyway.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose office ultimately manages Washington’s relationship with the IMF, traveled to Buenos Aires last week after the latest IMF loan was announced, signaling at least part of the administration supports the fund’s work.

IMF and World Bank leaders have also pointed out to the administration that America — as their biggest shareholder – already has the power to shape policies or block decisions it opposes.

The risk of outright U.S. withdrawal from the IMF is ultimately low, according to Jimena Zuniga of Bloomberg Economics. Still, she concludes in a recent analysis that the lender likely faces a loss of status – driven by geopolitical fractures, an inward turn by the U.S., and declining resources relative to other parts of the global financial safety net.

A weaker IMF and World Bank — known as the Bretton Woods institutions — would be an acute risk for emerging market economies struggling with high debt levels, dwindling reserves or other fiscal challenges which rely on the fund, such as Kenya, Egypt and even Ukraine.

“The fund is precisely the type of organization that allows Trump to pursue foreign policy objectives aligned with national or personal interest,” Zuniga wrote, “while getting others to help foot the bill.”

Meanwhile, there might be benefits to keeping a low profile.

One European central banker, who asked not to be identified giving candid comments about fears of the U.S., said the IMF has been noticeably holding back since Trump moved into the White House. For good reasons: “When the lawnmower is on the way, you better not stick your head out.”

With assistance from Philip Aldrick, Kamil Kowalcze, Jorgelina do Rosario, Zijia Song, Jorge Valero, Erica Yokoyama and Laura Noonan.

Katia Dmitrieva, Enda Curran and Jana Randow, Bloomberg News

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Wall Street and the dollar tumble as investors retreat further from the United States

By The Associated Press
 April 21, 2025 

Traders at the New York Stock Exchange. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)

NEW YORK — Wall Street weakened Monday as investors worldwide get more skeptical about U.S. investments because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and his criticism of the Federal Reserve, which are shaking the traditional order.

The S&P 500 sank 2.4% in another wipeout. That yanked the index that’s at the center of many 401(k) accounts 16% below its record set two months ago.Trade War coverage on BNNBloomberg.ca

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 971 points, or 2.5%, while losses for Tesla and Nvidia helped drag the Nasdaq composite down 2.6%.

Perhaps more worryingly, U.S. government bonds and the value of the U.S. dollar also sank as prices retreated across U.S. markets. It’s an unusual move because Treasurys and the dollar have historically strengthened during episodes of nervousness. This time around, though, it’s policies directly from Washington that are causing the fear and potentially weakening their reputations as some of the world’s safest investments.

Trump continued his tough talk on global trade as economists and investors continue to say his stiff proposed tariffs could cause a recession if they’re not rolled back. U.S. talks last week with Japan failed to reach a quick deal that could lower tariffs and protect the economy, and they’re seen as a “test case,” according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie.

“The golden rule of negotiating and success: He who has the gold makes the rules,” Trump said in all capitalized letters on his Truth Social Network. He also said that “the businessmen who criticize tariffs are bad at business, but really bad at politics,” likewise in all caps.

Trump has recently focused more on China, the world’s second-largest economy, which has also been keeping up its rhetoric. China on Monday warned other countries against making trade deals with the United States “at the expense of China’s interest” as Japan, South Korea and others try to negotiate agreements.

“If this happens, China will never accept it and will resolutely take countermeasures in a reciprocal manner,” China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

Also hanging over the market are worries about Trump’s anger at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump last week criticized Powell again for not cutting interest rates sooner to give the economy more juice.

The Fed has been resistant to lowering rates too quickly because it does not want to allow inflation to reaccelerate after slowing nearly all the way down to its 2% goal from more than 9% three years ago.

Trump talked Monday about a slowdown for the U.S. economy that could be coming unless “Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW.”

A move by Trump to fire Powell would likely send a bolt of fear through financial markets. While Wall Street loves lower rates, largely because they boost stock prices, the bigger worry would be that a less independent Fed would be less effective at keeping inflation under control. Such a move could further weaken, if not kill, the United States’ reputation as the world’s safest place to keep cash.

All the uncertainty striking pillars at the center of financial markets means some investors say they’re having to rethink the fundamentals of how to invest.

“We can no longer extrapolate from past trends or rely on long-term assumptions to anchor portfolios,” strategists at BlackRock Investment Institute said in a report. “The distinction between tactical and strategic asset allocation is blurred. Instead, we need to constantly reassess the long-term trajectory and be dynamic with asset allocation as we learn more about the future state of the global system.”

That in turn could push investors outside the United States to keep more of their money in their home markets, according to the strategists led by Jean Boivin.


On Wall Street, Big Tech stocks helped lead indexes lower ahead of their latest earnings reports due later this week.

Tesla sank 5.7%. The electric vehicle maker’s stock has more than halved from its record set in December on criticism that the stock price had gone too high and that CEO Elon Musk’s role in leading the U.S. government’s efforts to cut spending is damaging the brand.

Nvidia fell 4.5% for a third straight drop after disclosing that U.S. export limits on chips to China could hurt its first-quarter results by $5.5 billion.

They led another wipeout on Wall Street, and 92% of the stocks within the S&P 500 fell.

Among the few gainers were Discover Financial Services and Capital One Financial, which climbed after the U.S. government approved their proposed merger. Discover rose 3.6%, while Capital One added 1.5%.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 124.50 points to 5,158.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 971.82 to 38,170.41, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 415.55 to 15,870.90.

Gold also climbed to burnish its reputation as a safe-haven investment, unlike some others.

In the bond market, shorter-term Treasury yields fell as investors expect the Fed to cut its main overnight interest rate later this year to support the economy.

But longer-term yields rose with doubts about the United States’ standing in the global economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.40%, up from 4.34% at the end of last week and from just about 4% earlier this month. That’s a substantial move for the bond market.

The U.S. dollar’s value, meanwhile, fell against the euro, Japanese yen, the Swiss franc and other currencies.

___

AP Business writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Stan Choe, The Associated Press

Trump’s tariffs will likely hurt U.S. economy. Immigration crackdown makes it worse

By Bloomberg News

April 21, 2025 

U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to curb immigration are coming at a precarious time for the U.S. labour market, threatening to choke off a key growth engine just as tariffs are poised to drag down economic activity.

Crossings of undocumented migrants essentially came to a halt last month after surging to unprecedented levels in the aftermath of the pandemic. The crackdown is expected to intensify as the Trump administration ramps up raids, encourages undocumented immigrants to “self-deport” and takes measures to restrain legal immigration as well.

Economists say these actions will reduce job creation and stoke inflation, exacerbating anticipated consequences of the administration’s trade policies that are fuelling recession fears. The 5.5 million immigrants — undocumented and legal — who joined the workforce since 2020 helped the U.S. labour market bounce back and fuel economic growth in recent years. The current restrictions, and threats of mass deportations, risk derailing that trend.

“Population growth helped economic growth, that’s pretty clear — so you’re taking that away from the picture now,” said Olu Sonola, head of U.S. economic research at Fitch Ratings. “The combination of a slowdown in the labour force and the drag on economic growth from much higher tariffs paints a much weaker growth picture and a much higher inflation picture in 2025.”

The retreat in immigration will slow the pace of monthly job creation to 80,000 by the end of 2025, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., from an average pace of 168,000 last year. Economists at Morgan Stanley and the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas say the slowdown will also crimp economic growth and put upward pressure on wages, and eventually prices.

Migrants are more likely to take jobs in industries facing chronic labor shortages, including construction, food processing and child care — part of why business leaders have generally called for more legal immigration. Fed officials have credited immigration with helping take some pressure off the labor market following the pandemic, with Chair Jerome Powell saying last week that the high inflows in recent years helped propel economic growth.

But that influx left federal and local governments overwhelmed, leading then-U.S. President Joe Biden to sign an executive order last year that limited asylum options. Trump — who capitalized on anti-immigrant sentiment to help him reclaim the White House — has gone further by requiring millions of immigrants to register with the federal government and seeking to revoke temporary legal status for foreign workers. However, many of those moves are now facing legal challenges.

Eduardo Escobar, 25, didn’t want to take his chances. He left the U.S. in recent days after the Trump administration chose to end a special designation that had allowed him and hundreds of thousands of other Venezuelans to work legally in the U.S. Since 2023, he was employed at a Minnesota firm that helps small businesses and content creators facing copyright and patent issues.

“I will lose my job, my income and the professional momentum I built here,” Escobar said in an interview before leaving the U.S. “I will have to start from zero in a place with a low ceiling that won’t let me grow.”

The White House said its initiatives to curb immigration will benefit the country. “Mass deporting violent terrorists and criminal illegal aliens is unquestionably a net positive for our economy and society,” spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.

Immigration has not only been credited with fueling job gains, but also as a way to ease wage pressures across the economy by filling open roles — especially for lower-paying jobs.

As tariffs threaten a resurgence in price pressures, fewer available workers could make it harder for Fed officials to accomplish their long sought-after goal of lowering inflation back to 2%.

“Immigration was an important driver of the labor market rebalancing, helping to ease excessive wage growth and inflation,” said Lydia Boussour, a senior economist at EY. “Reduced immigration could therefore fuel renewed inflationary pressures.”

To be sure, most economists and Fed officials say the labor market is in pretty good shape. And while the slowdown in immigration might on its own present a threat, it’s been accompanied by a drop in demand for workers, which Powell said last week is helping to keep a lid on unemployment.

Longer term, the balance between those supply and demand factors means that immigration will have a limited impact on inflation, he said.

In New York City, Michael Robinov is carefully considering how a broad-based immigration crackdown might trickle down to his business, Farm To People, which delivers locally-sourced groceries and goods to customers across the five boroughs.


He’s particularly worried about farmers having access to labour. Trump tried to address that recently by looking to allow undocumented workers in that industry to leave the U.S. for a short period of time and reenter the country legally.

Robinov said the lesson learned from the post-pandemic period is that labor shortages at farms can put upward pressures on prices for food. “If our prices are going up, we’re not in a vacuum. That will be affecting grocery stores all across the country.”

(US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

There’s also the long-term implication of curbing immigration as the workforce ages. The nonpartisan research group Congressional Budget Office estimates that, without immigration, the U.S. population would begin shrinking as soon as the next decade.

“There will come a time — and we’re seeing it already — where the competition for the workforce is going to become greater and greater,” said Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration and a former Biden adviser on immigration.

Economies that fail to acknowledge that “are going to be at a significant disadvantage.”

With assistance from Alex Tanzi, María Paula Mijares Torres and Jonnelle Marte.

Augusta Saraiva, Amara Omeokwe and Enda Curran, Bloomberg News

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

DAVOS BOSS

World Economic Forum’s Schwab steps down after over 50 years

By Bloomberg News
 April 21, 2025 

The founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab has stepped down from the organization’s board of directors after more than 50 years at the helm.

He will be succeeded on an interim basis by the WEF’s vice chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Nestle SA, according to a statement by the forum.

“I have decided to step down from the position of Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees, with immediate effect,” Schwab, 87, said in the statement. The forum has begun a search process for a future chair.

The WEF, hosted once a year in the Swiss ski-town of Davos, is one of the world’s most-exclusive gatherings of head of states, top politicians, executives and business leaders. Schwab started what became the WEF in 1971 as a management symposium.

He had announced last year he was stepping away from an active leadership role at the organization.

Today, the board of trustees is comprised of more than two dozen world leaders and includes Salesforce Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff, Blackrock Inc. CEO Larry Fink, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and her successor at the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva.

While Schwab has consistently stressed the need for better global cooperation, his organization has frequently faced charges of elitism.

Schwab, born in Germany to parents of Swiss origin, chose the Alpine town of Davos in a bid to make guests feel relaxed and speak freely, according to the Geneva-based nonprofit’s website. With a slogan of “committed to improving the state of the world,” the forum attracts global attention and criticism, as well as a helping of conspiracy theories.

Jan-Henrik Förster, Bloomberg News

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Google faces off with U.S. government in attempt to break up company in search monopoly case

By The Associated Press
April 21, 2025 

A man walks past Google's offices in London's Kings Cross area

 (AP Photo/Brian Melley, File)

WASHINGTON — Google is confronting an existential threat as the U.S. government tries to break up the company as punishment for turning its revolutionary search engine into an illegal monopoly.

The drama began to unfold Monday in a Washington courtroom as three weeks of hearings kicked off to determine how the company should be penalized for operating a monopoly in search. In its opening arguments, federal antitrust enforcers also urged the court to impose forward-looking remedies to prevent Google from using artificial intelligence to further its dominance.

“This is a moment in time, we’re at an inflection point, will we abandon the search market and surrender them to control of the monopolists or will we let competition prevail and give choice to future generations,” said Justice Department attorney David Dahlquist.

The proceedings, known in legal parlance as a “remedy hearing,” are set to feature a parade of witnesses that includes Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal judge to order a radical shake-up that would ban Google from striking the multibillion dollar deals with Apple and other tech companies that shield its search engine from competition, share its repository of valuable user data with rivals and force a sale of its popular Chrome browser.


Google’s attorney, John Schmidtlein, said in his opening statement that the court should take a much lighter touch. He said the government’s heavy-handed proposed remedies wouldn’t boost competition but instead unfairly reward lesser rivals with inferior technology.

“Google won its place in the market fair and square,” Schmidtlein said.

The moment of reckoning comes four-and-a-half-years after the Justice Department filed a landmark lawsuit alleging Google’s search engine had been abusing its power as the internet’s main gateway to stifle competition and innovation for more than a decade.

After the case finally went to trial in 2023, a federal judge last year ruled Google had been making anti-competitive deals to lock in its search engine as the go-to place for digital information on the iPhone, personal computers and other widely used devices, including those running on its own Android software.

That landmark ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sets up a high-stakes drama that will determine the penalties for Google’s misconduct in a search market that it has defined since Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the company in a Silicon Valley garage in 1998.

Since that austere start, Google has expanded far beyond search to become a powerhouse in email, digital mapping, online video, web browsing, smartphone software and data centers.

Seizing upon its victory in the search case, the Justice Department is now setting out to prove that radical steps must be taken to rein in Google and its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc.

“Google’s illegal conduct has created an economic goliath, one that wreaks havoc over the marketplace to ensure that -- no matter what occurs -- Google always wins,” the Justice Department argued in documents outlining its proposed penalties. “The American people thus are forced to accept the unbridled demands and shifting, ideological preferences of an economic leviathan in return for a search engine the public may enjoy.”

Although the proposed penalties were originally made under President Joe Biden’s term, they are still being embraced by the Justice Department under President Donald Trump, whose first administration filed the case against Google. Since the change in administrations, the Justice Department has also attempted to cast Google’s immense power as a threat to freedom, too.

In his opening statement, Dahlquist noted that top officials from the Justice Department were in the room to watch proceedings. He said their presence indicated that the case had the full support of federal antitrust regulators, both past and present.

“The fact that this case was filed in 2020, tried in 2023, under two different administrations, and joined by 49 states demonstrates the non-partisan nature of this case and our proposed remedies,” Dahlquist said.


Dahlquist also said that Mehta would be hearing a lot about AI -- “perhaps more than you want, your honor,” -- and said top executives from AI companies, like ChatGPT, would be called to testify. He said the court’s remedies should include provisions to make sure that Google’s AI product, Gemini, isn’t used to strengthen its existing search monopoly.

“We believe that Google can and will attempt to circumvent the court’s remedies if it is not included,” Dahlquist said. “Gen AI is Google’s next evolution to keep their vicious cycle spinning.”

Schmidtlein, Google’s attorney, said rival AI companies had seen enormous growth in recent years and were doing “just fine.”

Google is also sounding alarms about the proposed requirements to share online search data with rivals and the proposed sale of Chrome posing privacy and security risks. “The breadth and depth of the proposed remedies risks doing significant damage to a complex ecosystem. Some of the proposed remedies would imperil browser developers and jeopardize the digital security of millions of consumers,” Google lawyers said in a filing leading up to hearings.

The showdown over Google’s fate marks the climax of the biggest antitrust case in the U.S. since the Justice Department sued Microsoft in the late 1990s for leveraging its Windows software for personal computers to crush potential rivals.

The Microsoft battle culminated in a federal judge declaring the company an illegal monopoly and ordering a partial breakup -- a remedy that was eventually overturned by an appeals court.

Google intends to file an appeal of Mehta’s ruling from last year that branded its search engine as an illegal monopoly but can’t do so until the remedy hearings are completed. After closing arguments are presented in late May, Mehta intends to make his decision on the remedies before Labor Day.

The search case marked the first in a succession of antitrust cases that have been brought against a litany of tech giants that include Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, which is currently fighting allegations of running an illegal monopoly in social media in another Washington D.C. trial. Other antitrust cases have been brought against both Apple and Amazon, too.

The Justice Department also targeted Google’s digital advertising network in a separate antitrust case that resulted last week in another federal judge’s decision that found the company was abusing its power in that market, too. That ruling means Google will be heading into another remedy hearing that could once again raise the specter of a breakup later this year or early next year.

------

By Michael Liedtke And Alan Suderman

Liedtke reported from San Francisco.

 

China Unveils World’s 1st ‘Meltdown Proof’ Thorium Reactor

By Alex Kimani - Apr 21, 2025

• Chinese scientists achieved a breakthrough in clean energy technology by adding fresh fuel to an operational thorium reactor.
• 
  
• The 2-megawatt experimental reactor is located in the Gobi Desert.
• 
  
• The experimental reactor uses molten salt as the coolant and fuel carrier, with thorium as the fuel source.

Chinese scientists have achieved a significant milestone in clean energy tech after successfully adding fresh fuel to an operational thorium molten salt reactor, Chinese state media has reported. According to Guangming Daily, the 2-megawatt experimental reactor is located in the Gobi Desert, and the latest milestone puts China at the forefront in the race to build a practical thorium reactor–long considered a more abundant and safer alternative to uranium.  More significantly, China has relied heavily on long-abandoned American research in the field. In the 1960s, American scientists built and tested molten salt reactors, but Washington eventually shelved the program in favor of uranium-based technology. “The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor. We were that successor,” project chief scientist Xu Hongjie said. “Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That’s when the tortoise seizes its chance,” he added. 

The experimental reactor uses molten salt as the coolant and fuel carrier, with thorium as the fuel source. For decades, thorium has been billed as the 'great green hope' of clean energy production, thanks to qualities such as producing less waste and more energy than uranium, is meltdown-proof, has no weapons-grade by-products and can even consume legacy plutonium stockpiles.

According to Xu, his team chose the harder--but more meaningful--path by building a real-world solution rather than chasing only academic results. “We chose the hardest path, but the right one,” he said. Xu and his team recreated old experiments by studying declassified American documents, and then developed the technology further. “We mastered every technique in the literature – then pushed further,” he said.

China is already building a much larger 10-megawatt thorium reactor,  scheduled to reach criticality by 2030. Nuclear energy has been enjoying a renaissance of thanks to the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

A thorium breakthrough

The milestone by Beijing will no doubt shake up Washington, which has for years been experimenting with thorium. The United States Department of Energy (DOE), Nuclear Engineering & Science Center at Texas A&M and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have partnered with Chicago-based Clean Core Thorium Energy (CCTE) to develop a new thorium-based nuclear fuel they have dubbed ANEEL. ANEEL, which is short for “Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life” is a proprietary combination of thorium and “High Assay Low Enriched Uranium” (HALEU) that hopes to solve some of nuclear’s knottiest problems including high costs and toxic wastes

ANEEL can be used in traditional boiling water and pressurized water reactors, but performs best when used in heavy water reactors. More importantly, ANEEL reactors can be deployed much faster than uranium reactors.

A key benefit of ANEEL over uranium is that it can achieve a much higher fuel burn-up rate of in the order of 55,000 MWd/T (megawatt-day per ton of fuel) compared to 7,000 MWd/T for natural uranium fuel used in pressurized water reactors. This allows the fuel to remain in the reactors for much longer meaning much longer intervals between shut downs for refueling. For instance, India’s Kaiga Unit-1 and Canada’s Darlington PHWR Unit hold the world records for uninterrupted operations at 962 days and 963 days, respectively.

The thorium-based fuel also comes with other key benefits. One of the biggest is that a  much higher fuel burn-up reduces plutonium waste by more than 80%. Plutonium has a shorter half-life of about 24,000 years compared to Uranium-235’s half-life of just over 700 million years. Plutonium is highly toxic even in small doses, leading to radiation illness, cancer and often to death. Further, thorium has a lower operating temperature and a higher melting point than natural uranium, making it inherently safer and more resistant to core meltdowns. 

Thorium’s renewable energy properties are also quite impressive.

There is more than twice thorium in the Earth’s crust as uranium; In India, thorium is 4x more abundant than uranium. It can also be extracted from seawater just like uranium, making it almost inexhaustible.

ANEEL could soon become the fuel of choice for countries that operate CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) and PHWR (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor) reactors such as China, India, Argentina, Pakistan, South Korea, and Romania. These reactors are cooled and moderated using pressurized heavy water.

Another 50 countries (mostly developing countries) have either started nuclear programs or have expressed an interest in launching the same in the near future. Overall, only about 50 of the world’s existing 440 nuclear reactors can be powered using this novel fuel.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com