Sirens are heard in Tel Aviv as missile launched by Yemen rebels briefly halts flights in Israel
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Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: So is City Hall hiking property taxes or ruling them out?
There's going to be a Chicago property tax increase. Fooled ya'. Might the corporate head tax be revived instead? Yes. No. Wait! Chicago will impose a 'progressive revenue' solution to be named later. Say what? Mayor Brandon Johnson and the city's chief financial officer, Jill Jaworski, really didn't seem to have their stories straight last week as they sought to prepare Chicagoans for the difficult budget debate to come in the fall. First, Jaworski, speaking July 22 at a Bloomberg News event, said 'it was likely' the mayor's budget would include a proposed property tax increase alongside budget cuts in order to close an estimated $1.1 billion deficit for 2026. Asked about Jaworski's comments, Johnson at first didn't rule out a such an increase and, as per usual, blamed his predecessors for Chicago's budgetary woes. But on Thursday, two days after Jaworski's remarks, the mayor was singing a different tune. 'I will not be proposing a property tax increase in my budget,' he said, seemingly categorically. Seemingly. He said, as he has done many times in the past, that he would 'work hard to find progressive revenue' to help balance the city's books. Johnson didn't specify what progressive tax policies he would propose other than to say, 'the ultimate goal is to challenge those with means in this city, and quite frankly in this state, to pay their fair share.' Stop us if you've heard this one before. As Johnson prepared to take office following his surprise election win in 2023, progressive groups supporting his candidacy floated hundreds of millions in new taxes, with ideas ranging from a tax on financial trades to the reinstitution of the per-employee head tax on businesses and many others. Most of those new taxes would have needed, and would still need, state approval, and Gov. JB Pritzker along with numerous lawmakers quickly shot down the Johnson tax-bonanza agenda. For good reason, too. A state with such lagging economic performance as Illinois can't afford to be driving away more wealthy and middle-class people and businesses. Then Chicago voters themselves in 2024 rejected a Johnson-backed referendum to dramatically hike the tax on sales of property above $1 million, which likely would have raised apartment rents and further constricted our wheezing commercial real estate industry. So here we are. We're well past the halfway point of Johnson's term, and he's still knocking at the 'progressive taxation' door. We'll reserve judgment until we see precisely what the mayor has in mind. Maybe he and his team have devised some new plan not yet proposed (and rejected) that's worthy of consideration. We won't hold our breath. But it doesn't instill confidence that the mayor himself had to walk back his top financial aide's comments on property taxes a few days after she made them. Perhaps Jaworski was just floating a trial balloon, and Johnson got an earful in the two days between her remarks and when he effectively told reporters she'd spoken out of turn. Property tax hikes right now are a political third rail. Johnson found that out in the most humiliating way possible last year when the City Council unanimously rejected his budget, including a proposed $300 million property tax increase that broke one of Johnson's most noteworthy campaign promises. Attempts to win council support for a smaller hike went nowhere as well, and Johnson and aldermen patched together a budget at the eleventh hour with a hodgepodge of fee increases, business taxes and fines. So is a property tax hike in what is shaping up to be a more brutal budget year than last year's high-wire act really off the table? We don't know. But forgive us if we're skeptical that Johnson's cleanup of Jaworski's property-tax bombshell will be the last word on the subject.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
As Trump shows off his golf courses for Britain's leader, crisis in Gaza looms
EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — President Donald Trump once suggested his golf course in Scotland 'furthers" the U.S.-U.K. relationship. Now he's getting the chance to prove it. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting Monday with Trump at a golf property owned by the president's family near Turnberry in southwestern Scotland — then later traveling to Abderdeen, on the country's northeast coast, where there's another Trump golf course and a third is opening soon. During his first term in 2019, Trump posted of his Turnberry property, 'Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!' Starmer is not a golfer, but toggling between Trump's Scottish courses shows the outsized influence the president puts on properties bearing his name — and on golf's ability to shape geopolitics. However, even as Trump may want to focus on showing off his golf properties, Starmer will try to center the conversation on more urgent global matters. He plans to urge Trump to press Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and attempt to end what Downing St. called 'the unspeakable suffering and starvation' in the territory, while pushing for a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas. Britain, along with France and Germany, has criticized Israel for 'withholding essential humanitarian assistance' as hunger spread in Gaza. Over the weekend, Starmer said Britain will take part in efforts led by Jordan to airdrop aid after Israel temporarily eased restrictions. But British Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged Monday that only the U.S. has 'the leverage' to make a real difference in the conflict. Still, asked about the crisis in Gaza on Sunday night, Trump was largely dismissive — focused more on how he's not personally gotten credit for previous attempts to provide food aid. 'It's terrible. You really at least want to have somebody say, 'Thank you,'' Trump said. The president added, 'It makes you feel a little bad when you do that" without what he considered proper acknowledgement. Starmer is under pressure from his Labour Party lawmakers to follow France in recognizing a Palestinian state, a move both Israel and the U.S. have condemned. The British leader says the U.K. supports statehood for the Palestinians but that it must be 'part of a wider plan' for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Also on Monday's agenda, according to Starmer's office, are efforts to promote a possible peace deal to end fighting in Russia's war with Ukraine — particularly efforts at forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table in the next 50 days. Trump in the past sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for also failing to express enough public gratitude toward U.S. support for his country, taking a similar tack he's now adopting when it comes to aid for Gaza. The president, though, has shifted away from that tone and more sharply criticized Putin and Russia in recent weeks. On Tuesday, Trump will be at the site of his new course near Aberdeen for an official ribbon-cutting. It opens to the public on Aug. 13 and tee times are already for sale — with the course betting that a presidential visit can help boost sales. Protesters have planned a demonstration in Balmedie, near Trump's existing Aberdeen golf course, after demonstrators took to the streets across Scotland on Saturday to decry the president's visit while he was golfing. Starmer and Trump are likely to find more common ground on trade issues. While China initially responded to Trump's tariff threats by retaliating with high import taxes of its own on U.S. goods, it has since begun negotiating to ease trade tensions. Starmer and his country have taken a far softer approach. He's gone out of his way to work with Trump, flattering the president repeatedly during a February visit to the White House, and teaming up to announce a joint trade framework on tariffs for some key products in May. Starmer and Trump then signed a trade agreement during the G7 summit in Canada that freed the U.K.'s aerospace sector from U.S. tariffs and used quotas to reduce them on auto-related industries from 25% to 10% while increasing the amount of U.S. beef it pledged to import. Discussions with Starmer follow a Trump meeting Sunday with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry course. They announced a trade framework that will put 15% tariffs on most goods from both countries, though many major details remain pending. The president has for months railed against yawning U.S. trade deficits around the globe and sees tariffs as a way to try and close them in a hurry. But the U.S. ran an $11.4 billion trade surplus with Britain last year, meaning it exported more to the U.K. than it imported. Census Bureau figures this year indicate that the surplus could grow. There are still lingering U.S.-Britain trade issues that need fine-tuning. The deal framework from May said British steel would enter the U.S. duty-free, but it continues to face a 25% levy. U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Monday that 'negotiations have been going on on a daily basis' and 'there's a few issues to push a little bit further today,' though he downplayed expectations of a resolution. The leader of Scotland, meanwhile, said he will urge Trump to lift the current 10% tariff on Scotch whisky. First Minister John Swinney said the spirit's 'uniqueness' justified an exemption. Even as some trade details linger and both leaders grapple with increasingly difficult choices in Gaza and Ukraine, however, Starmer's staying on Trump's good side appears to be working — at least so far.
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Yemen's Houthis threaten to escalate attacks on ships linked to companies dealing with Israel
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The rebel Houthi group in Yemen has said it will target merchant ships belonging to any company that does business with Israeli ports, regardless of nationality, as part of what it described as the next phase of its operations against Israel. The Iran-backed Houthis launched a campaign targeting merchant vessels in response to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, saying they were doing so in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Their attacks over the past two years have upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which $1 trillion of goods usually passes each year. In an announcement late Sunday night, the Houthis said they had 'decided to escalate their military support operations and begin implementing the fourth phase of the naval blockade' against Israel. They warned that they would target 'all ships belonging to any company that deals with the ports of the Israeli enemy, regardless of the nationality of that company, and in any location within the reach of our armed forces.' The vessels would be targeted regardless of their destination, they added. The group said countries should pressure Israel to stop the war in Gaza and lift its blockade on the Palestinian territory 'if they want to avoid this escalation.' Earlier this month, the Houthis attacked and sank two Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carriers – the Magic Seas and the Eternity C. The attack on the latter left four crew members dead and 11 more were taken captive, while all 22 crew members of the Magic Seas were rescued before the ship sank. From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones. The rebels stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war and later became the target of an intense, weekslong airstrike campaign ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump. In May, the U.S. announced a deal with the Houthis to end the airstrikes in return for an end to shipping attacks, although the rebel group said the agreement did not include halting attacks on targets it believed were aligned with Israel.
