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The US economy unexpectedly contracted in the first three months of the year, according to fresh data published Wednesday, due largely to a surge in imports as businesses and consumers stockpiled ahead of the introduction of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.The gross domestic product of the world’s largest economy decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter, after growing 2.4 percent in the final months of 2024, according to an estimate from the US Commerce Department.Wednesday’s data was sharply below the market consensus estimate of 0.4 percent growth, according to Briefing.com.”The downturn in real GDP in the first quarter reflected an upturn in imports, a deceleration in consumer spending, and a downturn in government spending,” the Commerce Department said in a statement. US financial markets reacted negatively to the news, with all three major indices opening sharply lower on Wall Street.- Trump denies tariff link -In a social media post, Trump blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for the bad economic news. “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” the US president wrote in a post to his Truth Social account. “Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.'””This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS,” he said. “When the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!” he added. The figures were published on the 101st day since Trump’s return to office on January 20. In that time, he has announced several rounds of tariffs, laying out plans in March to impose sweeping levies on top trading partners from early April in a bid to reset US trade relations. The introduction of tariffs sparked a selloff in financial markets, sending volatility surging to levels not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic and spooking investors.”Usually, government policy doesn’t change that much, particularly not in the first 100 days of a presidency,” George Washington University economics professor Tara Sinclair told AFP before the data was published. “But this one’s different.””I think it’s pretty clear that there were dramatic policy changes that are directly weakening the economy,” she said. “100 days into his presidency, Donald Trump’s red-light, green-light tariffs are shrinking our economy, with businesses stockpiling imports in anticipation of tariff doomsday,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a statement after the GDP data was published. Following April’s dramatic market movement, the Trump administration announced a 90-day pause to the higher tariffs for dozens of countries to allow for trade talks, while maintaining a baseline 10 percent rate for most countries.It also announced sector-specific measures on steel, aluminum and automobiles and parts not made in the United States, and new sweeping tariffs totalling 145 percent on China.Beijing responded with its own steep, targeted duties against US goods. – ‘Direct response’ to Trump -The US economy grew 2.8 percent last year, according to the Commerce Department, and most analysts had expected growth to cool slightly this year. But since Trump’s return to office, and the introduction of new tariffs, many analysts have sharply cut their growth outlook.  Imports have a negative effect on growth, and counteract the positive effects of exports in the GDP calculations. “This spike in imports, that’s coming directly from people trying to get ahead of tariffs,” said Sinclair from George Washington University. “And that is in direct response to the policies of this president.”The drop in imports was “partly offset by increases in investment, consumer spending, and exports,” the Commerce Department said.The effects of tariffs on growth and inflation are a “quandary” for the Federal Reserve as it attempts to maintain stable prices and maximum sustainable employment, MBA chief economist Mike Fratantoni wrote in a note to clients shared with AFP. “We expect that the Fed will hold rates steady at its meeting next week and will indicate that it will continue to hold at this level until it becomes clear whether a recession or inflation is the bigger risk,” he said.

Germany’s Mercedes-Benz and US-European group Stellantis, whose brands include Jeep, Peugeot and Fiat, joined other automakers Wednesday in suspending their annual financial guidance because of uncertainty over US tariffs.The announcements came even as US President Donald Trump moved Tuesday to soften the blow from the 25-percent tariffs that he imposed on car imports earlier this month.”Stellantis appreciates the tariff relief measures decided by President Trump,” its board chairman John Elkann said in a statement.”While we further assess the impact of the tariff policies on our North American operations, we look forward to our continued collaboration with the US administration to strengthen a competitive American auto industry and stimulate exports,” he added.Stellantis, a 14-brand behemoth that includes Ram trucks, Dodge, Maserati and Opel, reported a 14-percent drop in its first-quarter sales to 35.8 billion euros ($40.7 billion).Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest automakers, reported big drops in their net profits over the same January-March period — before the US tariffs kicked in.While Volkswagen maintained its financial outlook, Mercedes and Stellantis suspended theirs, a day after similar moves by US auto giant General Motors and Sweden’s Volvo Cars.Stellantis said it was “suspending its 2025 financial guidance… due to evolving tariff policies, as well as the difficulty predicting possible impacts on market volumes and the competitive landscape”.Mercedes cited “volatility with regard to tariff policies” that meant business development could not be reliably forecast.Mercedes’s net profit plunged almost 43 percent in the first three months of the year to 1.73 billion euros.Finance chief Harald Wilhelm said Mercedes was nevertheless in a strong position thanks to what he said was a strong position in profitable, top-end vehicles.”This, combined with a healthy balance sheet provides a solid foundation to navigate our company through a period of geopolitical uncertainties,” he said.- Aston Martin limits US exports -Before the tariffs, European automakers were already facing slowing sales of electric cars and stiff competition from local rivals in the key Chinese market.Volkswagen, a 10-brand group that includes Audi, Skoda and Porsche, said its net profit fell 40.6 percent to 2.19 billion euros.For the rest of the year, the carmaker said that it expected business “towards the lower end” of its guidance, citing challenges including increased competition, more stringent emissions regulations and trade tensions.Speaking on a call for analysts and investors, Volkswagen’s finance chief Arno Antlitz said it was “too early to say” if Volkswagen would step up manufacturing in the United States to circumvent any tariffs.Volkswagen expects a profit margin of 5.5 to 6.5 percent for the coming year, but its guidance does not take into account changeable American tariffs.”It’s highly difficult to give a projection for the full year,” Antlitz said.In Britain, luxury carmaker Aston Martin Lagonda announced that it was limiting shipments to the United States, but it maintained its annual guidance as it reported a 13-percent drop in first-quarter revenue.Besides a 25-percent tariff on finished imported cars, the industry has also been affected by Trump’s 25-percent tariff on steel and aluminium.Automakers are also set to face new tariffs on foreign auto parts expected to take effect on May 3.Trump’s new policy means that a company would not face both a 25-percent levy for an imported vehicle and 25-percent on steel or aluminium; the importer would pay the higher of the two levies, but not both, a US Commerce Department official said.The other change is that companies that import parts for vehicles assembled in the United States would be able to offset 3.75 percent of a vehicle’s list price in the first year and 2.5 percent in the second year.burs-lth/js

The conservative US Supreme Court will weigh a case on Wednesday challenging the ban on using public money to fund religious charter schools.Nearly all 50 states already allow charter schools, which are privately managed but publicly funded.But the Catholic Church in Oklahoma is vying to open the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school, Saint Isidore of Seville.Named in homage to the patron saint of the internet, a 7th century Spanish bishop, plaintiffs say the school would promote “parental choice, individual liberty, educational diversity, and student achievement.””Excluding religious groups from Oklahoma’s charter school program denies these opportunities and causes real harm,” plaintiffs add.If the Supreme Court sides with the Catholic Church, taxpayer funding for religious education could see a huge uptick.The separation between church and state is a bedrock principle of the US government, rooted in the First Amendment of the Constitution. The separation has been upheld in many Supreme Court decisions.In the case before the court, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the creation of the school violates both US and state constitutions. “A ruling for petitioners would eliminate the buffer this Court has long enforced between religious instruction and public schools, including in areas where charter schools are the only or default public school option,” the Oklahoma Attorney General has argued.Six of nine judges on the conservative-majority Supreme Court have demonstrated support for extending religion into public spaces, particularly schools.However, Justice Amy Coney Barrett has recused herself from this case, possibly because of connections to jurists advocating for the creation of contracted religious schools.In 2022, the Supreme Court compelled the northeastern state of Maine to include religious schools in a system of public subsidies, saying their exclusion amounted to discrimination against religion.The conservative majority also, in the same year, invalidated the dismissal of an American football coach in the Seattle area who prayed on the field.The plaintiffs are represented by religious legal advocates Alliance Defending Freedom, who are expected to argue that the prohibition on funding schools will inhibit the First Amendment right to free worship.Nationally, there were more than 3.7 million students enrolled in 8,150 charter schools during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has ushered in sweeping changes to international geopolitics and US government administration with little regard for norms that have constrained predecessors.But there has been one source of restraint on a president determined to push the limits of US governance: financial markets.The stock market’s response to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement was “probably the most influential force to date” in tempering Trump’s policies, said Terrence Guay, professor of international business at Pennsylvania State University.In just two days, Wall Street equities shredded some $6 trillion in value as the S&P 500 suffered its worst session since the darkest days of Covid-19 in 2020.”The market does tend to be … kind of like a seismograph. It reacts to the slightest little tremor,” said Steven Kyle, professor of applied economics at Cornell University.A week after Trump’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs threw markets into turmoil, the Republican suddenly scaled back his plan’s most draconian elements for every country except China. The pivot sent stocks skyrocketing.Last week, market watchers perceived another significant Trump retreat after another round of scary market action. The gyrations came after the president combined an ever-worsening tit-for-tat trade war with China with threats to oust Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.The White House quickly shifted its tone on China and Trump reassured the public that he won’t fire Powell.”Markets ‘punished’ his policies and he must have realized,” along with his advisors, “that trade wars are not that easy to win,” said Petros Mavroidis, a professor at Columbia Law School and a former member of the World Trade Organization.”I am sure he doesn’t want to be known as the president who led to a stock market crash,” Guay added.- Bond market angst -But if “Wall Street sent the loudest signal, it wasn’t the only signal,” said University of Richmond finance professor Art Durnev.Even more than the stock market, “the bond market is a stronger force and this is the primary driver” of Trump’s shift, Durnev said.Like gold or the Swiss franc, US Treasury bonds have traditionally been seen as a refuge for investors during times of duress in financial markets, or in the real economy.But demand for US Treasury bonds — a bedrock during the 2008 financial crisis and other perilous moments — has been shaken in recent weeks as Trump’s aggressive policies have pushed yields higher in a sign of flagging demand for American issues.Trump himself acknowledged the import of the bond market gyrations, saying investors were getting “a little bit yippy.” That word means nervous.The bond market “also had a big impact,” Guay said. “Many investors have pulled their money out of the US.”Besides Trump’s ambitious attempts to overhaul international trade, analysts have tied bond market volatility to worries that planned tax cuts could worsen the US deficit.Then there is Powell, whom Trump also criticized in his first presidential term.  The most recent round of Treasury market panic followed Trump’s social media post on April 21 branding Powell a “major loser” for not cutting interest rates.But by the following day, Trump had pulled back, saying he had “no intention of firing” Powell.The combination of these factors means investors are beginning to realize that “the US may not be, under this administration, the stable environment we’ve seen for decades,” Guay said.

Donald Trump promised Tuesday that he is just getting started as he marked the radical and vengeful beginning of a presidency that has shaken the world and destabilized the United States.Basking in the adulation of cheering supporters in Michigan, the 78-year-old touted the “most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country,” even as polls show Americans becoming disenchanted with the economic and political tumult.Trump said he missed the campaign trail, and launched with visible relish into a speech that often sounded more like that of a candidate than a head of state.Joe Biden is “sleepy,” the media is “fake,” judges who oppose him are “communist,” Democratic opponents are “radical left,” and friendly countries have “abused us more so than foe on trade,” Trump said, listing targets of his ire.The president promised to conclude deals on trade, but provided little in the way of details.And — to chants of “USA! USA!” — he showed a video of migrants in handcuffs and shackles being taken from a plane, transported by bus and filmed on their knees as their heads were shaved, illustrating his controversial deportation policy.- ‘We’ve done everything’ -Trump has shaken up the United States like few presidents before him. His billionaire backer Elon Musk has led dramatic cutbacks of the federal workforce, and the president himself has reshaped relations with the world by unveiling sweeping tariffs, berating allies and eliminating much foreign aid.Polls show that the honeymoon period that Americans historically accord presidents at the start of their terms has evaporated for Trump, who has angrily dismissed the results, but has tacitly acknowledged that he must moderate some policies as stock market turmoil takes a toll.He also recently backtracked on threats to fire Jerome Powell — who has warned that Trump’s tariffs would likely reignite inflation — but still criticized the Federal Reserve chairman Tuesday as “not really doing a good job.”After a 2017-2021 term in which some aides sought to rein him in, Trump has surrounded himself this time with unabashed loyalists — and told reporters he was on track to accomplish all of his second-term goals.”I think either we’ve done everything, or it’s in the process of being done,” Trump said before heading to his rally.In the grand entrance hallway of the White House, Trump has removed a portrait of Barack Obama, the United States’ first Black president, to make way for a painting of himself surviving an assassination attempt.He has used threats of cutting off government access and contracts to pressure law firms whose partners once were involved in cases against him, and he has frozen billions of dollars in funding for universities — hotbeds of criticism against the administration.- Stretching limits -Unlike most presidents, Trump has focused more on energizing his base than broadening his appeal — and many supporters are still with him.”He’s amazing. Everybody’s worried about tariffs. We don’t care — look at everything else that’s coming together too,” said Donna Fitzsimons, a 65-year-old merchandise seller at the Michigan rally venue ahead of Trump’s appearance.”People don’t realize it takes time to get where you need to go.”The rival Democratic Party has seized on economic anxieties although it has also struggled in polling.”Trump is to blame for the fact that life is more expensive, it’s harder to retire, and a ‘Trump recession’ is at our doorstep,” the Democratic National Committee said, calling the 100 days a “colossal failure.”Even with Congress narrowly in Republican hands, Trump has tested the limits of presidential power by signing more than 140 executive orders, many of which have faced court scrutiny.He has sought to end birthright citizenship — which is guaranteed by the US Constitution — and Musk has summarily axed billions of dollars appropriated by Congress.Asked in an ABC interview broadcast Tuesday about Americans who are concerned he is seizing too much power, Trump said: “I would hate them to think that. I’m doing one thing: I’m making America great again.”Trump has shown signs of impatience. He promised on the campaign trail to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours, but Russia has rebuffed a broad ceasefire offer.The US president nonetheless indicated to ABC that he is holding out hope, saying “I think he does” when asked if his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wants peace.

US GDP figures for the first quarter are expected to show a sharp drop-off in growth — and possibly even a recession — reflecting a surge in imports before President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs came into effect.”It’s going to be a pretty dramatic slowdown from the fourth quarter,” Moody’s Analytics economist Matt Colyar told AFP. The gross domestic product data for the quarter will be published on Wednesday, the 101st day since Trump’s return to office on January 20. In that time, he has announced several rounds of tariffs, laying out plans in March to impose sweeping levies on top trading partners from early April in a bid to reset US trade relations. The introduction of those tariffs sparked a selloff in financial markets, sending volatility surging to levels not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic and spooking investors.”Usually, government policy doesn’t change that much, particularly not in the first 100 days of a presidency,” George Washington University economics professor Tara Sinclair told AFP. “But this one’s different.””I think it’s pretty clear that there were dramatic policy changes that are directly weakening the economy,” she said. Following April’s dramatic market movement, the Trump administration announced a 90-day pause to the higher tariffs for dozens of countries to allow for trade talks, while maintaining a baseline 10 percent rate for most countries, sector-specific measures, and new sweeping tariffs totalling 145 percent on China. – Rising recession risk -The US economy grew 2.8 percent last year, according to the Commerce Department. Heading into the new year, analysts had widely expected growth to cool, but to remain at around two percent in 2025. Since Trump’s return to office, and the introduction of new tariffs, many analysts have sharply cut their growth outlook. Some economists — including those at Wall Street titans Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley — now predict an economic contraction in the first quarter. But even if the economy does not contract for the first quarter — which ended before Trump’s sweeping tariffs came into effect — the scale of the slowdown analysts expect would nevertheless be significant.”Our expectation is kind of shockingly on the higher side, and we’re at 0.5 percent,” said Colyar from Moody’s Analytics.The market consensus estimate is for annualized GDP growth of 0.4 percent for the first quarter, according to Briefing.com — a marked change from the 2.4 percent annualized rate seen in the final quarter of 2024. If the economy cools as expected, it will be largely down to a surge in imports, as consumers and businesses scrambled to buy what they needed before the tariffs kicked in, analysts told AFP.”This spike in imports, that’s coming directly from people trying to get ahead of tariffs,” said Sinclair from George Washington University. “And that is in direct response to the policies of this president.”Beyond the effects of tariffs, the GDP data is likely to paint a “very complicated story,” Belinda Roman, associate professor of economics at St Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, said in an interview. Roman pointed to better-than-expected employment figures, which suggest that “clearly there’s something else changing that we’re not seeing just yet” in the data. “I think there might be a small contraction,” she said. “That may be offset by the fact that we’ve seen what I think is a very interesting increase in employment,” she said. “I think we’ll start to see in second quarter and third quarter more negative impacts, because it’s it takes it a while,” she said. “It doesn’t happen immediately.”

Rosalba Hernandez used to keep her children’s birth certificates close at hand in case an earthquake struck her part of California. But since Donald Trump returned to the White House, it’s more because she’s worried about immigration raids.News about high-profile arrests and deportations have characterised Trump’s first 100 days back in office, with his administration saying he is making good on campaign promises to clamp down on illegal immigration.That has left undocumented people like Hernandez on edge.”You don’t live your normal life anymore,” Hernandez, 46, told AFP in southern California, which she has called home for half her life.Hernandez, now a mother of five, left Mexico with her eldest daughter in her arms more than two decades ago and arrived in the United States.She was briefly detained under the first Trump administration in 2019, when immigration agents raided the supermarket where she worked.The experience frightened her, but Hernandez, who now works in a restaurant, says she’s never been as terrified as she has been in the past three months. “You go to work but you don’t know what’s going to happen… you don’t know if you’re going to be able to go home or not,” she said.”With all the focus on deporting people, they don’t care. Even if you don’t have a criminal record, you have the bad luck of passing by when they’re making an arrest or waiting for someone,” she added. To reduce the risk of encountering agents, Hernandez now limits her outings only to what is strictly necessary — and even then she is extra cautious.When she goes to work or takes her children to school — four of them are US citizens by birth — she first checks for suspicious cars outside, or consults text chains involving friends, neighbors and non-governmental organizations. “When we see something irregular, we start notifying these organizations, and everything gets put on Facebook, in messages, on Instagram,” she said.- Citizen Patrol -One of these sources of information is Union del Barrio, a group that patrols the streets of San Diego and Los Angeles before dawn to be on the lookout for potential raids.”The goal is to see nothing, but if we see something, we inform the community,” said Ron Gochez, a member of the organization.”We do this every single day in some different area of Los Angeles. And we’re on call 24 hours a day,” he told AFP during a tour of south-central Los Angeles, a working-class area with a strong immigrant presence. Activists gather at 5:30am to co-ordinate their patrol, looking for the kind of vehicle they believe Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents use.”We’re looking for primarily American SUVs, Ford, Chevy, etc. Sometimes they also use pickup trucks or Dodge Challengers. “We’re looking for cars with tinted windows…. that could be sometimes double parked.”These patrols began more than two decades ago in San Diego, but increased in frequency this year with the return of Trump. “The community is very scared,” said Gochez, whose day job is teaching history in a public school.”About 10 percent of my students have disappeared. They just don’t go to school anymore.”Gochez, 43, said he knew of at least one student whose family fled to El Salvador for fear of being caught up in raids.Community life has also diminished, he says, with church attendance down, and quinceaneras — coming-of-age parties for girls turning 15 — becoming rarer.At the end of each patrol, Union del Barrio posts images on social media so neighbors know if their area is free of raids. This information is vital for people like Hernandez, who says she fears daily being separated from her children. “If I have the opportunity to stay here, it’s to help them get ahead and have a better future,” she said.”I don’t want them to have to work sometimes up to 16 hours a day.” Despite the risk, Hernandez said she wasn’t afraid of giving an interview and was not ashamed.”I’m not saying anything that isn’t true,” she said.”Like many people, I am working. We’re not doing anything bad for this country.”We all come to work, and our work contributes to the economy of this country.” 

President Donald Trump has boosted the US military presence along the border with Mexico and left open the possibility of drone strikes against drug trafficking groups that he designated terrorist organizations.In March, he vowed in Congress to “wage war” on Mexican drug cartels that he said posed a grave threat to national security.How far is Trump willing to go to curb drug flows from a country he says is run by the cartels?- What steps is Trump taking? – After returning to office in January, Trump declared an emergency along the 3,100-kilometer (1,900-mile) border and ordered the deployment of thousands of troops to beef up security.In March, he ordered the deployment of two warships to support the border mission.Trump also announced the creation of a “national defense area” stretching more than 170 miles (270 kilometers) along the frontier to enable the army to support border patrols.”I think they need help,” Trump said last week in an interview with The Blaze, a conservative media outlet, referring to Mexico.Asked whether he would take military action even if Mexico did not want it, Trump said: “You could say at some point, maybe something’s going to have to happen.”Vanda Felbab-Brown, a security expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institute, thinks that “the threat of air strikes or drone strikes is very realistic. It was very popular among Republican politicians,” she said.”That said, it also serves as a coercive technique” to encourage Mexican action against drug trafficking, she told AFP.Raul Benitez, an expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, sees Trump’s warnings as a “show of force.””They are not immediate or direct threats” against Mexico, he said.- How is Mexico responding? –  Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said she would oppose US military attacks on cartels, while ordering thousands more troops to the border to fight drug trafficking.She also confirmed that the United States had been operating drones spying on Mexican cartels as part of a collaboration that has existed for years.The flights were “gathering a large amount of information that will help develop a target inventory,” said Inigo Guevara, an expert at defense intelligence company Janes. In February, Mexico extradited some of its most notorious imprisoned drug lords to the United States in a bid to avert Trump’s tariffs.Eager to highlight its efforts to reduce trafficking, Sheinbaum’s government has announced the seizure of 144 tons of drugs, including two million fentanyl pills, since October. It has also underscored a sharp fall in migrant arrivals at its northern border.At the same time, Sheinbaum pushed a reform through Congress that means foreign agents engaging in covert actions in Mexico are at risk of imprisonment.-  Would US strikes work? -US drone strikes are unlikely to be very effective and would be politically explosive because they would undermine cooperation between Mexico and the United States, Felbab-Brown warned.”They can destroy labs, but they are very easy to resurrect. They could take out high value targets, but that’s no different than Mexican forces taking them down,” she said.Guevara said US strikes “would be a leap back of more than a hundred years,” referring to a 1916 invasion by US troops to capture revolutionary Pancho Villa after he carried out a cross-border raid.Despite the resentment generated by Trump’s remarks in Mexico, experts point to the close ties between the two countries’ militaries, including the training of Mexican officers in the United States.”Trump’s rhetoric usually begins exaggeratedly high to create alarm and force his counterpart into swift action,” Guevara said.But at the operational level, cooperation with the United States was expected to give Mexico an “unparalleled capability” to fight organized crime, he added.

US President Donald Trump has removed Doug Emhoff, husband of his former rival Kamala Harris, from the Holocaust Memorial Council board, drawing an angry reaction.Emhoff, who is married to the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee and former vice president, campaigned against anti-Semitism as part of the administration of Joe Biden, who appointed him to the board.”Let me be clear: Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized,” Emhoff, who is Jewish, posted on Tuesday, confirming his dismissal.”To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”Since taking office, Trump has looked beyond politics to impose his brand of right-wing populism on cultural and educational institutions such as Washington’s prestigious Kennedy Center and Harvard University.He has also sought to settle scores with perceived adversaries — targeting law firms associated with his political foes, such as Emhoff’s employer, Willkie Farr & Gallagher.Several other former officials removed from the Holocaust board include Biden’s White House chief of staff Ron Klain, domestic policy advisor Susan Rice and an aide to former first lady Jill Biden, The New York Times reported.The White House Presidential Personnel Office sent an email to council members early Tuesday, according to the Times, which read: “(On) behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council is terminated, effective immediately.”The council was established by Congress in 1980 to lead the country in commemorating the Holocaust, launching the Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993.Emhoff said his commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education, as well as to combating hate and anti-Semitism, remained undiminished. “I will continue to speak out, to educate, and to fight hate in all its forms because silence is never an option,” he said.

Miriam Haleyi told jurors at Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault and rape retrial Tuesday that the mogul “humiliated” her and reduced her to tears, recounting to the court her ordeal, the disclosure of which fired the “MeToo” movement.Haleyi previously worked for Weinstein and her testimony was key to his conviction in 2020, subsequently overturned by an appeals court triggering the retrial at which she began to testify Tuesday. She will take the stand again Wednesday.The former Miramax studio boss is charged with the 2006 sexual assault of former production assistant Haleyi and the 2013 rape of aspiring actress Jessica Mann. He also faces a new count for an alleged sexual assault of a 19-year-old in 2006.Ahead of 48-year-old Haleyi’s evidence, her lawyer Gloria Allred told journalists: “It is a big sacrifice for her to return to New York in terms of time, emotionally, to have to relive again what she alleged happened to her many years ago in 2006.””But she’s willing to do it. I’m very proud of her. She’s doing it for only one reason — because it’s for the cause of justice,” Allred said.Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey recounted Weinstein’s alleged attacks in graphic detail during opening statements, saying all three women had begged him to stop, but that he had “all the power… He made all these women feel small.”Prosecutors have described how Weinstein pestered Haleyi with multiple requests for massages and sexual favors before she found herself alone with him in an apartment one day in 2006.They detailed how Weinstein then forced himself on Haleyi, performing oral sex on her despite her pleas for him to stop.The award-winning movie producer, who was brought into the Manhattan criminal court in a wheelchair and wore a dark business suit, looked somber at times during the proceedings.Accusers describe the impresario as a predator who used his perch atop the cinema industry to pressure actresses and assistants for sexual favors, often in hotel rooms.But Arthur Aidala, Weinstein’s defense attorney, has argued that the jury would hear no evidence of the use of force or a lack of consent.Presentation of the evidence in the retrial is expected to last five to six weeks.Weinstein’s 2020 convictions over Haleyi and Mann were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original New York trial was unlawful.The 73-year-old has said he hopes his case will be judged with “fresh eyes.”Weinstein is already serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.The producer of a string of box office hits such as “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” Weinstein has battled health issues.He has never acknowledged any wrongdoing and has always maintained that the encounters were consensual.