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A US appeals court on Friday ruled that many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have upended global trade, were illegal — but allowed them to remain in place for now, giving him time to take the fight to the Supreme Court.The 7-4 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court’s finding that Trump had exceeded his authority in tapping emergency economic powers to impose wide-ranging duties.But the judges allowed the tariffs to stay in place through mid-October — and Trump swiftly made clear he would put the time to use.The appeals court “incorrectly said that our Tariffs should be removed, but they know the United States of America will win in the end,” he said in a statement on his Truth Social platform lashing out at the ruling.He added that he would fight back “with the help of the United States Supreme Court.”The decision marks a blow to the president, who has wielded duties as a wide-ranging economic policy tool.It could also cast doubt over deals Trump has struck with major trading partners such as the European Union, and raised the question of what would happen to the billions of dollars collected by the United States since the tariffs were put in place if the conservative-majority Supreme Court does not back him.Friday’s case, however, does not deal with sector-specific tariffs that the Trump administration has also imposed on steel, aluminum, autos and other imports.- ‘Diplomatic embarrassment’- Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on almost all US trading partners, with a 10-percent baseline level and higher rates for dozens of economies.He has invoked similar authorities to slap separate tariffs hitting Mexico, Canada and China over the flow of deadly drugs into the United States.The Court of International Trade had ruled in May that Trump overstepped his authority with across-the-board global levies, blocking most of the duties from taking effect, but the appeals court later put the ruling on hold to consider the case.Friday’s ruling noted that “the statute bestows significant authority on the President to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax.”It added that it was not addressing if Trump’s actions should have been taken as a matter of policy or deciding whether IEEPA authorizes any tariffs at all.Instead, it sought to resolve the question of whether Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs and those imposed over trafficking were authorized, with the document noting: “We conclude they are not.”In a supplementary filing just hours before the appeals court released its decision, Trump cabinet officials argued that ruling the global tariffs illegal and blocking them would hurt US foreign policy and national security.”Such a ruling would threaten broader US strategic interests at home and abroad, likely lead to retaliation and the unwinding of agreed-upon deals by foreign-trading partners,” wrote Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.Lutnick added that they could also “derail critical ongoing negotiations” with partners.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, warned that suspending the effectiveness of tariffs “would lead to dangerous diplomatic embarrassment.”Several legal challenges have been filed against the tariffs Trump invoked citing emergencies.If these tariffs are ultimately ruled illegal, companies could possibly seek reimbursements.

Budget US carrier Spirit Airlines said Friday that it will file for bankruptcy for the second time in a year, but will continue to fly, sell tickets and operate.Spirit first filed for bankruptcy in November and announced in March that it had completed a restructuring deal with creditors to trim its debt by nearly $800 million.With the new filing, the Florida-based company said it “expects to double down on its efforts to” redesign its network, “rightsize its fleet,” and pursue further cost efficiencies.”The Chapter 11 process will provide Spirit the tools, time and flexibility to continue ongoing discussions with all of its lessors, financial creditors and other parties to implement a financial and operational transformation of the Company,” Spirit said in a statement.In April, former CEO Ted Christie was replaced by Dave Davis, who joined Spirit from Sun Country Airlines. “As we move forward, guests can continue to rely on Spirit to provide high-value travel options and connect them with the people and places that matter most,” said Dave Davis, Spirit’s president and CEO.Discount airline Spirit boosted its capacity and market share in the post-Covid aviation market, but has faced increased competition from other carriers.In 2022, competitor Frontier Airlines attempted a $2.9 billion merger with Spirit. Another rival, JetBlue, then made a potentially more lucrative offer, but the deal fell through after authorities cited antitrust concerns.

US President Donald Trump has moved to cut nearly $5 billion of congressionally-approved foreign aid, the White House said Friday — raising the likelihood of a federal shutdown as Democrats oppose the policy.The $4.9 billion in cuts target programs of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Trump wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives.The president “will always put AMERICA FIRST,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said on social media, releasing a copy of the letter.Democrats have warned that any attempt to reverse funding already approved by Congress would doom negotiations to avoid budgetary paralysis, the so-called shutdown, later this year.Chuck Schumer, who leads the Democratic minority in the US Senate, described Trump’s little-known legislative tactic, technically known as a pocket rescission, as illegal.”It’s clear neither Trump nor Congressional Republicans have any plan to avoid a painful and entirely unnecessary shutdown,” he said.Some moderate Republican also expressed opposition to Trump’s effort to stop spending already approved by lawmakers.A White House official told reporters the administration has a “solid legal basis” for Trump’s maneuver — and that any challenge in court would fail.- USAID dismantled -Trump has effectively dismantled USAID, the world’s largest humanitarian aid agency, since taking office.Founded in 1961 as John F. Kennedy sought to leverage aid to win over the developing world in the Cold War, USAID has been incorporated into the State Department after Secretary of State Marco Rubio slashed 85 percent of its programming.Rubio welcomed Trump’s latest move as part of “rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse from the US government, saving American workers billions of dollars.”The vast majority of the new cuts — $3.2 billion — would be to USAID funding, according to court documents seen by AFP, confirming an earlier report in the New York Post.Research published in The Lancet journal in June estimated that the previous round of USAID cuts could result in the preventable deaths of more than 14 million vulnerable people worldwide — a third of them small children.Also targeted by the new cuts was $838 million for peacekeeping missions.”This is going to make our budget situation or liquidity situation that much more challenging,” United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a press conference.Trump, after taking office for the second time in January, launched a sweeping campaign to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.Republicans control both chambers of Congress, but need Democrat support in the Senate to pass new spending laws.Trump, who is pushing to extend presidential powers, aims to claw back the $4.9 billion late in the fiscal year so that Congress may not have time to vote before the funding expires next month.The United States last averted shutdown, with hours to spare, in March.Shutdowns are rare but disruptive and costly, as everyday functions like food inspections halt, and parks, monuments and federal buildings shut up shop.Up to 900,000 federal employees can be furloughed, while another million deemed essential — from air traffic controllers to police — work but forego pay until normal service resumes.

A California bookmaker who took at least 19,000 bets from the former interpreter of Japanese baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on Friday.Mathew Bowyer, who pleaded guilty last August to operating an unlawful gambling business, money laundering and subscribing to a false tax return, was also ordered to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution.The case against the 50-year-old was part of a federal probe into illegal sports gambling that led to the arrest of Ippei Mizuhara — the former interpreter for Ohtani who admitted stealing almost $17 million from the Dodgers star to pay off illegal gambling debts.Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay $18.1 million in restitution at his sentencing in February on charges of bank fraud and filing a false tax return.Mizuhara’s involvement saw Ohtani — whose pitching and hitting skills have drawn comparisons to Babe Ruth — engulfed in scandal not long after he signed the richest contract in North American sports history, when he joined the Dodgers in 2023 on a deal worth $700 million.But prosecutors stressed throughout the case that Ohtani was an innocent victim of Mizuhara’s deception, and there was no evidence to suggest he was aware of or involved in illegal gambling.According to court documents, Bowyer operated an unlicensed and illegal bookmaking business that focused on sports betting and violated California law.His gambling business remained in operation for at least five years until October 2023, and at times had more than 700 bettors.Mizuhara began placing bets with Bowyer after they met at a poker game in San Diego in 2021.Mizuhara went on to make at least 19,000 wagers between December 2021 and January 2024, and lost nearly $41 million.”(Bowyer’s) crimes were not a single indiscretion, but instead a multi-year operation that raked in millions of dollars for (Bowyer) and his associates to gamble and live an extravagant lifestyle, often through the exploitation of people (Bowyer) recognized were addicted and extending themselves beyond their means,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.Bowyer, who told US District Judge John W. Holcomb in court Friday that he was “remorseful,” could have faced a longer sentence, but prosecutors said his assistance helped authorities obtain convictions against Mizuhara and another California bookmaker.

The United States said Friday it will deny visas to members of the Palestinian Authority to attend next month’s UN General Assembly, where France is leading a push to recognize a Palestinian state.The extraordinary step further aligns President Donald Trump’s administration with Israel’s government, which is fighting a war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.Israel adamantly rejects a Palestinian state and has sought to lump together the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority with rival Hamas.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly,” the State Department said in a statement.”The Trump administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” it said.Using a term favored by Trump to deride his legal troubles while out of office, the State Department accused the Palestinians of “lawfare” by turning to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to take up grievances with Israel.It called on the Palestinian Authority to drop “efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.”Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, writing on X, thanked the Trump administration “for this bold step and for standing by Israel once again.”The Palestinian Authority called for the United States to reverse its decision, which it said “stands in clear contradiction to international law and the UN Headquarters Agreement.”- Abbas hopes to attend -Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, a veteran 89-year-old leader who once had cordial relations with Washington, had planned to attend the UN meeting, according to the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour.UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it was “important” for all states and observers, which includes the Palestinians, to be represented at a summit scheduled for the day before the General Assembly begins.”We obviously hope that this will be resolved,” Dujarric said.The United States and Israel have accused France and other powers of rewarding Hamas, which launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, through their recognition of a Palestinian state.French President Emmanuel Macron, exasperated by the relentless nearly two-year Israeli offensive on Gaza in response to the attack, has argued that there can be no further delay in pushing forward a peace process.Since his announcement, Canada and Australia also said they would recognize a Palestinian state and Britain said it would do so unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.- Shattering norms -Under an agreement as host of the United Nations in New York, the United States is not supposed to refuse visas for officials heading to the world body.The State Department insisted it was complying with the agreement by allowing the Palestinian mission.Activists each year press the United States to deny visas to leaders of countries that they oppose, often over grave human rights violations, but their appeals are almost always rejected.In a historic step in 1988, the General Assembly convened in Geneva rather than New York to hear PLO leader Yasser Arafat after the United States refused to allow him in New York.In 2013, the United States refused a visa to Sudan’s then president Omar al-Bashir, who faces an ICC arrest warrant over allegations of genocide in Darfur.Trump plans to attend the General Assembly, where he will deliver one of the first speeches in a marathon session of leaders, but his administration has sharply curtailed relations with the United Nations and other international institutions.Trump has moved to pull out of the World Health Organization and UN climate pact. He has also moved to slap sanctions on ICC judges over an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Julia Roberts said she hoped to “stir it all up” for viewers of her new film about a university professor grappling with fraught US campus politics, as the Hollywood star made her debut at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.The star walked the red carpet at the city’s festival for the first time in her career at the premiere of “After the Hunt”, a cancel-culture and MeToo-themed psychological drama from Italian director Luca Guadagnino. Early reviews could make difficult reading for the “Pretty Woman” actress, however. The Hollywood Reporter wondering how Guadagnino “could deliver something so dour and airless”.While Variety praised Roberts’s performance, it nevertheless described the film as “muddled”.Roberts, speaking at a news conference Friday ahead of the premiere, said the film did not aim to answer questions, but provoke them.She plays a Yale University professor haunted by a secret from her past after a student accuses one of her colleagues of sexual assault.Questions over truth and fiction, and whether characters are reliable narrators, course through the film.Touching on Gen Z culture and the generational divide between students and professors, the Amazon-produced film has overtones of Todd Field’s 2022 drama “Tar”, which earned Cate Blanchett a best actress award at Venice. “Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable,” Roberts’s character in the film tells the student who claims she was assaulted.- A challenge to conversation -Roberts said the film did not advocate any one point of view. “We are challenging people to have conversations and to be excited by that or to be infuriated by that, it’s up to you,” she said.”We are kind of losing the art of conversation in humanity right now and if making this movie does anything, getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing I feel we could accomplish.”  Guadagnino is a Venice regular.His 2017 “Call Me By Your Name” helped launch Timothee Chalamet to stardom.And he was back in Venice’s main competition last year with “Queer”, an adaptation of the William Burroughs novel, starring Daniel Craig.- Offing the competition -Friday, the festival’s third day, also saw the return to Venice after 20 years for Park Chan-wook, South Korea’s master of black comedy, with his new feature, “No Other Choice”.It is one of 21 films in the main competition for Venice’s top award, the Golden Lion. Howls of laughter filled the theatre at an early press screening for the thriller-comedy.It tells the story of a loyal paper company employee with a devoted family.”I’ve got it all,” says protagonist Man-su (played by Lee Byung-hun) at the movie’s start — before everything goes terribly wrong.After he gets laid off, he decides to kill off any potential rivals for a new job. It was a critique of modern capitalism that underscores the comedy is universal, Park told journalists. “Anyone who is out there trying to make a living in the current modern capitalist society, we all harbour that deep fear of employment insecurity,” he said.The acclaimed director was last in Venice in 2005 with “Lady Vengeance”, part of a trilogy exploring the dark recesses of the human experience. – Early contenders -The two strongest early contenders for the Golden Lion include opening night feature “La Grazia” by Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino about an Italian president grappling with indecision about euthanasia.Thursday brought the return of Oscar-winner Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthimos’s darkly satirical “Bugonia”, about two conspiracy-obsessed misfits who kidnap a pharmaceutical company CEO.Stone and Greek director Lanthimos, collaborating on a fifth production, are hoping to repeat their successful formula from 2023 when “Poor Things” won Venice’s top Golden Lion prize.Variety called Bugonia “riveting”, saying Lanthimos was “at the top of his visionary nihilistic game”. Time magazine said Stone could “do no wrong”.George Clooney’s turn as an ageing Hollywood star struggling with his career choices in Netflix-produced “Jay Kelly” by Noah Baumbach drew less favourable reviews.The Guardian called it “a dire, sentimental and self-indulgent film”.  Another keenly awaited film, to be shown Sunday, is Olivier Assayas’s “The Wizard of the Kremlin”, in which British star Jude Law portrays Russian President Vladimir Putin during his ascent to power.A film about the war in Gaza, “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, has attracted heavyweight Hollywood attention and will premiere next week.The festival, which has become a crucial launching pad for major international productions that have gone on to Oscar success, runs until September 6.

US banana giant Chiquita Brands will resume operations in Panama and rehire thousands of workers fired after a crippling strike, the government of the Central American country said Friday.Chiquita closed its Changuinola plant in the Caribbean province of Bocas del Toro at the end of May and laid off 6,000 workers after a strike over pension reforms that crippled production for weeks.The strike, declared illegal by a labor court, caused more than $75 million in losses as well as road closures and product shortages in the province.The Panamanian government has been negotiating with the company for its return to Bocas del Toro, which relies heavily on tourism and banana production.On Friday, President Jose Raul Mulino announced “a positive agreement for Bocas del Toro and the thousands of workers who were left unemployed” by the closure.”We are going to resume operations in the country under a new operational model that is more sustainable, modern, and efficient, creating decent jobs and contributing to the economic and social development of the country and the province of Bocas del Toro,” Chiquita President Carlos Lopez added in a statement. According to the agreement, Chiquita will hire about 3,000 workers in a first phase and another 2,000 later.”The goal is to be operational no later than February 2026,” said the government, adding Chiquita will invest some $30 million to resume production on 5,000 hectares of banana-growing land.Bananas accounted for more than 17 percent of Panamanian exports in the first quarter of 2025, according to official data.

US President Donald Trump has canceled former vice president Kamala Harris’s Secret Service protection, officials said Friday, in the Republican’s most high-profile move of its kind against his political rivals.The Secret Service customarily protects ex-VPs for six months after they leave office, a period that ended on July 21 for Harris, the defeated Democratic presidential candidate last year.But then-president Joe Biden approved a year-long extension for Harris in a previously undisclosed order that Trump has now terminated, a senior White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity.Harris’s office also confirmed the move.”The Vice President is grateful to the United States Secret Service for their professionalism, dedication, and unwavering commitment to safety,” Kirsten Harris, a senior advisor to Harris, told AFP.While Harris has kept a low profile since losing the election, the 60-year-old is scheduled to go on tour this fall to promote a book she has written on her failed presidential bid. The travel will force her to appear often in public. Harris’s inside look at her short presidential run against Trump is titled “107 Days.” The memoir, published by Simon & Schuster, will be released on September 23 in the United States.The first woman to serve as vice president of the United States, Harris became the Democratic nominee after Biden, now 82, withdrew from the race amid concerns about his cognitive health.Harris said she wrote the book with “candor and reflection” and promised a “behind-the-scenes account” of the campaign.The move to withdraw her protection comes even though the Trump administration has repeatedly spoken of the need for security for current officials following the assassination attempt that the Republican survived in July 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.- Political opponents -Trump sent a signed memo ordering Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorized by Executive Memorandum, beyond those required by law” for Harris from September 1, said CNN, which first reported the move.The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Since taking office in January, Trump, 79, has taken similar measures against a long list of his perceived enemies and political opponents.He has stripped other officials and former officials of their security clearances to receive sensitive information — including Joe Biden himself — targeted law firms involved in past cases against him and pulled federal funding from universities.Biden and his wife Jill get protection for life under federal law as a former president and his spouse, but Trump in March withdrew government bodyguards from Biden’s son Hunter and daughter Ashley.Trump at the time said it was “ridiculous” that Hunter Biden had a security detail of up to 18 people.Trump has also withdrawn protection for former national security advisor John Bolton, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Anthony Fauci, who led the country’s fight against Covid-19.Last week, FBI agents raided the home and office of Bolton, one of Trump’s fiercest critics, in an investigation officials said was linked to classified documents.The White House has justified its decisions on removing security protection and clearances by saying that people are not entitled to them for life and that many are “quite wealthy” and can afford their own bodyguards.After his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, billionaire Trump issued an order giving a six-month extension of Secret Service protection to all four of his adult children and three senior administration officials.

The United States on Friday ended tariff exemptions on small packages entering the country from abroad, in a move that has sparked concern among small businesses and warnings of consumer price hikes.President Donald Trump’s administration cited the use of low-value shipments to evade tariffs and smuggle drugs in ending duty-free treatment for parcels valued at or under $800.Instead, packages will either be subject to the tariff level applicable to their country of origin, or face a specific duty ranging from $80 to $200 per item. But exclusions for some personal items and gifts remain.Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters that closing this “loophole” helps restrict the flow of “narcotics and other dangerous and prohibited items” while bringing fresh tariff revenues.But the monthlong lead time Trump’s order provided has sparked a frenzy.Postal services, including in France, Germany, Italy, India, Australia and Japan, earlier said most US-bound packages would no longer be accepted.The UK’s Royal Mail, which took a similar step, announced new services Thursday for customers to continue sending goods to the United States.On Tuesday, the United Nations’ Universal Postal Union said 25 member countries’ postal operators had suspended outbound postal services to the country.”Foreign post offices need to get their act together when it comes to monitoring and policing the use of international mail for smuggling and tariff evasion purposes,” Navarro added Thursday.US officials maintain that just five percent of duty-free small package shipments arrived via the postal network, while most went through express couriers.Yet, the impending change has brought confusion and concern to small businesses.- Delays, cost hikes -UK retailer Liz Nieburg told AFP she had stopped shipping products to US customers while the Royal Mail worked out a system to honor the changes.US buyers form about 20 percent of sales at her online business SocksFox, which sells socks, undergarments and sleepwear.She sees little choice but to hike prices if new duties are here to stay: “Our margins are too tight to be able to absorb that.”The Trump administration has imposed tariffs in rapid succession this year.Cornell University professor Li Chen warned that it takes time for postal services to establish systems for duty collection: “It’s not like there’s a switch you can turn on and turn off.””On the consumer side, there will be potential delays, because now all the parcels have to clear customs,” Chen added. Prices may also rise if businesses pass on the tariffs.He expects the impact on small businesses to be “much greater,” as larger firms can absorb shocks.These include businesses like Chinese-founded consumer platforms Shein and Temu, which were hit when Washington ended the exemption for China-origin products this year. They might have to raise costs, Chen said, but they are not fully dependent on US consumers.Ken Huening, whose California-based business CoverSeal manufactures outdoor protective covers in China and Mexico, has had to eliminate free shipping for customers.While he had benefited from the duty-free exemption, the hit to China and now Mexico is posing challenges.”Textile and manufacturing is not available in the US currently,” Huening said. “It might be in the future, but by that time, we’re all out of business.”- Confusion -“It’s a super confusing time for our customers,” said Haley Massicotte, who runs Canada-based cleaning products company Oak & Willow.She said US consumers do not always understand how tariffs work, and how they might have to bear added costs.”We are going to do everything in our power to not raise prices,” she stressed.Similarly, ceramics retailer Sarah Louise Jour in Bangkok is trying to keep shipping costs down after facing issues with Thailand’s postal service.This forced her to tap more expensive services for shipments to US buyers, constituting some 90 percent of her business.”I don’t have time to worry, because I have to think about my team,” she said. “I have rent I need to pay for the office.”While she expects sales to hold up over the holidays, the outlook is murkier afterwards.Massicotte said: “This tariff war is just going to hurt the American and the Canadian consumer, especially small business owners.”

There are few symbols of the American West more iconic than the bison — shaggy giants that once roamed in the tens of millions before being nearly annihilated by European settlers.A new study published Thursday in Science finds that bringing North America’s largest land mammals back to their ancient stomping grounds is breathing new life into grassland ecosystems, with benefits cascading across the food web.Scientists have long known bison act as “keystone species,” shaping prairie landscapes through grazing, wallowing and seed dispersal. Previous research has even suggested their vast herds help lock carbon in the soil.But the latest findings, from Yellowstone National Park, reveal just how dramatic their influence can be for ecosystem health when they are allowed to roam freely through the wilderness.By munching through grasses, bison speed up the nitrogen cycle, supercharging plants with nutrients.The result: forage that is more than 150 percent richer in protein — a gift to every creature that feeds on the prairie, from elk and deer to pronghorn and bighorn sheep.”It truly is a reawakening of what had been there in the past,” said Bill Hamilton, a co-lead author of the paper and professor at Washington and Lee University.- Natural laboratory -Bison herds were once so vast in the western United States that their hoofbeats rumbled like distant thunder. Early 19th-century estimates put their numbers between 30 and 60 million.Then came the railroads. The building of the first Transcontinental line was accompanied by a ruthless extermination campaign — hunters shooting from trains, carcasses left to rot — aimed not only at supplying hides but at starving Native Americans, for whom bison were a cultural and economic lifeline.By the early 20th century, the species was teetering on the brink. Revival efforts eventually pushed their numbers back to roughly 400,000, but nearly all survive in small, tightly managed herds on private ranches or reserves.Only in Yellowstone National Park, home to about 5,000 animals, do bison still roam with something like their old freedom, covering nearly 1,000 miles a year on a 50-mile back-and-forth migration. For scientists, that makes the park a rare, living laboratory.Between 2015 and 2021, a study led by National Park Service biologist Chris Geremia tracked the animals’ movements and grazing patterns across their main habitats, measuring plant growth, nutrient cycling, soil chemistry and more.- Balance restored -They compared grazed and ungrazed patches, pairing field experiments with satellite imagery and GPS collar data to capture bison impacts across their migratory range.Results show roaming bison keep grasses and wildflowers short, dense and protein-rich — and plant communities surprisingly diverse.”Grasses exude carbon into the soil after being grazed, and that actually stimulates microbial populations for up to 48 hours,” explained Hamilton.That microbial burst translated to more ammonium and nitrates for new growth — a feedback loop that boosted both plants and animals. Bison dung and urine added another jolt of nitrogen, compounding the fertilization effect.”We took that 150 percent increase and we calculated it across the whole migration (area), and it provides over three million kilograms more crude protein if you have bison,” said co-author Jerod Merkle of the University of Wyoming.Even areas that looked “mowed flat” by bison remained ecologically vibrant, with productivity and diversity intact.The findings come at a fraught time for conservation, as President Donald Trump’s administration tilts heavily toward agricultural interests over wildlife.Ranchers argue that bison allowed to roam would smash fences, mix with cattle and spread disease.Merkle said there are social and political constraints, but the ecological payoff was undeniable.”My vision when I see the data from our paper is, let’s just pull out of the classic livestock thinking with bison, and think about them as a species that creates heterogeneity, that needs big space to move around — and it’s okay to have big groups of them sometimes,” he said.