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Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
Rupee ends week little changed, looming tariff deadline in focus
MUMBAI, July 04 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee witnessed muted price action on Friday to end the week little changed as traders awaited developments in U.S.-India trade talks, with a positive outcome potentially helping the local currency break past a sticky resistance level. The rupee closed at 85.3925, down about 0.1% each on the week and day. The currency had risen to a one-month peak of 85.25 in the previous session but pared gains on Friday after traders scaled back wagers on rate cuts by the Federal Reserve following a stronger-than-expected U.S. labour market report. On the day, routine dollar demand from importers weighed on the rupee with market participants also avoiding aggressive bullish wagers on the local currency to limit carrying risk over the weekend, a trader at a foreign bank said. While the rupee has persistently failed to rise and hold above a technical resistance level around 85.35-85.40 over recent sessions, a favourable trade deal with the U.S. may help the currency clear the hurdle, the trader added. U.S. President Donald Trump has said that Washington will start sending letters to countries on Friday specifying what tariff rates they will face on imports to the United States. "If Trump's comments prove accurate, then investors will again begin to downgrade growth expectations and upgrade inflation expectations, which will only encourage further dollar selling," MUFG said in a note, referring to the letters. Earlier in the week, Trump announced a deal with Vietnam, and the White House teased a forthcoming agreement with India. Meanwhile, talks with Japan - the U.S.' closest ally in Asia - have appeared to hit road blocks. Amid the ongoing uncertainty, analysts have pointed out that India's climbing foreign exchange reserves and the central bank's shrinking forward book are cementing the rupee's defences.
NBC News
30 minutes ago
- NBC News
Trump to sign 'big beautiful bill' and #MeToo setback in Sean Combs' trial: Morning Rundown
Donald Trump's influence over Congress is proven with the passage of his megabill. A military analysis contradicts Pete Hegseth's stated reason for halting a weapons shipment to Ukraine. And why some feel like the verdict in Sean Combs' trial is a setback for the #MeToo movement. Here's what to know today. Trump takes victory lap after Congress advances his agenda President Donald Trump is expected today to sign the megabill containing many of his agenda priorities after the Republican-led House passed the legislation in a 218-214 vote, capping a tense 24 hours of negotiations and arm-twisting. The Fourth of July signing ceremony at the White House will include fireworks, sources said, and the possibility of a military plane flyover. Trump applauded Republicans after the bill passed, writing on social media that the effort signaled a unified Republican Party. He continued celebrating yesterday evening at a rally in Iowa organized to mark Independence Day, telling his audience there was 'no better birthday present for America' than this bill. This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your day. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. The 887-page package, dubbed the 'one big, beautiful bill,' includes a tax-cut and spending package that is projected to increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over a decade. The bill also adds $5 trillion to the debt ceiling. The House vote yesterday was mostly along party lines, with just two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — joining all Democrats in voting against the bill. Before the House passed the bill, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gave the longest House floor speech ever and stalled a vote for over eight hours. The bill's passage through Congress, regardless of the hurdles along the way, displays Trump's influence over the Republican Party that many of his predecessors would have envied. In a procedural vote Wednesday night that stretched into Thursday morning, Republican critics folded one by one and accepted demands they insisted they wouldn't, thanks to efforts by Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson. The president's demands didn't always match reality. For example, the bill includes Medicaid cuts despite Trump's insistence that he wouldn't touch the program. And since Trump's takeover of the Republican Party, its core tenet of fiscal conservatism has been set aside. So will the bill unleash the economic growth that Trump predicts? Or will the steep cuts in the social safety net alienate some of the same blue-collar voters that Trump wrested from the Democratic coalition? Next year's midterm elections will serve as a huge test. Federal lands and waters will be opened up for oil and gas drilling, as well as coal mining, under the new law, while key support for solar and wind power will end. More politics news: Trump said he 'didn't make any progress' toward a potential ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday by phone. Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigration detention center has so far received no federal funds despite assurances otherwise from Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, court documents reveal. The judge presiding over Kilmar Abrego Garcia's criminal case directed both the government and Abrego's lawyers to stop making public statements about the case. The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to send eight convicted criminals to South Sudan despite them having no ties to the war-torn country. Beach closures in several states over fecal bacterial concerns As millions set out to celebrate Fourth of July weekend, at least five states have issued advisories for certain beaches and lakes that have tested positive for above-safe levels of fecal bacteria. Almost two dozen beaches in Massachusetts are closed, as well as four beaches in New York and three beaches in Michigan. Meanwhile, Illinois has issued at least eight advisories in the past few weeks, and Los Angeles County has released eight ocean water quality advisories. And in North Carolina, officials urged people to keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue or scummy over concerns about cyanobacteria algae blooms. The bacteria being monitored include which is more likely to be found in freshwater, and Enterococcus, which can form in both marine and freshwater. Here's what else to know. Hegseth's reason for halting weapons to Ukraine contrasts military analysis The Defense Department halted a shipment of U.S. weapons to Ukraine this week over what officials said were concerns about low stockpiles. But an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military's own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials. Suspending the shipment of military aid to Ukraine was a unilateral step by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, three congressional aides and a former U.S. official familiar with the matter said. This week's move blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies, multiple sources said. In fact, some of the weapons had already been loaded onto trucks in Poland and other European countries, only for those handling the shipment to receive word that the delivery had been called off. While the White House has defended the decision, bipartisan lawmakers have expressed disapproval. Read the full story here. Dozens of news crews, hundreds of curious bystanders and law enforcement were set up outside the Manhattan courthouse this week when the verdict in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex-trafficking trial was read. Among them were also influencers, content creators and provocateurs who hoped to boost their online followings. And then there were Combs' supporters — some dressed in costumes, others wielding baby oil — who cheered 'Free Puff!' when he was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking. The celebratory mood among Combs' supporters stood in contrast to the reactions from some sexual assault survivors and advocates who feel the trial's outcome was a devastating 'step back' for the #MeToo movement, which gained prominence in 2017 after producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of assault. In the years since the movement took hold, it has 'suddenly started to shift to 'Don't believe all women,' or 'Women are liars,'' said Kaja Sokola, who was one of three women who testified in Weinstein's May retrial. Nicole Bedera, a sociologist who studies sexual violence, said she 'we're in a new era where instead of people trying to convince us not to believe survivors, they tell us the survivors deserved it.' Read the full story here. Meanwhile, Combs' team described the verdict as a 'great victory.' But Combs did not come out of the trial scot-free, with the jury convicting him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. His future in the music industry will depend heavily on how he owns up to the 'freak offs' and other transgressions that his legal team didn't dispute. Read All About It Men in the U.S. are spending a record-high amount of time on household activities, a new analysis found. These charts show which tasks they're tackling most. ICE agents arrested renowned Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. outside his Los Angeles home on allegations that he is involved in organized crime and trafficking and is an affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel. Indie rock band Velvet Sundown is gaining traction on Spotify, but some critics are convinced the band and its music are 100% AI-generated. The 2025 Tour de France kicks off this weekend, promising another showdown between two frontrunners and a more challenging finish to the race. Staff Pick: I CE shut down this Latino market — without even showing up Latinos across the Las Vegas Valley have flocked to the thriving Broadacres Market, a massive swap meet where items like semilla pipianera, micheladas and banana leaves are part of the standard fare. With little warning, the marketplace, which has been in operation for nearly 50 years, announced that it was closing indefinitely. The reason? To avoid an ICE raid, which recently happened at another swap meet in Southern California that the Broadacres owners also manage. The act of caution has further affected small business owners who run the stalls and the shoppers who rely on them for food and community. 'As a family, we're facing questions like: What are we going to do about the mortgage payment, with groceries? How are we going to recover from this?' Rico Ocampo — whose family has run their business selling nuts, seeds, cheeses, and other goods at Broadacres for 20 years — told reporter Denise Chow, who spoke to Ocampo and other community members reeling from the market's sudden closure. Ocampo's family's stock is slowly running out, and with it, the safety of their steady business, as they call on lawmakers and Broadacres management to do something to protect those whose lives might be disrupted by an ICE raid. — Michelle Garcia NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified July Fourth is here, and so are the sales. Here are 50 deals worth checking out, with discounts on brands like Apple, Yeti, Dyson and more. And get up to 80% off during Amazon's Fourth of July sale, which has deals on TVs, mattresses, outdoor gear and more.
The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
First Thing: ‘Corrupt kleptocracy' – Democrats furious over passage of Trump bill
Good morning. The House of Representatives passed Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill by 218 to 214 votes yesterday, handing the president a significant legislative victory. The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, made an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to halt the bill's passage by giving a floor speech lasting eight hours and 44 minutes, the longest ever. Among other things, the plan will increase immigration enforcement, cut social security, damage the green energy industry and extend and deepen the large-scale tax cuts – which benefit wealthy earners most – that Trump first enacted in 2017. Democrats erupted in outrage over the bill's passage. The congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Bluesky: 'I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.' What will it mean for deportation policy? Thousands of new immigration enforcement officers; tens of thousands of extra detention beds; fees on asylum applications; and further construction on the border wall. Here's how Trump's bill will supercharge mass deportations by funneling $170bn to Ice. What about social security? According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the welfare cuts will result in about 10.6 million people losing their Medicaid healthcare and 8 million people losing their Snap food stamp benefits. And the deficit? It comes with a huge price tag, increasing the deficit by $3.3tn through 2034, according to the non-partisan congressional budget Office. Most of that is the extension of the 2017 tax cuts. Israel has escalated its offensive in Gaza before imminent talks about a ceasefire, with warships and artillery launching one of the deadliest and most intense bombardments in the devastated Palestinian territory for months. Medics and officials in Gaza reported that about 90 people were killed overnight and on Thursday by Israeli bombing, including many women and children. On Tuesday night and Wednesday the toll was higher, they said. Casualties included Marwan al-Sultan, a cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, who died in an airstrike that also killed his wife and five children. In all, about 300 people may have been killed this week and thousands more injured, the officials say. What's the latest on ceasefire talks? Hamas leaders are close to accepting a proposed deal for a ceasefire in Gaza but want stronger guarantees that any pause in hostilities would lead to a permanent end to the 20-month war, sources close to the group have said. Hamas officials met on Thursday in Istanbul to discuss the ceasefire proposals. Barack Obama sounded the alarm about Joe Biden's ailing re-election attempt almost a year before polling day, warning his former vice-president's staff 'your campaign is a mess', a new book reveals. The former president's intervention came amid tensions between the Obama and Biden camps as they braced for a tough fight against Donald Trump. Obama's prescient anxiety is captured in the forthcoming book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, by the journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf. What does the book say? It says that at a lunch meeting with Biden in December 2023, Obama argued dividing the campaign leadership between Wilmington and Washington was not suitable for the fast decision-making required in a modern presidential election. Obama allegedly bluntly told White House staff: 'Your campaign is a mess.' Tributes have poured in for the actor Michael Madsen, who died at home in Malibu after a cardiac arrest. The star of Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Donnie Brasco was 67. A wildfire fanned by gale-force winds has forced the evacuation of more than 1,500 people on the Greek island of Crete, as swathes of continental Europe faced a continuing heatwave. Moscow confirmed a deputy commander of the Russian navy has been killed near the frontline with Ukraine. Maj Gen Mikhail Gudkov had previously led one of the military's most notorious brigades. It came as Russia launched a devastating attack with a record number of drones and ballistic missiles on Kyiv, hours after Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone. The Liverpool soccer player Diogo Jota has been killed in a car accident in north-western Spain. He was 28, recently married and had three young children. The US economy added 147,000 jobs in June, surpassing expectations as economists largely anticipated a fall in openings. There were job gains in state government and healthcare of 47,000 and 39,000 respectively. But in the same month employment in federal government and the private sector fell, by 7,000 and 33,000 respectively. The phrase 'time blindness', which can be a symptom of ADHD or other conditions such as anxiety or autism spectrum disorder, seems everywhere right now. But, asks Alaina Demopoulos, is it always a get-out-jail-free card? 'Everyone has their slow days, but some TikTokers argue that people who are habitually 30 or 45 minutes late are claiming time blindness when in reality they're being inconsiderate,' she writes. Dairy production will be threatened by the increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, suggests a study from researchers at the Universities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Chicago. Drawing on records from more than 130,000 cows over 12 years, the report suggests extreme heat reduces dairy cows' ability to produce milk by 10%. Last year Joey 'Jaws' Chestnut, 41, was excluded from entering Nathan's annual hotdog-eating competition in New York City after he signed a deal with a rival plant-based meat company. But this year the world champion – who won the accolade for scoffing 83 dogs and buns in a single 10-minute period – returns, in pursuit of his 17th mustard belt. Happy 4 July! First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you're not already signed up, subscribe now. If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@
