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Saturday, August 02, 2025

Stocks were under pressure on Friday to kick off August trading as investors weighed stark signs of a weakening economy and President Donald Trump's modified tariff rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 717 points, or 1.2%. The S&P 500 shed 1.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 2.3%. read more


Nonfarm payroll growth was slower than expected in July and the unemployment rate ticked higher, raising potential trouble signs for the U.S. labor market. read more


Friday, August 01, 2025

The education agency that investigates discrimination claims faces a 'sinister' overhaul, current and former staff tell The Times read more


President Donald Trump on Friday fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, hours after the agency reported that job growth in the U.S. had slowed to a near-halt. read more


Jeffrey Epstein's long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell has reportedly been moved from her prison in Florida to another institution in Texas, read more


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More: President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva of Brazil is outraged.

President Trump is trying to push around his nation of 200 million, dangling 50 percent tariffs as a threat, Mr. Lula said in an interview. And yet, he added, the U.S. president is ignoring his government's offers to talk.

"Be sure that we are treating this with the utmost seriousness. But seriousness does not require subservience," the Brazilian president said. "I treat everyone with great respect. But I want to be treated with respect."

Mr. Lula granted his first interview to The New York Times in 13 years on Tuesday, in part because he wanted to speak to the American people about his frustration with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump has said that, starting on Friday, he plans to impose 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian goods, in large part because Brazilian authorities have charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with trying to hold on to power after losing the 2022 election.

Mr. Trump has called the case a "witch hunt" and wants it dropped. Mr. Lula said that was not up for negotiation. "Maybe he doesn't know that here in Brazil, the judiciary is independent," he said.

In the interview, Mr. Lula said that the American president is infringing on Brazil's sovereignty.

"At no point will Brazil negotiate as if it were a small country up against a big country," he said. "We know the economic power of the United States, we recognize the military power of the United States, we recognize the technological size of the United States."

"But that doesn't make us afraid," he added. "It makes us concerned."

There is perhaps no world leader defying President Trump as strongly as Mr. Lula.

More: The officers' testimony was cited in at least five cases filed by the US Department of Justice amid the unrest. The justice department has charged at least 26 people with "assaulting" and "impeding" federal officers and other crimes during the protests over immigration raids. Prosecutors, however, have since been forced to dismiss at least eight of those felonies, many of them which relied on officers' inaccurate reports, court records show.

The justice department has also dismissed at least three felony assault cases it brought against Angelenos accused of interfering with arrests during recent immigration raids, the documents show.

The rapid felony dismissals are a major embarrassment for the Trump-appointed US attorney for southern California, Bill Essayli, and appeared to be the result of an unusual series of missteps by the justice department, former federal prosecutors said.

The Guardian's review of records found:

Out of nine "assault" and "impeding" felony cases the justice department filed immediately after the start of the protests and promoted by the attorney general, Pam Bondi, prosecutors dismissed seven of them soon after filing the charges.

In reports that led to the detention and prosecution of at least five demonstrators, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents made false statements about the sequence of events and misrepresented incidents captured on video.

One DHS agent accused a protester of shoving an officer, when footage appeared to show the opposite: the officer forcefully pushed the protester.

One indictment named the wrong defendant, a stunning error that has jeopardized one of the government's most high-profile cases.

"When I see felonies dismissed, that tells me either the federal officers have filed affidavits that are not truthful and that has been uncovered, or US attorneys reviewing the cases realize the evidence does not support the charges," said Cristine Soto DeBerry, a former California state prosecutor who is now director of Prosecutors Alliance Action, a criminal justice reform group.

She said officers often call for charges that prosecutors don't end up filing, but it was uncommon for the justice department to file, then dismiss cases, especially numerous felonies in rapid succession.

"It seems this is a way to detain people, hold them in custody, instill fear and discourage people from exercising their first amendment rights," DeBerry said.

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